Bat!

I spotted this last night clinging to the outside of Scargill next to the drying room - it makes up a bit for the glowworms we didn't find (and the midges who found us) a couple of nights ago!

All of the above!

Sounds like a bargain - at least for the pedants amongst us - though it didn't include their delicious brandysnap baskets. From the Racehorses in Kettlewell's menu

Teaser Tuesday - 29 June

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

Straight and GLBT people alike can look at Sodom and Gomorrah for what they were, as mentioned in Ezekiel: arrogant, overfed, unconcerned, haughty, detestable and all in all inhospitable. But the greater point that Jesus made to his disciples as he elevated the Sodom and Gomorrah story was that regardless of what the people of Sodom did, nothing was more tragic than a person turning her back on Almighty God to yearn for things manmade.

(on Lot's wife) from Andrew Marin's Love is an Orientation - link is to suem's review.

Up on the Estate

DSCF8155
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

Just had a quiet walk on the estate - there seemed to be some folk getting excited in the Marsh Lounge. Lots of butterflies and moths, go here for a chimney sweeper moth photo (at the end of the set).

Mutterings - 27 June

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Collectors :: Butterfly
2. Passion :: Fruit
3. Winner :: Michael (sorry!)
4. Uninhibited :: Free
5. Challenge :: Competition
6. Self :: Absorbed
7. Your :: My
8. Viewer :: Perspective
9. Random :: Kindness (acts of)
10. Vice :: Screw (that's a workbench tool connection!!)

Across to the wardenage

Across to the wardenage
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

(or should that be di-rectory?) We're caretaking for a few days at Scargill again. Sitting in the sun-lounge and watching the sun set behind Knipe Scar. We have done some work! but the evening vistas are so special.

Cones

Well a bit more than cones but this is the view from west of Cramlington where I've been staying this week. Industrial but with wide open spaces just outside the town!

Teaser Tuesday - 22 June

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

This is again from our latest book group (BATS) book:

`it will be purgatory anyway.' He began sobbing again, but my head was swimming, I was too weak to call out any more, and I crawled back to my stinking mattress.

From C J Sansom's Dissolution.

Mutterings - 20 June

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Executive :: suite
2. Director :: yes-man (let's not go there)
3. Dress :: code
4. Studio :: flat
5. Accountant :: money-man
6. Unit :: test (IT terminology)
7. Engaged :: Hired
8. Safety :: First
9. Post :: Horn
10. Dialogue :: des Carmelites (opera by Poulenc)

How to be ignored

.. what twitter is for. For a suitable fee, I'll ignore you too!

Sunset and White Nancy

Sunset and White Nancy
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

And last night we had another Summer Walk in perfect conditions. This was in the Rainow area, passing through Ingersley vale and ending up at the Robin Hood pub in Rainow. On getting back to Rainow we were greeted with this splendid sunset. White Nancy is the conical monument on the hill (Kerridge Hill) on the left of the picture. A couple more pictures from the evening are on flickr where this picture is hosted.

Piano Diploma Programme thoughts

Over the past few weeks I've been thinking about entering the ABSRM Piano Diploma exam which has as its main component, a 35 minute recital (with programme notes!). There's a long list of repertoire to choose from but you can choose up to seven minutes of your own selection. At the moment the recital looks like this:

• Scarlatti Sonatas in C K308 and K309
• Ravel Sonatine
• Messiaen Vingt Regards No 2
• Mompou Musica Callada XIII
• Chopin Mazurka C# minor Op 50 No 3
• Brahms Op 116 No 2 A minor
• Beethoven Bagatelle b minor Op 126

I like this there's a split between Spanish/Gallic and the more Germanic styles, from major to minor, there's a central hunk of Catholic mysticism and the Beethoven acts a bit like an encore. The Scarlatti Sonatas are very simple, at least in mood and would play me in nicely so the flashy Ravel acts as a good counterbalance. The Mompou and Beethoven are my own choices. It's a mite under 35 minutes. I've put this programme on Spotify and if you have that installed you can listen here - not played by me!
The only snag at the moment (so far!!) is whether the Ravel Sonatine (especially the last movement) is too ambitious, I'll give it a try but I'm wondering about a fall back position which replaces the Ravel with the Debussy Sarabande from the suite Pour le Piano, which I was already working on and (to keep some sort of classical/modern sonata and to prevent it becoming too bitty) inserts either the Beethoven Op 90 or 54 before the final item - needs further thought by me especially as it would then be pushing towards the time limit but reactions, here, are very welcome!

