Povey Prattle

The French National Anthem is indeed stirring.   There is an "over the top" version of "La Marseillaise" as arranged for soprano, chorus and orchestra by  Hector Berlioz  in about 1830. This version  "goes on a bit", but it is magnificent in its grandeur.   I listen to it every Bastille Day. https://youtu.be/bOvCkTFy9R4

Zion and I have good adventures twice a week when we visit residents of memory units in local retirement communities. He is so well suited to this canine ministry  -  he doesn't tug at the leash, jump up, or try to lick people. He seems to know that his role is to be gentle.  As one of my friends said this evening  "Zion is an old soul". 'Tis true, and he is loved where ever we go.  I am blessed. There are moments of humour in the memory units.  One woman asked me about a month ago  "why do you have such a  fat belly?"     But in a different facility earlier this week a woman told me "I like your belly". This morning I began to recite old nursery rhymes as Zion and I visited -  "Hickory dickory dock" and "Little boy blue" etc.   So many memory impaired residents joined in. The rhymes stirred the memory of a dear woman who was born in Manchester U.K. many years ago. She remembered another ditty. ...

Bought some smoked herrings at my local supermarket today.  Produce of Canada (most likely from the Maritime Provinces).   Probably the nearest thing to bloaters this side of Lowestoft. I have to soak them in cold water for at least for four hours before they are fit to be cooked.  I'll probably pan fry them for breakfast with a poached egg on top. Dear friend D'Arlene Llewellyn  -  I won't make you eat them, but I will let you know if they are gooood! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- I've been on a Macaroni and Cheese binge for a few weeks. (Please don't tell my Primary Care Physician!) Here is my latest home cooked offering   Macaroni, morbier and cheddar cheese, with chicken sausage. I cheat (or take a short cut) so instead of making a white sauce, I mix up the whole mess of food with store bought Alfredo sauce before baking it.  Works for me,   and adds a ...

No 'buses No coaches No Bristol No Lowestoft No nothing                                                   NADA                                  BE AT PEACE TODAY!

So we changed coaches in London on that 1955 trip from Bristol to Lowestoft. The change was made at the splendid Victoria Coach Station, a great semi art deco building, built in 1932 I was in awe -  not only because of the magnificent Coach Station (we didn't even have one in Bristol) but because I saw Coaches from many parts of England which bore the Bristol Marque In those days some buses and coaches were built in Bristol and in Lowestoft.  The engine and chassis were made in Bristol, and then driven to Lowestoft to be out-fitted at the Eastern Coach Works. Heady stuff for a proud Bristol boy and his Lowestoft born Mum! ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- We set off from Victoria Coach Station for the long drive to Lowestoft.  And then I behaved badly. A fellow passenger pointed out to me the great sites and sights of London.  I ignored him and refused to respond to his commentary. My Bristol provin...

Until last Saturday, 6th July 2019 I had not been to the Movies since 2011 when my friend (the late) Ben Morse and I went to see "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo".  We could not abide the violence, so we left the cinema when the film was about half way through. Eight years later I was enticed to see "Yesterday" because my Cambridge MA friend Donna T wrote on Face Book that she had seen it. She was especially pleased because the film is set in Lowestoft, Suffolk, U.K. I've never met an American who has heard of Lowestoft, let alone been there.  Donna was the exception -  it turns out that she has visited a first cousin who lives there. ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lowestoft:-  it might as well have been Nirvana according to my Mum who was born there.  (By a nice coincidence, my friend Jeff who I  have known since 1950 also had a Lowestoft born mother). I think that I was about eleven years of age (1955...

Yesterday afternoon (6th July) I set out to Lakewood Ranch  ( a horrid and huge housing  "development", which has swallowed  up much good agricultural land east of Interstate 75  -  mostly in Manatee County, FL). * I call LWR a " desert with grass": there is no 'there' there.  It's a place to get lost.  I was at LWR to meet my friend Ashley Lloyd, and  to see a Movie at the Lakewood Ranch Cinemas, very near to the modern and faux Main Street (Disney light!).  The Movie was "Yesterday". BUT DAMMIT I could not find the Cinemas.  Yep they had vanished from view. In semi-desperation I pulled to the side of the road and asked a pedestrian " do you know how I can find the Lakewood Ranch Cinemas?"  He grinned and said:  "see that building across the road, the one that has a huge sign reading "CINEMAS". O Then he added " did I pass the test?" ----------------------------------------------------...