southern42

All this reminds me of the Round Anglesey Yacht Race in which Ray crewed on somebody else's boat. I turned up at the finish at Menai Bridge Pier for the ETA by 11pm. Some hours later, they turned up. They were becalmed off Anglesey not far from the home run on the Strait. I felt sorry for the officials who had been out early for the Start of the race - all part of the job, even so. I was there for the start as well, dropping Ray off, and hanging around until all the classes had sailed down the Strait out of sight. One of the best places to view the early stage of the race, is just past Caernarfon Castle, where the channel runs close to the shore. I sat there, on another occasion, with Mum and watched the traditional yachts go past. Quite exciting to watch as you see them trying to stay on course, take advantage of the wind direction, overtake or stay ahead of another as the waters get shallower, right in front of you.

' night all and nos da.

👏 Our bins were collected, today 5 I/2 weeks after the last collection. 👏

Stewart, sorry to hear of the loss of your brother. Condolences to all. Polly

Cardiff Central Along with Radio in Radio Cymru - go down Caernarfon Road in Bangor and you will see: MOT Gwasanaethu, teiars, brecs, ecsost, batris on the car servicing building. On the other hand, Welsh, like English, abounds in words coming directly from Latin brought over with the Romans or later from Anglo-Norman words which had their origin in Latin itself assimilating some Greek. The one thing in English at school that I did actually enjoy was finding out the origin and meaning of words. I also found it captivating when learning other languages, often seeing connections with English and other languages. When I learnt Latin, Biblical Hebrew and NT Greek, it opened up a lot of understanding of both English and Welsh words and construction of sentences, both aiding the learning process - most of it forgotten now, though, through lack of use. Needless to say, the Indian languages which crop up in my flute playing now stimulate the brain cells. The song that drew me to the bamboo flute in the first place. I do love that peacock and cuckoo and, yes, I heard our cuckoo a few days ago. Anyway, the lullaby, played several times, I might add, is just enough to see me to bed, so, night all and nos da. 💤

Talk of radios takes me back to my sailing days... and the Shipping Forecast at unearthly hours* before setting out to suit the tide... Post midnight for a 4 am sailing (short bedtime); 5 am for a later venture and you can still be caught out - like sailing all the way to the IoM, in a patch of fog that seemed to have missed all our co-sailers; seeing black clouds with accompanying strong wind fast descending on us off the Skerries forcing a quick reduction in the sails; getting pelted in a heavy downpour on the way to Holyhead in a friend's yacht, on what should have been a bright sunny summer's day - just as well we had brought our waterproofs; and, of course, there was always the occasion when sailors would respond, over their VHF marine radio to the forecast given out by the local Coastguard, with the words: "Look out of the window!" * Forecast at 00:48, 05:20, 12:01, and 17:54 When the time came we upgraded our basic FM radio with a DAB one. It was small and fitted nicely on the narrow shelf below the cabin window. Now, it sits on the kitchen worktop or the dining table, although I am more likely to listen to other devices. Keyring Minion Bob, says, "Hello!"

Thanks Baz, though I probably have too many flutes one of which is the Sweetheart maple Renaissance D flute* which I use to play William Byrd's Cradle Song (one of my Lullabys). * See top of the list at https://aswltd.com/sweet.htm. Out of interest, I note the Early Music Shop has a Sweetheart D Rosewood flute for £655. Since someone else sells the small Sweetheart D flute at £220, I am guessing this one will be of the longer variety such as the walking stick flute, currently made in maple, at 650$. Bottom pf page at: https://earlymusicshop.com/collections/instruments/products/sweetheart-folk-flute-rosewood-d Some flutes... From the top: Sweetheart Renaissance D flute, Rosewood Folk D Fife, Dixon polymer D Piccolo, Feadóg Brass D Whistle. Add to that the Yamaha C fife and my two bamboo flutes....plus two keyed silver C flutes, one bought to replace (upgrade) the other. "One day," "soon," I will take up playing it again. 🤔 Er....some time later.... I have got out my Renaissance flute folder...and despite poor memory I have spent an enjoyable session fumbling my way through these (in no particular order): Byrd: Cradle Song Anon: Summer is icumen in Turlough O'Carolan: Si Bheag Si Mhor Michael Praetorius: La Volta Vivaldi: Largo, Winter, The Four Seasons Celtic Air: Down by the Sally Gardens Irish Traditional: Brian Boru's March Reel: The Cup O' Tea - well, with a name like mine, what do you expect! Polly

Our bin day was yesterday but no collection for 4 weeks. There should be one before Saturday, we were told, this morning...

