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!

Food for Thought for Friday --

I put all my links for June together in PARALLEL OONAHVERSE this week so please go and click on them and get your FREE DOWNLOAD of two stories of mine in Ether Books.

In addition I am also in The Quarterly Review at Bewildwering Stories.
and in Every Day Poets' Editor's View

This day last year was the super-cell storm in Newcastle-- a day that will last in the memory of all of us who were caught in it as we were with Nathan Rosen and Jenesta Matthews who visited Britain in the wettest summer for 100 years :( Look at that cloud! This was just before lightning struck the Tyne Bridge there.

So I wrote Art of the Storm

Thankfully today is calm, the sun is just coming out  and I am watching grey wagtails taking food to their chicks in a little hole in our hedge. :)

Food for Thought for Friday -- Generosity of spirit

and it's not always about the food. Sometimes it's about the company! My sister stayed for two weeks and it was a treat to introduce her to some of my friends like Amanda Baker here.

Ray made cup cakes with strawberries and flowers on and Ray is very good at cup cakes :)
We shared two meals with my friend Dorothy on Holy Island on our stay there. Holy Island for me is Dorothy's hospitality, generosity of spirit and intelligence -- It's always a treat to spend time with Dorothy.
We shared a meal with cousin Claire, her husband Andrew and his brother Tony in Newcastle. It was a treat to meet Tony too. There's nothing like extended family ties to make you feel you belong.

We happened across Prof. Prior and Tony Robinson on the Island too Time Teaming :) Mr Robinson has always struck me on TV as a generous human being and when I said (truthfully) that I watched anything presented by him on TV, I got a kiss on the cheek! Thank you Sir Tony! (Look out for that Time Team Special from Northumberland). I am glad that programme is continuing in some form. I can't get enough archaeology -- and I do miss my time treats!

There was a visual treat in store at Woodhorn Museum too in the form of unexpected access to the Oliver Kilbourn Collection which my sister loves -- well -- we both do! 
At Belsay costumes from Jane Austin films. The wedding dress Kate Winslet wore in Sense and Sensibility -- Imogen Stubbs' aubergine coloured hat and Billie Piper's riding habit -- such detail for often seconds on screen. That takes dedication and a lot of selflessness on the part of the costume makers. When you watch your next film -- stay for the titles and looks at the names. A film is a team effort.
While you're at it look at the Staff page at Every Day Poets too. My team give their time generously commenting on poems and working behind the scenes to bring you a poem a day. Thank you Team!

Esme also ejoyed Thimbleberry Jam sponge and Maple Syrup Pudding while she was here -- treats from the Upper Penninsula. Craster Kippers. Handi Lamb. Retro sweets. Oonah's marinated spiced lamb. But I wouldn't for the world tempt you with the menus and recipes. Suffice to say that's enough treats for a while :)

Then there was the abunbance of flowers almost everywhere we went. Nature is generous with her gifts too.

These in the greenhouse at Wallington

But the best treat of all was to spend time with my bestest sister! 

The Solstice is upon us and so I'll be picking some herbs for drying. If you have some raspberries or strawberries in the freezer, why not use them as ice cubes in your favourite drink? And however you spend the day, enjoy it with friends and the right spirit and you won't go wrong.

Food for Thought for Friday -- Lorsque Nous Etions Jeunes

It came about recently that my friend Jennifer on the Flash Poetry forum at WriteWords challenged my memory and provoked a chain of events. Here was the challenge:
Use 2 words.
No 1: Stimulation as we all need that at times.
No 2: Assumption.
in any way, shape or form.

Assumption? I thunk and thunk! So many meanings to choose from...and yet that word held a deep significance for me that I had quite forgotten about (and that Catholics will immediately recognise) -- 
15th August -- Assumption Day!

Laval de Roquecezière 1976.

I spent that summer with the Bardy family. Michel, le pere, Auguste, la mere, Aurelie et Camille, les grandparents, Elisabeth (17), Jean (14) et Olivier (6), les enfants. I was supposed to speak English to Elisabeth and Jean but they weren't keen so I got to practise my French quite a lot.

We started off in Paris, travelled to the Charentes for a wedding, then on the Saint Crepin, nestled in the beautiful unspoiled National Park of Aveyron, then to Marseillon sur Plage near Sete, back a while to St Crepin where M. Bardy's father was the tailor, and eventually back to Paris for my final week. It was incredible! It was also the hottest summer for many decades. I barely went out in the sun prefering the shade.

Tu vas attrapper un coup de lune, Oonah

They told me :) They were very kind to me -- all of them. They even arranged for me to spend a Sunday at a Baptist Church in (I think it was) Vianne.

But on 15th August, a day that meant nothing to me (being a Baptist) I was included in the Assumption Day celebrations at Laval de Roquecezière. The focus of this;  the lovely statue of Notre Dame de Roquecezière at an astounding viewpoint in the mountains.

I was accorded by the curate, the tremendous privilege of reading The Lord's Prayer that year at the service. 

I was 22. I was green and young and probably a bit arrogant and I may not have given the moment the place it deserved. But when Jennifer made that challenge, it came flooding into my heart like the warm summer of 1976,  and I suddenly longed to remember it all -- the place, the people, the prayer, the statue.

I looked it up on the internet. I wrote about my memory of the place and to my astonishment got a reply fron a M. Tourel. And he knew Elisabeth Bardy!

This week I had an email from Elisabeth Condomine nee Bardy :) 37 years later -- and I sent her the few photos I have. So few...I was able to photoshop so that the pictures looked almost new.

37 years have passed. PC's and emails were no more part of that world then I was part of theirs and yet for a brief time time I was. And now thanks to the wonders of modern technology I say encore une fois, 

'Bonjour Elisabeth.'