Food for Thought for Friday -- Haunted by a Melody -- thank you James Rhodes.

I have been looking for this piece of music for so long I can't even remember how many years it has been. Always I would 'hum' it to a someone likely to know these these things; always they wouldn't know. I seemed to remember encoutering it in a film (probably Schumann's Love Song MGM 1947) Even Katharine Hepburn couldn't make that film memorable -- but the music was.

Then this week I watched James Rhodes' 'Notes from the Inside' on Channel 4. He was playing to patients he'd got to know in the country's largest mental hospital. Their stories -- and his own -- were very moving. 

The last piece he chose was 

THIS 

Widmung -- Dedication; Schumann's love song to his wife, Clara;

and I immediately recognised the haunting melody I have been looking for since I was -- well -- a teenager!

Have a listen.

Float away on this expression of love!

Food for Thought for Friday: Belsay Hall -- Picture Poem

The cow parsley now is 7 feet high

Bella Donna ranges high from cracks in the quarry wall

rose scents the air like votive prayer

gunneras shade the margins of the toad's customary lair

no matter the weather, rock remains shady cool 

the overhang of trees dapples the paths

At every level there is life at the Hall

Toothwart to roses there is room for all

BELSAY HALL & GARDENS

Food for Thought for Friday -- Nature Frames Herself

But a little help never goes amiss!

Food for Thought for MY BIRTHDAY

Why do people moan about what age they are on their Birthday? I never understand that! Oh I'm 28, I'm 35, I'm 47...whatever...moan, moan, moan.

Today I am very happy to have completed a whacking great 59 years on this beautiful planet and next year I hope to have completed 60!

Last year on my birthday I was in York with Nathan and Jenesta and we went to the Hitchhiker's Guide Radio Show which was superb. I even got my programme signed and a birthday kiss from a member of the cast. It was lousy weather last year! Did that stop us? Bloody didn't! Though I have to admit I was tad downcast and the York Dungeons scared the be-jeysus outa me!  There's nothing like mirrors!

This year I have already had my celebrity kiss from Sir Tony Robinson so I will be spending the day quietly roaming Cragside and then have a meal with friends. The forecast is good too :)

Look at these lovely flowers at Wallington a few weeks ago. What could you want for more than that? Moaners -- Get a life! Get out and appreciate what's right under your nose. Enjoy you're life right to the last petal and fountain -- 'cos that's what it's about!

 Happy Birthday to ME 

and happy day to all of you!