You had a good April for the cherry tree, as well, judging from this video. That's the G flute, I mentioned yesterday. In the video below, are views near the steel bridge, with several smart looking blue coaches passing by. Towards the end (@2:56) there is a close up of one of the blue, white and yellow MAX* trams heading onto the bridge with a helicopter above flying off into the distance. * So it says on the tin! The video is a bit further along the river, looking back towards the steel bridge and the beginning of the cherry trees. Cardiff, for comparison, when I was there in April, is so built up compared with life up here in the top left hand corner of Wales, but not on such a grand scale as Portland.*** If you wonder where all our shops are - they are all down in Cardiff! The one shop I did want only had my desired item on pre-order which left me umming and ahing about whether to get it or not! The station is off to the right, the rails crossing the bridge, below left. The damp weather ensured we spent most of the time under cover - mainly in the shopping centre! Polly *** So good to see the flute teacher in your area.

My claim to fame was asking Sir Colin Davis what he had been drawing while sitting at the table with other musicians during a talk I went to - presumably in my college days. He not only showed and described his "doodles" of his latest Berlioz production (The Damnation of Faust, I think) but gave it to me. I only wish I knew what became of it. The house has had so many upheavals since we moved here, there are so many treasured things that have gone "missing". Maybe, they will all turn up one day.

Where's the envious button? 🟢 Playing early music was my thing at college - William Byrd's Pavane, The Earle of Salisbury, my favourite at the time. I was fortunate that they had a spinet to play it on, even though it was later than the music itself. It sounded so much better than the piano. I only wished I had carried it through to my finals because the Beethoven variations I played, although I loved them, really needed bigger hands/longer fingers. Polly

' morning all from red dragon land. Sunny and warm, yet again. I am beginning to love this. 😎 The dose may not, though! <sniff sniff>> Interesting investigation, yesterday. My flute is an (small) A flute (Western D). The flute song undergoing the twiddly bits is played on a (small) G flute (Western C) in the video but it is recommended that it should be played on a D# flute if played with other musicians (some instruments preferring different key ranges) - not that I see that happening this side of a lot of learning! So, I scaled up the length of images of these sizes on the laptop. The G flute I could probably manage but at a stretch. My A flute is 13.5 inches (34 CM) and suits my hand size beautifully. Go to G and it rises to 16 inches (40 CM) with fingering holes more widely spaced but should be possible. Go to D# and we are now talking 19.2 inches (49 CM), larger diameter, and larger holes that look to be an impossible stretch for the right hand. <<arghhhhhhh!>> From A to D# - the difference between a soprano and alto recorder. The former, I dabbled in during my school days, the alto recorder looking a bit on the "big" side! All points to staying with the A flute, at least, until I am more confident. Although if I carry on, it may be useful to invest in the G flute so that I can play-a-long with the tutor. I have got a whole lot of new Exercises to work through first - basically a repeat of the ones I have completed but with two extra notes in the scale (on my flute, the notes of D major but from A to A instead of D to D). Mugadecaftime on the bench out in the sun, now, methinks. Protected from a breezy Nor'easterly, it should be quite nice out there. Take care. Be good. Make the most of it. Polly

That means a lot. Thanks, John.

Just popped in, while my mugacocoa cools down a bit, to say, ' night all and nos da.

' evening all from red dragon land. Slight change to plan this morning. Realising I needed to use the beat box (playing A=440 to get me in tune), I decided to forego any chance of recording so that I could get back into using the beat box. Er....why do I leave things so long? Hm. I asked that question, this morning! So, two things to use more often. 🤣 Using the beat box was a bit of a ffaf to start with. The beat was too fast for the new song and and the amended speed was too fast for the other songs. I set it up for the new song, and used it for about an hour. Yup, the 8-beat line of music repeated over and over for an hour! A few more sessions, without the beat box, and it is becoming more fluent. I did not say it was going to be easy... What I have found, right the way through, so far, anyway, is that the first bit, whether a song or an exercise, seems to take much longer to learn than the rest of it.

