Salon 26

People get together for a whole host of reasons; a bloody good time, to discuss books, buy Tupperware, share a love of sport, eat, you get the idea.
Well, Greygirl hasn't got together with folk for a long time, even in small numbers, nor has she left the garden after dark but yesterday was invited to do just that.

The darkest part of Greygirl will always say 'no' to an invitation of any kind, even before the lighter part has chance to ponder the possibilities and put them in the mental weighing scales.  The upshot being that last night I attended a small gathering known as Salon 26.  Nothing to do with hairdressing, I hasten to add.

They use film clips and questions about art, music, poetry to prompt the kind of talk that can and does meander into unexpected and interesting places.  Switching the mind on, instead of plonking it infront of a t.v and switching off.
Last nights informal proceedings began with the opening scene from the film 'Saturday Night and Sunday Morning' with Albert Finney, every inch the angry young man working in a factory - "All I want is a good time, the rest is propoganda."
This lead folk to chat about other films of the time, books and plays, Nottingham, industrial northern towns before all their blackened buildings were sandblasted.  There's mention of the Smiths and the Bard of Salford, John Cooper Clarke.
Synapses are connecting in the brain.  I'm suprised at just how much I'm remembering and suddenly thinking about, how much I have to say.
Then we are watching The Jam performing 'That's Entertainment', great lyrics well sung, brilliant bass line.

I'll leave you with one of the questions -

which artist said, "paint like the rozzers are about to arrive."?

Flowers are your friends...

"The temple bell stops but I still hear the sound coming out of the flowers." - Basho

"The Earth laughs in flowers." - Ralph Waldo Emerson

"The world is a rose, smell it and pass it to your friends." - Persian proverb

"A rose is a rose is a rose." - Gertrude Stein

 

If you have gems of your own, please feel free to share

Blue notes...

Even Greygirl needs some colour and mine is blue; it can be air, water, and a mood. I'm not talking Tory tie blue, oh no.


Wassily Kandinsky in his book 'Concerning the Spiritual in Art' has some interesting things to say about blue:

"Blue is the typical heavenly colour.  The ultimate feeling it creates is one of rest.  When it sinks almost to black, it echoes a grief that is hardly human.  When it rises towards white, it's appeal to men grows weaker and more distant.

In music a light blue is like a flute, a darker blue a cello; a still darker a thunderous double bass; and the darkest blue of all - an organ."

Did Kandinsky have Synesthesia? I can't remember.



Of course blue can be melancholy, but it also describes a music genre, a whole period of Picasso, is a much-loved Joni Mitchell album and the exquisite cool of Miles Davis.

Blue is present in many of the paintings by Caspar David Friedrich, a colour of depth and distance.  Mixed with blue a colour becomes cooler, darker and begins to receed.
Ultramarine, cerulean, cobalt, azure, turquoise, prussian.
Bluebells, cornflowers, forget-me-nots and one of my favourite berries.

 

Strings...

I think today's violin lesson is blogworthy.  First, it took a while to leave the house, due to my anxiety, basically leading to nerves then nausea.  It takes a lot for me to leave when every instinct is telling me not to.  Then reluctance  becomes overwhelming because I don't want to see anyone and I don't want anyone to see me.

Fast-forward half an hour to a bench in the square, having made it into town.  Phase one complete, now I'm ruminating over phase two, the lesson.  I get anxious that I haven't practised enough so i try to look into the tops of trees and just breathe instead.

My music teacher is lovely and un-scary, very calm, the lessons are not a major struggle - stress free in fact, otherwise I wouldn't be able to do it.
It does amaze me that I can maintain the concentration and patience for half an hour, but  this instrument has a strong charm over me, and I do.
I am getting better, my sight-reading and playing. 

In the lesson today I discovered two things:

1) I love the sound of the G string

2) I have very short arms.

I am made to use the whole of the bow, not just the bit in the middle, yet when I do this, holy crap! it seems to go on forever - how long is this thing!?

Now, I am a small creature.  I know this.  I've lived it. Only sometimes I am made extremely aware of my dimensions and playing the violin is one of those times.

Hope my attempt at 'Ave Maria' didn't disturb Schubert's well-earned sleep.

Gustav Mahler, not Schubert

 

 

  
Mahler talked about the "consolation of the high strings", and listening to his music made me want to play the violin.  That and the mind-blowing fact that the A string resonates at 440 times per second.

A new Day...

Well yesterday there was much wind and rain and this morning all is calm, apart from the birds going about their chattery business.

Before the rain set in yesterday I donned my fingerless gloves and wellies and planted two new clematis plants, which are only babies.

I made a support from willow sticks and twine to attach to the fence for them to climb, covering them with a generous mulch because as they say, clematis need their feet in the shade and head in the sun.

I went outside this morning hoping they had survived the battering from the November-like weather and was pleased to see them looking all perky and green, so all's good.

 

Forget-me-nots

Not everything in the garden is rosy...

I will be weeding thoughts from my head, sowing seeds, checking for aphids, talking of trowel related things and otherwise.

It's my first day in Blogland, so go easy and show me where the kettle is.  First things first.

Today is too cold for the orange - arsed bees, which is a shame.  First thing in the morning the rooks made a noise like metal from up in the trees, otherwise all was quiet, and why wouldn't it be on a bank holiday morning?
Not everyone wakes up cos their right hand feels like it has hot pins sticking into it.

The day can only get better.  To the shed!