Showing posts with label music. Show all posts
Showing posts with label music. Show all posts

Sunday, 15 November 2015

This Weekend




This weekend ...

... I paid an early morning visit to Sanctum where I listened to an intriguing soundscape and a tap dancer, followed by breakfast at Harts Bakery

... I helped plant an orchard on a derelict plot in Bedminster

... I attended Quaker Meeting for Worship where a Friend reminded us that hope does not always have a happy ending.  It's tenuous and sometimes you have to hold on tight to stop it slipping from your grasp.

Monday, 8 September 2014

This weekend ...


On Saturday we swam and lunched at The Lido in Bristol - a relaxing hour and a half spent in the outdoor heated pool, the hot tub, the steam room and the sauna, followed by a delicious two course a la carte meal in the restaurant overlooking the pool.  I'd planned for our visit to take place in the summer holidays but I'm glad it was postponed until the end of my first week back at work.  A touch of decadence was just what I needed.

I don't live near enough The Lido to pop in regularly, nor would I choose to fork out on the hefty annual membership fee, but I'd like to think I'll be back on some future occasion to sample another few hours of the high life.

If you like the sound of it, we opted for the Swim & Lunch package.  There are a number of others available.  The facilities are clean and well maintained.  The staff are friendly and helpful.  The food is imaginative and plentiful.  Good value for money.


On Sunday I sang with the Gasworks Singers at the Festival of the Voice at Stourhead.  We had four scheduled sessions at the foot of the Bristol Cross and in the Walled Garden, plus a couple of spontaneous ones under a tree, in the Pantheon and by the lakeside.  The rest of the time was our own to wander at will through scenery as exquisitely peaceful as an oil paining.  I sat on the grass eating my pasta salad and tried not to look too wildly out of place!

It's been a while since we sang together and I was a bit rusty, but our offerings were well received.  It was mercifully dry and the sun's appearance late afternoon justified an ice cream from the van.  All in all a jolly good day.

Saturday, 5 July 2014

It's Carnival!

I am ashamed to admit that, although I have lived in Bristol for 24 years, I have never been to St Paul's Carnival.  That is until today!


 
 














Monday, 2 June 2014

Pop Up Park / Make Sundays Special

A month after its transformation into a giant water slide, Park Street yesterday became an urban park.  After a miserably damp grey week the sun came out, the shops and restaurants spilled out onto the pavements and the good folk of Bristol came out in their hundreds to promenade up and down what is normally a busy thoroughfare, eat and drink, play games, listen to music, sprawl out on the patches of artificial grass and soak up the atmosphere of this this vibrant city.


P for Park Street.
Looking up ...


... and back down again.


There were colours ...


... and pictures


... and games to play.


Meanwhile in Corn Street under a zig zag of bright bunting ...


... families battled with giant chess pieces ....


... Agnes Spencer served up her aromatic curry goat ...


... and temptation lurked ....


... at every turn!

Where else but Bristol!

Sunday, 19 May 2013

Eurovision 2013

I love the Eurovision Song Contest.

There, I've admitted it.

It's not the greatest competition from a musical point of view but it's not the singing that attracts me - it's the spectacle.  (That, and the belief that coming together to sing and play and dance is infinitely preferable to declaring war on each other!)  And last evening's performance did not disappoint.  The Greeks extolled the virtues of free alcohol while prancing around in a black and white rugby shirts and kilts.  The Romanian, in operatic leather and diamonds warbled in falsetto as near naked dancers emerged from the cover of a red plastic sheet and writhed around at his feet.  Finally the Azerbaijani danced on a box containing a acrobat mimicing his every move and and was reunited with a woman in a short red dress with an impossibly long train.

There is a growing tradition of throwing Eurovision parties with fancy dress, sweepstakes and drinking competitions.  I wasn't anywhere as well prepared as this.  However I did rise to the preparation of a three course Swedish feast in honour of the host nation.

We ate:

smoked salmon served with mustard & dill dressing and rye bread
Jansson's frestelse served with runner beans
saffranspannkaka served with sylt lingon and cream
I now have a whole year to plan a Danish menu to accompany next year's Eurovision.

Tuesday, 19 March 2013

52 Weeks of Happy (3/52)


Mother's Day Breakfast


 Medicine Creek playing a local school's PTA event


A Bedminster Bug
(more of these to follow)

Saturday, 5 January 2013

Waes Hael


Wassail ceremonies are not generally associated with inner urban life, but when you learn that Bedminster boasts a community orchard it all begins to make sense.

The ceremony, initiated by an American, began with us encircling our crab apple tree and shouting 'Awake'.  If that didn't rouse it from its winter slumber then I'm sure the Rag Morris dancing, the Red Notes singing and the poetry recitation did the trick.    The rain stopped, the sun shone and, fortified with mulled cider, apple cake and roasted chestnuts, the good folk of Bedminster scared away the evil spirits and ensured a good harvest.

My earlier photo post shows some of the cider soaked pieces of toast we attached to the crab apple branches as an offering to the tree spirits.

Waes hael!  Be you healthy!

Monday, 31 December 2012

In 2012 ...



I knitted and crocheted




I cooked and baked




 I sang and listened to others sing




I involved myself in politics and campaigns










I supported local independent traders






 I went out and about in Bristol ...





... and in London




I went on holiday to St Ives


I started running and went on a diet and ...!


I survived the Jubilee but entered into the Olympic spirit.

I made holiday lists and managed to cross most items off them!

I met Fatmumslim's Photo a Day Challenge but didn't quite meet my own challenges to photograph A Month of Dinners or my Advent countdown.

All in all it's been a good year and I've certainly had fun trawling through my posts and reminding myself of its highlights.

Here's to 2013!

PS  I've thoroughly enjoyed reading other bloggers' reviews and greatly admire those whose photos are better displayed than mine.  Any tips on how to create mosaics on blogger would be much appreciated.