'I hung my head' cover



I seem to have been thwarted by the weather over the past few days ....its either foggy, raining or both and when the sun eventually decided to shine this afternoon I find my route blocked in several directions by flood water! I can't remember a time when so much rain has fallen over the UK over such a sustained period of time.

 

With that most convenient 'should have' thought processes - hindsight, maybe I should have struck out on foot but I didn't get up till midday after being absorbed with the test match cricket from India from 4.00 this morning (yes I know, I'm bonkers!), so it had to be the car .... total wash out!

 

Not to worry, I plan to have 2 solid days birding next week with my pal Mark and with some strongish onshore winds brewing it could be good on the coast.

 

Meanwhile, I reminded myself that this is not just a birding blog and with no records to write up this afternoon I picked up my guitar and did a one take video of one of my favourite Johnny Cash songs 'I Hung My Head' ..... all a bit raw but with all the rigmarole involved with setting up sound, microphone etc in my front room I couldn't be bothered to record it again so here it is, hope you enjoy .... I don't think I've murdered it!

 

U tube Link here if the vid doesn't work - I hung my head vid

 

 

Born at the Right Time & a break in the weather!

I tried all afternoon and most of the evening yesterday to get this song and sound right and think I just about managed a reasonable result, in any case I'm not spending any more time on it! The song is called Born at the Right Time by Lindesfarne ..... a band I have to admit to having a bit of a blind spot to for years, thinking them a bit too middle of the road. That may still be true of course but as soon as I heard the lyrics on this tune I had to cover it, so apt I thought! See what you think .... if you're my age and fearing for the current generation you might agree!??

Depending on your allegiances the past couple of days have been very disappointing for sports fans with England somehow conspiring to loose the 2nd test match against Pakistan ... been following the match via free streaming sites on the net and for the bother that takes I wish I hadn't bothered! Andy Murray got us all hoping he would finally break his grand slam duck only to fail valiantly against that Djorkavic chap and then my team Manchester Utd lost against arch rivals Liverpool this afternoon in the FA Cup.

Better day all round away from the box and the settee that is gradually moulding itself to by resting position ..... its good to have my neighbours Pat & Clive back from Australia, they're both looking well and it'll be good to have someone to have a natter with and share a cuppa every now and again! Weatherwise, the gloomy skies seem to have departed giving rise to some brighter, albeit colder conditions outside and the ever increasing daylight hours are at least providing some hints of the Spring that's waiting to be sprung! This morning I saw a couple of Great Spotted Woodpeckers flying around together and what looked very much like courtship behaviour to me and this Nuthatch was singing at the top of a tree in the cold sunshine!

During a walk around some tracks near to the village of Pleasance yesterday(I was hoping to catch up with the Peregrine Falcon that got away a few days before!) and I stumbled on a church I hadn't seen before - such a typical French Church I had to snap it!

Finally, I've taken many pictures of the local Buzzards around here, and this is by no way the best, but there was something about  this one's purposeful and jaunty flight over the top of me that again had the hint of Spring about it ....  and I'll swear he was giving me the eye!

'Only if You're Lucky', sychronicity and a large water tower!

Yo my merry men, women, children and all animals alike!

I'm trying like a good 'un to inoculate myself from the dismal skies that seem to have descended upon rural France and have to admit to watching rather a lot of TV and sport of late .... been good though - thoroughly enjoyed seeing England take a bagful of Pakistani wickets in the 2nd Test in Dubai (about time!), super football match last night and hats off to Cardiff City for reaching the league cup final and of course Masterchef is as good as ever ... I think the young Asian girl (Raki?) will win.

Now before I sing another song for you, this is what it's like stepping out in the countryside at the moment  .... the other day, feeling somewhat dulled by the overcast weather I stealed myself to go out and take one, just one good photograph .. be good if it was a good bird, a stray fox, a nice looking bit of mossy bark even! This is all I could come up with - a water tower, albeit a fairly impressive one though don't you think?

I know, I could do better in terms of subject matter but us photographers need inspiration and LIGHT!


