Today’s guest picture comes from our older son Tony. He took a suitably black and white shot of his black and white dogs.
In theory today was very much the same temperature as yesterday but in practice it felt much colder because of a rawness in the air and as a result I was quite happy to have a lot of singing and no cycling to do.
The singing started in church. The choir had had no notice of the hymns in advance which was unusual but didn’t matter in the case of two of them which had simple harmonies. One of the others in particular defeated me entirely even though it was sung in unison. However, we had a enjoyable practice afterwards and in the end, we had a good morning of singing.
While this was going on, Sandy and Nancy were supervising the removal of the Archive Group’s furniture and equipment to the new base for the group. The removal was in the hands of a couple of every competent fellows and Sandy and Nancy reported that everything had gone smoothly. I hope to visit the new premises tomorrow and see the results.
When I got home, I had time for a quick walk round the garden with my new phone in hand.
There are still flowers about (just).
In some cases, it is a question of hanging on by the skin of the teeth…
…but others are defiantly still flowering freely…
….even if conditions are a bit soggy.
I can’t get over how cheerful the perennial wallflower still is.
As well as flowers, there is always moss about in the garden and this morning there was some additional fungus among the moss on the elder.
At the bird feeder, it was very much a chaffinch day….
…though other birds were about as well. There were pigeons on the lawn…
…and jackdaws in the elder…
…and one on a chair showing off its white feathers.
The chaffinches were queuing up to get to the sunflower hearts…
…but when they got there, some preferred arguing to eating. Perhaps they were politicians in a former life.
There was no shortage of pushy behaviour.
After lunch, we went off to sing with our choir in Carlisle. Ellen, our usual conductor, had other commitments and our accompanist was marooned in Motherwell by a late train cancellation so we had both a substitute conductor from Glasgow and a member of the choir at the keyboard.
As it turned out, they were more than able to provide us with a satisfactory practice and as is so often the case, a new face in front of the choir provided us with fresh insights into performing better. As there were only three tenors present this week, our department had to work hard to make itself heard.
When we got home, I made some cauliflower cheese for tea and followed that off with an iced bun so all in all, it was a very satisfactory day.
The flying bird of the day, unsurprisingly, is one of the chaffinches.
With a snowstorm in the forecast for the area where I live coming later tonight, seeing a few flowers was a special treat, along with the flying birds!
I hope that the snow storm doesn’t interrupt paying work.
Loved the colour still remaining in your garden and your record of the birds’ activities.
Enjoyed the action of the chaffinches (AKA politicians in a former life)! I get the feeling we might agree on several levels. 😀
Nice to see the flowers, moss and even fungi. I could almost forget that it was November. The new phone looks to have done a great job with all of them.
I might risk going for a walk without my Lumix.
That wallflower is a real do-er!
It was a good purchase.
So glad your substitutes took an enjoyable choir practice – your must have felt really needed, tenors being in such short supply.
Glad you could decode two of the three hymns. I always think of Mr Bean when I am in a similar situation.
Mr Bean never got on to my radar although I have seen very short clips so I will just have to imagine what he might make of hymns.
😊
Those chaffinches are lovely birds, even though they are quarrelsome. Sounds like quite a day for singing. Someday, I will make cauliflower cheese. It’s on my “To Make” list.
If you are not a vegetarian a little bacon helps add tang and I put a sliced tomato on top when I bake the dish.
Thanks for the tips! I will give it a go one day soon.
Those dogs look very happy! Your flowers are still brightening up the November garden…let’s hope they continue for as long as possible. Good to see that you enjoyed a treat after your singing efforts…iced buns cure a lot of ills!
I suspect that there is no cure for anything better than an iced bun.
I commiserate with you about the last-minute hymns. We get enough of those too, it must go with the territory. I guess my sight-reading is improving somewhat… Love the Jackdaws, especially the one “blending in” with the chair.
My sight reading is good but reading the words from one page and the harmony from another at sight is testing, especially when I have to concentrate really hard just to sing at the right pitch. I have only just started singing in the church choir so a lot of the hymns are unfamiliar to me.
I have the exact same problem! Those extra verses at the bottom of the second page in the hymnal are exhausting.
I resort to writing out my own copy with each verse having its own words underneath the part.