' morning all from red dragon land. Apparently, it will be sunny this afternoon. <<OK! I'll wait.>> Toot on the flute with twiddly bits coming along at last. I have worked out all the twiddly bits from the video for the first line of the new song (of 8 beats - 4 notes to the beat - an awful lot of twiddly bits in that (14)! So, where I am up to in all this: Playing each twiddly bit (several varieties), more or less in time, in each phrase; and putting the phrases together. On watching the video again last night, I was reminded of how to smooth out the notes (adjustments to blowing as well as to the fingering) - taken on board and to be put into action from henceforth. This morning, I intend to get in a recording session - to get used to the process, again. Why do I always leave things too long? No need to answer that! If I get part of a song down, it will be a start. Mugadecaf and a deep breath, first. Take care. Be good. Now, might be a good time. Polly

' night all and nos da.

I think the excuse term, now, is being ECO(logically) friendly. 😂

' evening all from red dragon land. More sunny weather, over the last couple of days, drew me into the garden as the flowers continued to open. Record breaking size this year - both the peonies... and the single iris have done amazingly well this year. However, the lawnmower has broken down allowing the buttercups to wallow in all their glory. And to the Chelsea Flower Show, one of my three voted-for gardens won the Peoples Award, namely: Feels Like Home, Rosemary Coldstream in the People’s Choice Balcony / Container Garden category. 👍

Thanks. Mike. Passenger traffic to Brentford came to an end during WW2 in 1942 when the passenger trains consisted of auto coaches. I have not come across any evidence of them with a Siphon G or any other van come to that. The only reference to milk in Diana Willment's book "Brentford Dock and Railway" is condensed milk, presumably from the former Nestlé factory.* Will I get one? One could go into a display case behind a Hall, I suppose... * Now apartment blocks.

' afternoon all from pollen red dragon land. Sunny with white cloud. A quick dash outside to bring the washing in, hoping not to get the P word in the eyes and dose. Notalot done, today, but did have a toot on the flute, recapping on the start I made, yesterday, with adding twiddly bits to my third song, all contained within 2 beats - so an awful long way to go with this one. it looks and sounds easy enough but getting it just so seemed to be evading me. After several sessions, it was beginning to come together. Another day, tomorrow and the next 6 beats to fit the twiddly bits in... including another type of twiddly bit to fit in as well. Could be fun... Since Monday, I have been watching the evening showing of the Chelsea Flower Show. This afternoon I voted for a couple of the smaller gardens. After this evening's showing, I will be able to vote for a Show Garden. I already know which one I will choose. It will be interesting to see how my choices fare. https://www.rhs.org.uk/shows-events/rhs-chelsea-flower-show/rhs-peoples-choice-award Time for mugadecaf. Take care. Be good. Be choosy.

No that is all wrong. I took the exact same picture last night and you can clearly see Venus is ABOVE the moon! Love it :D 😁

No fancy telescope, just my new pre-owned iPhone through the dining room window. A bit blurry but here is the Moon and Venus. A few minutes later and they were covered in cloud which is deep purple right across the sky, now the sun has gone down.

My bold You mean the RHS Chelsea Flower Show this week, Brian! https://www.royensoc.co.uk/chelsea/ ' morning all from red dragon land. Cloudy bright. Taking of flowers.... Weepy eyes this morning so steering clear of the garden. However, Ray popped down to the shed, came back and asked if I got his two wotsApps, I checked it out and there were these two lovely looking flowerheads. The Iris was new out and standing proud. Looking through the dining room window I could see how tall the iris had got. The cutback Rock Rose is on the right On the left is the hibiscus which also gives purple flowers - unfortunately at risk of flying thingies leaving behind very hungry flower devouring offspring. Fingers crossed, 🤞 eh? The iris was rescued, along with a few other specimens which did not make it this far, from the site of West Shore Miniature Railway several years. The iris has always been one of those special flowers, this one because my Nan always had a large vase of them, when in season, on top of her glass cabinet. Last year's flowering was not as successful since some strong winds bent the stem in half. So I feel very lucky to have this superb specimen this year. The sun has come out so I might spend a lot of time gazing out of the window....dreaming.... Take care. Be good. Make the most of it. Polly

Thanks for the info, WCML100. Much appreciated, I see what you mean about the grilles being black rather than red, Another photo from 2011 indicates that No.1 was still in EWS livery (and with black grilles). Unless there are any other significant changes which would require much bashing about, I may get away with fudging it.... I would not object to repainting the grilles - the loco would be weathered, anyway. 27-05-2011 (Flickr) My, those orange boxes behind look grubby! If I forgo the Accurascale model - though I doubt I will 🤣 - I shall just stick to my present fleet* of at least three in EWS livery to haul EWS liveried JGAs, JHAs, the London Binliner, Seacows, etc, and one in Freightliner livery for the Freightliner hoppers. * Excluding Evening Star (GBRf, Locomotion pack)