Right, on to some music. Here is a super little tune from Ryan Adams called 'If You're Lucky'. I'm just getting into the Adams after catching him on the Jools Holland show a while back and must say I'm mightily impressed. Bizarrely, whilst I was taking a break from committing this song to file I heard a snatch of the tune on TV ... backing track to a poignant scene on Holby City! Now I think there must be a word for that kind of coincidence .... synchronicity maybe or I think something German that I can't remember, anyway enough .... enjoy the track!

Grey is the New Blonde ... a song for middle aged lovers!

Much the same outside in the dank, damp countyside out there and as I speak it's drizzling and just not nice to be out in ... so nothing much doing out there! So I've been spending more time indoors recording songs (and watching TV ..... masters snooker and masterchef mainly!)

So here's another song for you. It's called 'Grey is the new blonde' by Henry Priestman (ex of the Christians) ... a great little tune for middle aged lovers! Enjoy!

TimboBaggins sings a couple of songs for you

Ok, as promised and finally uploaded, here are a couple of songs I do live now and again. The first is my version of an old John Sebastian (ex frontman of Lovin Spoonfull) song 'Stories we can tell' and then I do a more energetic tune by Tom Petty called 'Last DJ'.

Overall I'm pretty happy with how both songs have turned out, especially since I was fdeeling much less than 100% when I was recording them. I would have preferred a better recording sound and better quality video but the HD recording I attempted using my Canon 550D played back in slow motion!

See what you think anyway. The experience has certanly honed both songs in readiness for any forthcoming solo gigs and I'll be posting more over the next few weeks.

Martin Simpson

A very quick post because I'm definitely suffering the after effects of too much fine food and wine last night ...... why does Christmas always have to equal excess?!

My mum sent me some CDs in the post, some she thought I would like .... she picked well because one of them was by Martin Simpson, one of my favourite guitar players. Nice one mum!

Said I'd post one of his songs on here by way of thanks as I think she's tuning in today, so here he is performing 'Never any Good with Money'

Balloo - a short movie featuring mainly sticks and water!

Here he is again, by popular request, the canine star of the year, and this time he gets a short movie casting opportunity, its the one and only BALLOO!!!

Before you play this folks I have to say that this is not the short movie I had expected ...not withstanding that I am a very amateur film maker, I've had serious issues with windows movie maker and when I played it back it paused in the middle (missing one of the best bits .... aaargh!) but just fast fwd ok!

Born at the right time



I love this song, it could almost have been written about me ..... except I don't really get the whole fishing thing!

Thinking of covering it when I play my first solo gig next month

Common Crane migration over Le Macherie

The annual migration of Common Cranes from their breeding grounds in Northern Europe and Russia is a spectactular and symbolic event in these parts whether you're into birds or not. For me, newly installed in France, this has been the first time I've witnessed this mass movement and have to say it's been wonderful to see these mythical birds flying over in huge flocks as they head South to Spain, Portugal & Northern Africa.

The breeding population of Common Cranes is roughly 250,000 with around 100,000 of these in Scandinavia and the Baltic region - these are the birds that migrate through here and by my rough reckoning I've seen about 6000 over La Macherie between the 4th & 19th of November ... not bad going eh?!

Cranes are one of nature's mythical creatures and have been revered for centuries with their annual passing often seen as symbols of  'regeneration'. In Greek mythology they were seen as messengers from 'the world beyond the north wind' and the classic V formation of travelling flocks, with the practice of individual birds taking it turns to head the group seen as a symbol of democracy - all this will be common knowledge to followers of Hyperborean worship (of which there are said to be about 17 worldwide) ....but that apart I rather think the Greeks have rather more to contemplate these days, which is a shame.

Anyway, why not catch yourself some 21st century Hyperborean crane worship next time your anywhere near SW France in November. Just look up! Here's some I prepared earlier .... (shot 14th Nov just outside La Macherie)

And of course there were plenty of photo opportunities, here's a small selection I've manged to edit from the many I have on disk from this year's migration.

All passed through now (da da da der ah de da ..... arrived on yet another CraneAir flight delivered on time, beating all other european 'fly pasts' !!) .......been back in the UK for a week and since my return not a crane to be seen. No doubt I'll be recording their flight back come next March!