Snapshot Stories. my attempts at Creative Writing.

This month's theme at our Creative Writing group is to write a short story woven around a photograph that each of us selected at ramdom.  I chose the attached photo, a quintessentially English scene of a stone cottage, complete with a wonderful garden of delias, roses and of plants climbing over the walls.  An upstairs window is open.........  I have an idea for the story, something romantic about a chance meeting between two people, one inside the house looking out of the open window to see, for the first time, the man of her dreams, ahhhhhhh!

My story must be finished by Monday afternoon, it is now the Sunday morning before, so I feel that today will be a "Nose to the Grindstone, Creative Writing Allday Sort of Day."

I Was Glad - Sir Hubert Parry

This is one of three pieces I am singing with Marlborough College Choral Society in our concert on Sunday, March 27th.  It is as English as English can be, the music, the occasion, Westminster Abbey, everything is quintessentially English.

Spring is Coming at Long Last.

Celia and Pippin in Quaker's Walk

I spent Tuesday afternoon in Quaker's Walk with assorted dog walkers, Celia and "Pippin" the poodle.  What a warm hearted, joyous little soul is Pippen, overflowing with his eight months of doggy life.   Celia gave me a brief introduction to the vagaries of dog walking, the fear of confrontation, the not knowing that the huge Alsatian bounding towards us only wants to lick us to death and that the tiny furball on the end of a long, pink bejewelled lead is, in fact a dog and not a hamster.

A chilly breeze was always present around our ears, but the snowdrops and daffodils are making an appearance in spite of the coldness.  What bold little flowers are snowdrops (die Schneeglöckchen,) the word sounds better in German.   I arrived home at 4pm for a cuppa, feeling slightly wind burnt on the cheeks and with cold feet.

In Heaven with Wolfi (my man of the moment) and his Great Mass in C Minor.

My Man Wolfi

Now it's "Come back down to Earth time."  Our performance was wonderful, we sang as angels in the Choir of the magnificent 13th century Church of St Mary, against a backdrop of illuminated Norman arches and decorated Early English capitals. Our accompanists were a string quartet, the church organ and the soloists, a sparkling soprano, an alto, a tenor and a resonant bass who all sang with energy.  This was a "Scratch" performance and with only four rehearsals, we were able to perform the Mass with great attack, the only way this work can be sung.  Thank you my Austrian friend for writing such a dramatic masterpiece.

Today will be quiet, I must do some shopping and live life on planet Earth again instead of in Heaven.  Right I need 6 eggs, milk, bread, cheese (Mondseer, made in Saltzburg) and ahhh what shall I have for supper tonight Wolfi?

Mozart: Qui tollis (Mass in C minor, K427)

Just have a listen to this wonderful music, I love the contrast in the sound, the texture of the music, well I just love it.  The singers have no scores, singing out into the audience instead of from a score always improves a performance.  Wolfi Amadeus Mozart I love you to bits.

Two Choirs/Music/Singing/My Man Wolfi Mozart.

Hiding behind my score.

I have to sing (shame about my voice) but without singing and music I am a lost soul, (well not quite)  This year at Marlborough College Choral Society we are singing Ralf Vaughan Williams, "Dona Nobis Pacem" a dramatic work describing the threatening mood of war in Europe in 1936.  I do like a melody in my music and this piece, by its very nature, has no melody.  With an orchestra and soloists we will be "alright on the night" and will sing well, (thank goodness) I must persevere with the music, it is good for my soul, (so I am led to believe)

This Sunday I have another two practices with the "White Horse Opera" singing Mozart's "Great Mass in C Minor," with our concert in the evening.   Now this work has  a melody, so Wolfi and I are getting on very well at the moment,  (really very well indeed)  My favourite excerpt is the "Qui tollis."  Mozart's life was fragmenting when he wrote this Mass, and this excerpt particulary reflects his tragic mood, (never mind Wolfi, I will always love you)

Devizes Stone and "Pavementite"

The picture to the left shows Oolithic Limestone, you are not watching paint dry, but viewing, if you look very carefully, little pieces of shell, sand and shingle laid down millions of years ago on some prehistoric beach.  Over the millennia and with compression, this sea bed has formed itself into a usable building material, here used to construct a 16th century house in St John's Churchyard.



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These photos come from our Tuesday Geology walk around Devizes and oh how interesting it was.  My walks around town will never be the same.  What I thought was just another bit of old pavement (Pavementite) turns out to be Sarsen Stone and many of the shopfronts are faced with polished Granite, not an imitation fascia mass produced in China!   "Burton the Tailors" used polished Granite as a shopfront fascia on all their shops and it became known in geological circles as "Burtonite."  I learnt something new on Tuesday!