Good morning from Keyboard View in the land of Lockdown where travelling far to take a picture isn't the done thing anymore.
I mean here you have to state your reason for travelling before you're allowed on the reduced bus service and "I want to take some photos" isn't accepted.
We're coping here as much as the season continues to do it's own thing regardless so the daffodils are all coming out along the grass verges with hedgerow on the two green patches right in the centre of this part of the district
If they look lower than everything else there's a reason like they're sinking which is common here with a dished portion in the middle and also is why the telegraph poles are at odd angles - the land has moved since they were fitted.
The funny pole with an angled board toward the rear left is the 20 MPH solar powered speed restriction sign for the local school added a few years ago as most of the street scene hasn't changed in years except there's a lot less traffic about at the moment.
Pix credits: Neil Genower/BBC/WildBrain/Queen Bert Limited
I've been viewing thanks to the BBC iPlayer, the new series based around Enid Blyton's Malory Towers books which anyone who's followed this blog know I both like and have pre-pc copies of that was brought forward for streaming with schools being mainly shut in the current emergency although it be shown on the regular CBBC channel in April.
The picture is Darrell Rivers played by Ella Bright who through her eyes we learn about the girls only boarding school set off the Cornish coast.
There are a few 'new' bits to the story, Alicia has an obvious Canadian accent but in the main it follows the style, mannerism and speech of 1946 and not 2020 with the girls sleeping in big metal beds in the dorm and being sat at wooden desks with ink pens the way many of us remember things even a few decades on.
Perfect viewing especially for children at this difficult time.
While the C virus is uppermost in our minds being all over news and affecting our everyday lives, I thought I'd revisit an artist that had been last mentioned on here in a 1990 entry and whose 'classic' sixties albums had come out by that year but the Beach Boy's like a few other artists don't have a consistently great set of cds so across the years I had been putting together the least imperfect set with the 1993 Good Vibrations box set and the DCC Gold editions from the mid nineteen nineties of the Endless Summer and Spirit Of America compilations to catch stray tracks and singles not on albums.
I had picked up the 1990 two on one cd series which wasn't too bad but the attempt to remove tape hiss and clicks did take something away from the sound of the best records so I did pick up the MFSL gold two on one Surfing' U.S.A with Surfer Girl albums from 1963.
That issue came out in May 1989.
For the reminder I got the Japanese "Past Masters" single album issues that while not perfect were more or less what was used for the lp issues and that bit better.
The issues of three albums in that series had their own issues which lead me to look elsewhere for their replacements.
In 2015 Analogue Productions in the states issued on lp and cd a slice of the Beach Boys studio albums in slightly differing forms.
Those albums that never had an original stereo mix used an after the event version intended for the much criticized 2012 Capitol cds, criticized for being very bright sounding and relentlessly loud.
The Lp versions were on a separate mono and stereo issues but the cd, actually Super Audio cd playable on regular players too had both on one disc.
The Today album is the home to three singles, "Dance,Dance,Dance", "Do You Want To Dance?" and "When I Grow Up (To be a man) and five classic Brain Wilson love songs with delightful arrangements.
Summer Days (and Summer Nights !!!) issued in the Summer of 1965 found a way of making commercial songs that had some of lyrical and musical complexity group leader Brian Wilson had in his head.
This had the hits "Help Me, Rhonda" and "California Girls" on it.
Both it and the preceding album only originally had mono mixes that were mixed in to echo laden mock stereo and of these issues come with new true stereo ones as well as the original mono which I prefer.
These two cds are much better than my 1990 two one copy.
Pet Sounds is a classic album that pushed the limits of both how a studio could be used to make sounds and also the lyrical concerns of popular music.
It contains the hit singles "Wouldn't It Be Nice", "God Only Knows", "Sloop John B" and the much talked about track "Here Today".
For a long time on record all you get is an awful fake stereo version and the 1990 mono cd was thin and lacking in detail.
For a long time this had been my go to edition but while it was better than most others it was a little dull and had some obvious low frequency boost that just didn't sound natural.
This new Super audio cd edition is a lot better (I suspect the mono lp from it is too).
A stereo mix was made in 1996 and revised a few years later when a few missing bits were found for the Pet Sounds 30th anniversary box set and that mix is featured together with the original mono one sounding better than ever in this issue.
It's good after many years of cd collecting to have great sounding versions of albums I grew up with.
One thing I did pick up for my birthday was this recently released compilation of recordings by Gladys Knight & The Pips whose catalogue divides into two main chunks, the first being their period at Motown from 1967 through 1972 of which the best overall compilation is the 1995 Anthology two cd set and the period from 1973 through 1977 with Buddah Records.
That second period tends to be the more radio played with songs such as "Midnight Train To Georgia", (I really got to use my) Imagination, I Feel a Song (in my heart) and "Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me" which have been anthologized a number of times and to which I bought the 1998 UK Camden "The Greatest Hits" which featured 18 of them at the time.
The strength of this set is it includes recordings made in the late 1970's and 80's for CBS/Columbia such as "Taste of Bitter Love" and "Bourgie', Bourgie' " plus a number of hard to find mixes in addition to those Buddah era recordings aided by both sets of recordings being collectively owned by Sony today.
Moreover, while this doesn't feature 1989's License To Kill from that years James Bond movie, it is a an extensive collection over three modestly priced cds with the tracks running in era order rather than the at times totally random one of Music Clubs double cd sets of a few years back.
While some liner notes would of been good, this is a desirable set also issued on double lp selection too.
The second busy week which means as soon as all that stuff is over with I am making of point of being little and switching straight to littlespace as past experience has shown if I don't things soon get pretty bad.
It's been going round the sun time not that I ever change being an eternal little girl albeit one with interests that do link to some sophisticated interests in places
I had some discs by the Country singer Charley Pride last year and these are a few more 'regular' cds that recently came out I had a few days ago taking in hits, a Xmas album and a few rugulars
Country music was something I was brought up on and they'll live with the not cool at the time to say you like section of my cd collection.
Classical music has long been a staple of mine from Junior years onward really and recently John Wilson, the conductor brought back to life the London Sinfonia and these two discs are the first fruits of that enterprise.
Released late January this year these two recordings have already been critically acclaimed.
They were birthday presents.
You can't beat socks for birthday's as they're so practical having pretty bows on them and I had a book token too apart from some money.
I went for lunch with my folks to a local gastropub having fish and chips followed by apple pie and cream which was in the process of being refurbished which was scrumptious.
While birthday this year was a little different, I did actually enjoy having time after all of that in evenings to play with my presents and enjoy being little.
Sometimes the past creeps in to present like this week I'm going be a bit busy being out most of the day as I will be next week which may prove an interesting challenge as the last time I did anything like that I was in better health.
Managing it isn't going to be easy but it's just gonna be for a short period so what is important is I use the limited free time to recharge my system so rather than being stuck by the Chromebook being out in fresh air even on a swing taking in a bit of sun and forgetting about the stuff I'm doing.
And if that takes a bit more wrapping up than usual, then so be it.
One thing I've always has a fascination with is dolls and as yesterday was St. David's Day and Wales is not so far away from here I thought I'd it with an image of a doll in traditional Welsh costume of the sort I had and loved seeing in shops and museums
Because you don't have a ready done Welsh doll doesn't mean you have to do without if you can sow as kits are available to make your very own, scaled for popular sized dolls.
