The last week was a hot one, the dragon blood tm tends to leave me bursting out in damp bubbles so it was a welcome thing of sorts to have a few showers as I sit here typing this out after a a bit of a walk.
Reading is something I tend to do a lot of when it's raining which it is as I'm typing this out today or with this Covid-19 postponing a number of things I'd of gone to or otherwise done over this period.
These two books are quite intriguing not least The Mystery of the Co-ed School which is unusual as most fiction of this sort is normally set in all girl schools and that illustration is rather puzzling.
I mean just what is that boy doing sneaking around by that door as a girl is running away toward the school gate with him in pursuit pursued by a Headmaster?
I hope he has a convincing explanation.
Something delayed from last year was this Super Audio cd of T rex's Electric Warrior which took about two weeks to arrive from central Scotland which is a bit long.
It was the home to two big hits of 1971, Jeepster and Get It On while a third of that year Hot Love was not on an original album of theirs.
Anyway while the bass goes a bit lower than the record did, it seems natural enough to my ears and smoother with the vocals and cymbals thanks to the mastering so listening to that eventually was well worth it.
That I think wraps up the last entry of this month and hopefully more better times will come in July.
On a warm June afternoon I'm looking at a cd that came out on May 29th by the great Austrian composer Joseph Haydn
The Six String Quartets, Op. 76, form one of the most renowned of
Haydn's sets of quartets, and carry the stamp of their maker: No other
set of eighteenth-century string quartets is so diverse, or so
unconcerned with the norms of the time.
In the words of Hayd's friend
and contemporary Charles Burney they are full of invention, fire, good
taste and new effects. On the present disc, the first of two, we hear
the first three quartets, including the Fifths quartet (No. 2) so named
after the falling perfect fifths with which it begins. The most famous
of the set - and possibly of all Haydn quartets is No. 3, however: the
Emperor quartet with its second movement: a set of variations on the
Kaiserlied which Haydn had recently composed to the greater glory of the
Austrian Emperor Franz II.
This is played on period instruments, usually a turn off for me but this performance by the Chiaroscuo Quartet is tuneful with body and is extremely well recorded on this stereo and surround sound Super Audio cd, playable on regular cd players too
It's sure been a hot weekend although for a chunk of it I've been out of commission and avoiding being dragged down by the at times violent discourse we're going through lately of which a good metaphor might of been the intense rain followed by thunderstorms we had on Saturday evening.
You might think with you know what still about and all the restrictions we might have unity and until a couple of weeks back the odd grumble about a politician or famous face being caught out breaking the rules we were.
I'd rather think back enjoying the sun, just playing in the grounds a game of croquet or even running around blowing bubbles towards each other as the teddies are out having their picnic right now than all that.
Operation Reset I feel is what we're in need of right now.
It's been a damp drizzly weekend here starting from the cooling off of Wednesday to the heavy rain and showers from Thursday onwards.
One thing that during this emergency I have been seeing more of is children, particularly the under twelves who probably haven't had as much set online work or even whole lessons to deal with ever since schools shut except for a number of Key Workers and even then as my local combined infant and junior school put it on their website they haven't been doing any actual teaching simply because apart from being unfair on the others, the class age range has been quite high so whole class teaching just couldn't work.
In the great return to school, sort of controversy ours are returning in phased classes from the middle of the month for two days on, two days off with Wednesdays reserved for cleaning and work setting.
The online resources will continue throughout for those whose parents don't feel it's safe (whenever this thing can ever be 100% safe) or where child or parent is vulnerable or self isolating.
Personally I'm on the with reluctance going with reopening side because for one thing no group of teachers would ever put children at risk of something they themselves would not accept and for another some children are falling badly behind or having considerable mental health issues around anxiety and fear at home and badly need a structured cared for day close to what it was to help cope with many of us as legal adults are finding trying ourselves.
With that said I'll end by saying I have a new bag ready for the next time we're able to be together.
Phew! It's a red hot weekend here as I type this entry up, indeed redder than my sweater actually!
Normally I'm away around mid to late July which usually means a few things such as checking through the wardrobe for dresses, that any school girl socks haven't got holes in the toes and sweaters haven't been attacked by hordes of ravenous moths.
It's also a time of year where I would be putting my thinking cap on working on a quiz, preparing the answer sheets, getting prizes organized and writing out a cheque too but I'm not at the moment.
That is because our Summer Littles get together will not be going ahead this year around the many complications of the infamous Covid-19 virus which would of been held in rented house with a good number of us under one roof.
One issue would be travelling which in England is not presently for stopping overnight and non essential travel is not being allowed on trains and buses which is enforced vigorously in my district with bus users asked where and why they are going and prevented from any non essential travelling and the same goes with trains.
The other is a number of us are or have vulnerable partners or even other household members who would be at grave risk if we were to catch it and there's no way of knowing without medical tests if you have it.
Just trying to run an event with social distancing through it would be extremely difficult because rather like with bio-kids, we're close and sometimes all over each other, touching sharing each others things and so on.
So it won't be on this year which as unfortunate as it is does happen to be a relief as quite simply if any of us got it in our household then it may well be terminal and nothing is worth risking that.
As and when we are able to hold another event then we can do so and perhaps mark the fact we'd all be living able to tell the tale.
