24th Nov 2006

I hope Gran Canaria is nice and warm, as it’s rather damp and miserable here at the minute although for the most part rather mild. The trees have mostly given up their leaves but quite a few are stubbornly clinging onto them. It’s a typical autumnal feel to the day…cool enough to be warmed by the thoughts that mass on the border of consciousness and are released with intensity into the stiff wind. I look up into the sky to count the clouds but there is only a homogenous grey mass so I try to count the birds but the weather is cold and they are all sitting in the trees. So I wait till night to count the stars and see the clouds roll away and dissipate leaving clear, cool air and the stars shine in the ebenous glassy sky like a benison and I count and wish on every one. For nothing that comes without cost or effort is ever worth anything.

It’s a day for the song ‘Sara’ by Fleetwood Mac with Stevie Nick’s vocals floating ethereally through my head. It has a dreamlike quality that always takes me outside of current time.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmQ_1sXZJxI

Classics like the incomparable songs of Kate Bush ‘Babushka here’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VKMSEWVQ3PI

Or Oleta Adams ‘When love comes to the rescue’

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NwApPsvY8QY

Another great clip
NIKE (Great ad = Gavin Henson)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuvGWLgsSIM

A great YouTube clip

Shayne Ward (singing Somewhere over the rainbow) from a show called the X factor…great song. Be patient the song is worth waiting for.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzN_1gYimbc

21st Nov 2006

Happy birthday Nick (who is 44 tomorrow).

Cool wintry days and dreams of warmer climates spur me on till the weekend when I can depart the UK for a week in the sunshine. Injecting a week of hot weather at this time of year makes the forthcoming snowy season all the more enjoyable. It’s kind of surreal to step off a plane to 25 degrees when my body clock is geared for the cold. Time was when I was afraid of my body and beaches were a place to avoid. But growing older and having the most wonderful people around who love me for the person has dissipated that spectre like a fog on a summer dawn. That’s a good feeling because no matter how hard you try to look good it’s all doomed to fall at some point. Some part of the body will slowly start to dance out of sequence and if you don’t accept it you’ll spend the rest of your life missing the rhythm. I believe most people don’t give a monkey for looks really…give us a good meal and a glass of wine and music and film. It’s all media manipulation and ego for the others. We live in strange times and how will it all end I often wonder?

20th Nov 2006

Nights chill and darken with every day that passes. The blessed land slumbers still and damp lit by a crescent moon that accentuates the hushed longing for summer. Steely hued yet soft it casts shadows likes a cloak woven with threads of silver. A mantle of mystery to wrap a gilded landscape in. Soft footsteps and gentle breath wind among paths long tread under arching beeches. Sylvan descent indeed are we who leave the world behind and embrace the cool delicious nights of winter.

Amy Winehouse

Sunday 05th Nov 06

Weather has grown much colder here over the last week with some sharp frosts. I am getting into the swing of winter a bit more now since the clocks went backwards. Full moons hanging large in clear skies and the swirls of crisp brown leaves, crunching underfoot. The cruel cold heightens the senses to razor sharp clarity and ensures a wonderful appreciation of the warmth. How narrow when one considers it is the human temperature comfort zone?

I am listening to the Amy Winehouse song "rehab" at the minute. It is monumental music, sad and 60’s groovy all at the same time…I really love it. Go to Youtube at this address (click the link) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LD5sahXoj0U and listen. I am sure you will grow into it if you give it a chance. Yes Amy and neither are we! I’m just bidding for it on e-bay at the minute (vinyl record promo…getting expensive though. Amy looks a little like my sister (well 20 years ago.) One cool lady,…. And nice to like a rebel for a change.