..to a brilliant concert this afternoon. Swedish conductor Stefan Solyom (wonderful to watch his workout on the podium) drew the very best from the Scottish Symphony Orchestra who were on top form, and Russian born violinist Alexandra Soumm had us spellbound. Liszt, Bruch and Dvorak.
I am in awe of musicians and conductors who give  so much, intellectually, emotionally and physically.
It makes painting, and writing, seem very tame!
(Talking of which 5,301 words to go....)

Driving through rural Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire on a sunny winter morning I see a wooded, hedged and farmed landscape, with manor houses, ancient churches and cottages, jays and kites flying overhead.

It has its problems. Too many people! Not enough rain! But it is very beautiful and I love it.


About yesterday's post and self talk....Do you listen when you talk to yourself?

Our lives,  says Tim Parks, are all in the head at the expense of our bodies,  or as he even more dramatically puts it We have become cerebral vampires preying on our own life blood.

Would you agree?

One of the best things about a holiday is spending a whole day just reading.

I'm riveted, repelled, and very amused by Tim Parks Teach Us To Sit Still . He let's us in on his 'self talk' - that voice in our heads which is often, when we take the time to really listen to it, talking utter nonsense (which we too often believe to be true)....Susan Jeffers in Feel The Fear And Do It Anyway  calls it the 'chatterbox'. Byron Katie in Loving What Is  suggests you ask yourself what stories you are telling yourself, and Park's guru says 'Always ask yourselves In what way am I contributing to my own suffering?'

A surprisingly good read.

Thanks Lynne.

Here is the very talented Pia Jane Bijkerk again, playing some music she composed herself....enjoy!

http://blog.piajanebijkerk.com/WordPress/2009/03/29/a-quiet-moment-in-le-petit-bateau/ 

That was a rather short posting yesterday!

(As children we were told 'I want doesn't get!' We were expected to wait for something to be offered, or at the very least say 'Please may I have.'

But that was the way the thought came to me that I would love to have a piano. I had been talking to someone who was getting rid of one, and I was thinking of the immense pleasure of listening to my daughters playing the piano, and I realised that, actually, I wanted to learn to play.

As parents it wasn't easy finding the money for music lessons, but for my parents it was simply out of the question, and it just didn't enter my consciousness that children had piano lessons. It was completely outside my experience.

And now, all these years later, I suddenly know that I would love  to learn to play the piano. 

Someone else got the one that was being given away - but I'm looking now....


..do you have any unfulfilled ambitions, musical or otherwise, that you didn't know you even had?....

                                I want a piano....

I went down to the shore sketching in this - exhilerating, but I am so glad I have a cosy home to hunker down in, a good dinner in the oven, and some good books to read - we won't be going anywhere tonight. The noise is wild and roaring with the odd loud crack as a branch or a tree comes down!

I'm listening to my soundscape. Since it takes just 30 seconds, and brings me so beautifully into the present moment, I've decided it's a lovely way to start the day. Thank you Pia Jane Bijkerk.

The tide has turned so there is the rhythmic hsch hsch of the waves coming in, the high pitched sounds of a large flock of siskins feeding in the garden, and the odd cry of a gull or two. A crackle from the fire and the clack of a doorhandle as a door blows open in the draught from the open window, and I hear a door close from a neighbour's house. From the kitchen there's the sound of gently bubbling water from a pan with my egg in it.

Have you read the novel Grace Notes by Bernard MacLaverty? I loved the way everyday sounds were woven into the story of the main character, Catherine, who is a composer. A lovely read. I read it first for the story, and again for the sound details.

Did you enjoy the soundscapes? Have you listened to your own? If I close my eyes right now I can hear the breathing of the computer, and the little sound of a log moving slightly on the fire,

I can hardly believe this coincidence, but, literally, as I wrote that last word 'fire' my husband came in and said 'Can you come to the back door?'  When I got there he said 'Listen' (he didn't know I was blogging about sounds!) and there through the mist was the strange and haunting sound of whooper swans out in the bay. How I wish I was clever enough to record them for you!

One day I might learn how to do this, but not today.

Today I am painting.



You can see a much better photo than mine, and hear whooper swans at
 http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/life/Whooper_Swan

I loved these simple and clever 'soundscapes' created by Pia Jane Bijkerk..go to

                                    http://blog.piajanebijkerk.com/WordPresss/category/soundscapes

My favourite is the one of the sounds around her houseboat, and I also liked the rainforest, the cathedral and the Paris musicians....felt like I was there.

Enjoy!

..you sometimes have to scroll down a few pictures to click for the sound....

I have to say I haven't given a thought to gardening for ages (ours is still under snow). I'd grown bored with television gardening programmes and the controversies over which presenter of Gardeners' World is best. They seemed cliched and inevitably repetetive, gardening being a fairly repetitive business really.

But Life In A Cottage Garden With Carol Klein   is a gem. No hype, no clever clever stuff, little music - and what little there is is delicate and evocative of the winter season. Also, perhaps because she is on her home ground, Carol has toned it down a bit (sometimes on Gardeners' World her enthusiasm came across as just a little forced).

The editing of this programme is beautiful, and the sound editing superb. The crunch of the sharp knife through a snowdrop bulb, the sound of a mountainous heap of clematis hitting the ground from a great height as she flings it from the top of a very tall ladder. The rain. The chuckle in her voice. I felt I was there in the dimly lit shed....

This is the real thing. I watched it twice!  Unheard of....and there are five more programmes to come. Hurrah.


BBC 2 Fri evenings.

In a lazy post Christmas haze of warm fires and endless food and drink, I've had time to read Time To Think by Nancy Kline, published by Cassell. Sub titled Listening To Ignite The Human Mind, it is about creating what the author calls 'thinking environments' which encourage the kind of respectful listening which helps people think for themselves.

'Everything we do depends for its quality on the thinking we do first.'

'The quality of your attention determines the quality of other people's thinking.'

'Thinking for yourself is still a radical act.'

She says 'We think we listen, but we don't. We finish each other's sentences, we interrupt each other, we moan together, we fill in the pauses with our own stories, we look at our watched, we sigh, we frown, tap our finger, read the newspaper, or walk away.'

I was shocked to realise how often I do these things! And moved by this book to try to do them less often.

A Thinking Environment is a persuasive concept and the book a worthwhile read.


Thank you Lucy for that lovely image, and Julia for the kind comments (comments 19 and 18 December)