Two Lampposts

Two Macclesfield lampposts, I'd been thinking of one of these for the Barnaby photo competition - particularly the 108 steps photo but the bin was just too unwanted and went for a view from the other direction! Lots on Barnaby on the Loop blog but this is the official site.

Teaser Tuesday - 15 June

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

This is from our latest book group (BATS) book:

'So the kitchen is normally locked at night?'
He nodded. 'Yes, to stop the monks and servants helping themselves.'

From C J Sansom's Dissolution. Some questions about historical accuracy so far, and I'm pretty certain the Great Bible wouldn't have been around in 1537, but early days yet..

Cat in a basket

Cat in a basket
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

Not had a cat picture for a bit- so here combining gardening and cats is Hecate monopolising the clippings basket. If you follow this picture to flickr there's another of her obstructing the actual clippings.

Mutterings - 13 June

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Offense :: Criminal
2. Bench :: Judge's
3. Kissing :: Gate
4. Timely :: Rescue
5. Yellow :: Belly
6. Get up and go :: ..has gone
7. Beer :: drink
8. Calories :: not a problem!
9. Blast :: Icy
10. Window :: on the world

The garden again

DSCF8137
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

Fairly grey day but lightened by the wonderful display of lupins, clematis etc., more pictures in the flickr set

Sun and Bosley Cloud

Sun and Bosley Cloud
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

Last night was walk number 5 - still no rain - on Gun Hill near Rushton Spencer - the sky threatened but the rain held off! The Flickr album has been updated.

Compromise agreements

A view from a receiver. Now that it's over 6 months from my enforced exit from my ex-company, let me put something down about my views on compromise agreements in the hope that it might help others who get one of these pushed at them. I shall need to be careful in what I write here but I believe it to be important that various views are out there. This should, of course, not be taken as legal advice - as part of considering a compromise agreement you will need to get that anyway - it is purely a personal view and might well contain issues you might wish, if you are in a similar situation, to take up as part of your own legal discussions.

• A compromise agreement is a document signed by both the employer and employee whereby the employee gives up rights to take any recourse to employment tribunals.
• There are normally confidentiality clauses in the agreement restricting what can be said to third parties about the terms of the agreement and indeed whether the existence of the agreement is confidential.
• The company will seek to get the compromise agreement signed between any redundancy announcement and your moving elsewhere. This is likely to put you under pressure, you need to take a long hard look at the terms. My view is that if you feel you have a good case in front of an Employment Tribunal you should be reluctant to sign the agreement in view of the, likely, restrictive terms. I wanted to get past this and 'get on with my life' believing that I was soon to find alternative employment. If you don't have an early return to work the terms of the agreement may make it difficult for you to discuss your situation with (for example) job counsellors.
• The compromise agreement may enable your ex-company to ignore any bits of the relevant legislation which they have not already flouted - I suppose it depends upon your view of that and how much you trust your ex-employers.
• As stated above, legal advice is a requirement for signing one of these, take your time with that, your ex-employers should be paying and you need to explore all options.
• You need to look seriously at the payment your ex-employer is proposing to make and compare it (for example) with the legal fees they are stumping up to get the compromise agreement through. Are you worth more than however many hours of lawyers time your payment amounts to?

Teaser Tuesday - 8 June

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

When Bertie was gone, Beulah touched the bony knob on her wrist. Styloid process, she said the words over and over again that night when she was going to sleep. She imagined Joe taking her temperature.

