Travelling

Restless legs, I have.
Whether it's hopping on trains or driving around the UK to play gigs, wandering around London town, or travelling abroad to conferences, it's rare to send so much time at home.
Barnet is full of secret walks that have opened up in the past two months. Some of the pathways have been mowed by the council to make sure people remain distanced from each other. Others are more hidden; my house guest has searched them out and we have walked through woods, fields and grasslands that I never even knew existed, hemmed as they are by forbidden and forbidding golf courses.
A different isolated world; we are all living in different isolated worlds. How frustrating to think that this is all going to be prolonged by the actions of an irresponsible government advisor who hasn't got the integrity to resign.
At the beginning of this all, the mother of one of my daughter's friends died from Covid 19, before we were even locked down. We were already being careful; a trip to Edinburgh felt risky and we all but emptied a tube of hand sanitiser on the way back on the train.
Too little, too late: later that month, another bereavement happened which underlined just how out of touch the government were (and are).
Impatient and nagged at by their business funders, they are now pretending everything is all right.
It so isn't.
It is unbearable not to have seen my daughters for months, not to have been able to hug them and sit around a table and laugh with them. A screen is not real life.
I feel so much for the  people, who have lost loved ones, and we are all living with the fear that we are going to be next.

Dexter Bentley at Noon

Dexter Bentley is playing an hour' and a half's worth of one-minute tracks today at noon. I have contributed to the show, alongside lots of others including Spinmaster Plantpot, Lucina Sieger, Tigersonic, Jude Montague Armstrong and so many more!
Here's the playlist: it's well worth tuning in!
https://hellogoodbyeshow.com/2020/05/26/playlist-one-minute-wonders-2020/?fbclid=IwAR1t5-CGKhSOAWB6H4wlaRrySN4OSuTHZS8aChnwyCeWTho3b1pmHrTYvOI

Release for Domestic Violence Charities by the Women Composers Collective

https://womencomposerscollective.bandcamp.com/album/her-indoors?fbclid=IwAR0KR-f97p8ZSdMjVJsnhOar7q4jYnbT6r0Vg2F9IHcet4K2evtMtsOyWFM

This compilation is curated by Jude Cowan Montague, with help from Linear Obsessional recordings. We wanted to show our support for women in domestic violence and coercive control situations, especially now during lockdown where these situations are made worse.

This is my track:

Apple Blossom

Before reading the newspaper and getting upset by it and before jumping into the rage on social media, I want to write this because I want to remember it.
The smell of a neighbour's apple blossom drifting across out back yards and gardens in the cool of the early morning and the heat of the early evening....
I have never caught such a beautiful aroma in the air from apple blossom before.
Bossy jasmine, pushy lilac, sour elderflower; but not a tree that has always seemed more of a sturdy bearer of fruit than a scenter-of-entire neighbourhoods. Just to breathe it in, in these terrible and turbulent times.
Soon it will be over. The tree will become a useful provider again, but oh, such unexpected bliss!

Desperado Housewives Song

We did this over the last couple of weeks- a musical and lyrical collaboration with a video by Jude.
I hope you like it!
The Egyptian Goose is the star, obviously.

My Song About Truth And Lies

Durham Town

All Perfectly Logical

So you can go to visit your elderly parents if you have Coronavirus, but you can't if you don't.
I see.

Goosekele

A New Mrs White Goose

A new Mrs White Goose has arrived at the top pond- one with a fractured wing.
Could she be a present from a bird sanctuary? She could not have flown there.
Demure, she is walking round pecking the newly-mown grass, with Mr White Goose following her at a respectful social distance.
Meanwhile, there are still feathers from the deceased Mrs White Goose strewn about the grass away up on the common. It does seem a bit soon: geese mate for life, apparently.
But someone obviously thought he must be lonely, him and his hissy temper.

Further on, a Goose Van was parked so I knew I was right, and then I looked at the logo and felt like a fool.

It's All Go At The Pond

Right Chord Takeover Gig

This is from a couple of weeks ago. I'll post the video of yesterday's online gig soon; it was cut short by a Facebook update but I managed 19 minutes before that happened. Blooming' internet, eh?
Many thanks to Right Chord for putting me on their weekend bill!



More videos from the weekend here: https://www.rightchordmusic.co.uk/the-best-of-the-takeover-festival-presented-by-bose-in-support-of-nordoff-robbins/

Online Gig Tonight

This one is in aid of Gig Buddies, a Brighton charity who support people with learning disabilities so they can go to gigs with other music lovers. What a brilliant idea! I'm on at 8 p.m.
https://www.facebook.com/coronavirusfest/

Your Monday 'Song From The Kitchen'

Sliding Timetables

When there is no schedule, you wake up at random times.
The earliest so far has been 5.30 (mistaken for 6.30) and the latest, 10.30.
I'm driven from bed by a takeaway curry last night.
Something in curry causes my body to superheat and I don't want to be in bed with me.
The back yard was cool in temperature and ringing with birdsong; a little blue tit landed on the fence beside me before deciding that I was a dangerous prospect, and it whizzed off again.

I also had a thought that wouldn't go away (and yes, I had a nightmare about the Prime Minister again, but let's not go into that).
On a cookery show last night, a chef was being interviewed. He was absolutely dripping with sweat because of the heat in the kitchen. It was pouring off him.
'I like to put a bit of myself in every dish', he explained to the interviewer.
Hmmm.