Playing Doctors and Nurses in a strict Protestant sect in Eire from Martina Evans 'no drinking no dancing no doctors'. This is a re-read so it comes with that recommendation!

Mutterings - 6 June

This week's free word associations from Unconscious mutterings are:

1. Group :: Abelian (oh, the power of mathematics), also sex (lets not go there!)
2. Pollution :: Smoke
3. Getaway :: Run (Clean)
4. Mail :: Stamp
5. Believe :: Trust
6. Chimney :: Sweep
7. Curses :: Swears (libcurses was also trying to be heard for Linux/IT people)
8. Contrite :: Penitent
9. Eyelash :: False
10. Jobs :: Steve

Garden June 2010

Garden June 2010
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

Took this picture of our back garden today where Beth has been very busy over the last twelve months! Just for a comparison this is how it was in June 2009.

..I've got a tricky blogpost I'm working on and this is probably delaying tactics...

Heading down to Wildboarclough

Heading down to Wildboarclough
Originally uploaded by rajmarshall

This was Thursday evening walk 4 which started from the Cat and Fiddle on the Buxton road, headed down to Wildboarclough and then to the Stanley Arms. The flickr set has been updated.

Contemplation and Music

Via the Silence email list - accessible at gmane.music.john-cage

Instead Cage's work offers us the invitation to see the world as a blessing. And that is surely the first step towards making it whole. Cage suggests that viewed properly each movement we make is part of a dance, each breath the catch of a song, each thing we see a thing of wondrous beauty. If we understand the world's beauty how could do anything but cherish it? As Cage himself would say, "Everyday is a beautiful day." Let us make it so.

from a sermon, more about Cage than faith but lots on spirituality, well worth the read IMHO.

And for something completely different!

Also on that obituary page last week (for Anneliese Rothenberger I referenced in my last post) in the Guardian was that for Edoardo Sanguineti. My knowledge of Italian avant garde poets and playwrights is a bit limited but his name rang a bell and I read on. I got to the mention of Laborintus and light dawned! He had a long working relationship with Luciano Berio providing various libretti for him. Here's a video of part of one of those works Laborintus 2 completed in 1965, a wonderfully wild piece - do stay for the really unhinged bit from around 5' to the end!

Unfortunately no subtitles and some Italian might help! There's a recording of this on a short Harmonia Mundi release (at least there was when I bought it!)

Sophie!

Anneliese Rothenberger who sings the role of Sophie in this production of Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier died last week. This is the presentation of the Silver Rose:

Just wait for those stratospheric soprano lines tearing at the emotions - and the unforgettable orchestration. Handkerchiefs to the fore - not least on stage!
I'd missed this obituary and had to recover the newspaper last night after spotting a followup letter yesterday.
The film has German subtitles - if you really want the version with English then you need to go here - the film is 10 minutes but, for me, 10 minutes to be treasured. All the alternate emotion and control of the young Sophie just out of convent school.

Teaser Tuesday - 1 June

Teaser Tuesday
The rules are:

• Grab your current read.
• Let the book fall open to a random page.
• Share with us two (2) 'teaser' sentences from that page, somewhere between lines 7 and 12.
• You also need to share the title and author of the book that you’re getting your 'teaser' from .. that way people can have some great book recommendations if they like the teaser you've given!

I was searching the plain, riding with two horses,
In the stony fields east of the post-station, on a bank where bamboos sprouted,
After long winds and brief daylights, beneath the dreary stars,
Dampened by a black flag of cloud which hung in the empty night.

To right to left, in the air, in the earth, ghosts shrieked from wasted flesh.
The curds drained from my upturned jar, mutton victuals were my sacrifice.
Insects settled, the wild geese swooned, the buds were blight reddened on the reeds,
The whirlwind was my escort, puffing sinister fires.

A bit of a departure - this is part of the poem An Arrowhead from the ancient Battlefield of Ch'ang-p'ing by Li Po in the translation of A C Graham