Gardening
Update (did you know gardening is good for your soul?)
It’s been ages since I have written a blog about my music. I have recently had an epiphany and a bit of a breakthrough in my creative process... I almost don’t want to jinx it by talking about it, but I feel a big blog about it will happen soon. Anyway, feeling refreshed, I’ve starting writing music for saxophonist Lara James - some experimental tech-based things, along with some more traditional lyrical pieces. I’m really enjoying it so far.
Next week is Easter holidays and I have a feature length film I’ve been asked to do the music for. It’s called “My Brother’s Keeper” and it’s by filmmaker Lee Hutcheon. Years ago I contributed some music to his award winning feature “In a Man’s World”, and I’m excited to be working with him again. The film is about a soldier that comes back from Afghanistan a mental case, he ends up taking his brother hostage. Fun fun fun!
Other things I should have blogged about recently that I haven’t mentioned:
• Fitkin’s gig at Kings Place. Awesome gig, really inspiring in many ways. The gorgeous Ruth Wall on harp was absolutely mesmerising. Also, a highlight was hearing the composer perform all three parts of The Cone Gatherers for solo piano. Always a favourite of mine (I was so impressed I decided that I too wanted to play it live, so I ordered the score the next day). The only disappointment was the lack of technology, & the lack of real drum kit.... orchestra snares sound rubbish.
• Les Claypool at Koko. I went to this not knowing what to expect... maybe a bunch of Primus tunes? A nostalgic mosh to Tommy the Cat and My Name is Mud? I went along with Matt and we joked that since I dragged him along to see Fitkin’s show he could drag me out to see this.... In the end, the two shows were actually quite similar. Les is touring with a pair of classical percussionists and a cellist. It was intense... like a fusion of prog, jazz, hillbilly & classical music... heavily improvised around bass grooves, loads of technology on stage (loops, digital effects galore). Fantastic!
• Beach House/ Grizzly Bear at the Roundhouse. I had been looking forward to this gig for a long time, having recently gone crazy for Grizzly Bear’s “Veckatimest” (really, such an awesome record). Beach House I also loved dearly, I’m such a sucker for dreamy shoegaze music. A really magical night. I could write about it, but as always my mate Liz says it better here.
• I have tickets to Phil Glass’s premier of Violin Concerto No. 2 next month. *squeal*
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July Garden Update
23/07/09 15:21 Filed under: Personal
Mistakes, I’ve made a few... like planting all my veg in too close, not giving my mutant pumpkins enough room to “spread”, underestimating the power of a few small pansies which now threaten to take over. That flower to the left? Aubergine.
Last year I planted a Eucolyptus “shrubbery” and we all watched in amazement as it began reaching for the stars.... I somehow neglected to read the tag that says clearly if I do not prune often, it could become a tree, 20 odd foot high! Whoops. So this morning, a year and a half late, I gave it a good chop job. I also took the opportunity to get some progress photos. Click the “read more” link to see em...
Pansy-town can’t really afford many new residents.
a closer look...
a bit out of focus, but some baby tomatoes
Chilli flower
Clemantis corner is starting to scale the fence... maybe she’ll get there next year. :(
Our back yard view.
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We have hogs in the night
08/06/09 18:01 Filed under: Personal
Yes - another boring garden blog, which is really just pics of my early June garden, the strange local cat that has moved in with us and a family of hedgehogs that have built a home under the forsythia.
Fat bums hanging out of feeding bowls.
They all look the same, but there’s definitely at least 2 of them. We call them all “Bunk”.
This is the back door to Bunk’s house. You can kinda see them sleeping inside (well I could at the time, didn’t come out too good in the photo)
First strawbs
Marigolds are out :)
This is our part-time cat, we call him/her “McNulty”
Pansy-town is looking better populated these days.
Pumpkin update: I now realise that I totally planted these guys too close to each-other. oops.
Front door to Bunk’s house. He’s the one who messes up my mulch every night, as you can see here...
Pansy-town and pumpkin village.
View from the house.
This is the wicked BBQ Matt got for free from Gumtree. FREE!! :-o Apparently someone didn’t want to bother restoring it. It’s HUGE! 4 gas burners. Took us one day to sort it out - some people are too damn lazy.
May Garden Update..
25/05/09 14:27 Filed under: Personal
All my little babies are growing up! Since the last update it has been a dramatic and traumatic few weeks.
Due to some catastrophic wind conditions over the past month (our backyard is like a wind-tunnel and I have no idea why), we lost 3 baby pumpkin plants, a tomato plant, a few pansies, a lilly bulb that eroded and fell over, and a gooseberry plant that drowned in it’s own cloche.
I even mysteriously lost one of the three rhubarbs, it just disappeared. But those that survived the trials are established now and going strong.
This long weekend past I have been out there mulching my heart out. Hopefully this will stop the roots eroding in the high winds, and put an end to the local cats using my garden beds as a toilet. The whole garden is starting to look ace, I’ll take some pics of the whole thing once the mulching is done. This afternoon I’m going to plant out some marigolds and dahlias... then that’s it! The planting of the babies will be officially over.
Pumpkin flowers. I can taste the soup already.
Hard to tell what these are... but in the middle is the eggplant, and slightly to the left is the romano tomatoes. Some are still in cloches, I’m not risking it anymore, I tried to fight the wind tunnel before and I didn’t win.
Right - this is weird - last year I planted a strawberry patch in a sunny corner of the garden and over the winter completely forgot about it. When I go in to clear out the weeds I come across this - I don’t know if you can see it but it looks like there’s about 50 fruits on that dang thing. And the strawberry plants decided to branch out and have babies of their own, which I didn’t know about. Now I have about 25 of these plants, all covered in fruit. Crazy!
Baby pansy corner.
Awwer. My fave flower in the whole world. They remind me of little happy smiling faces.
That blank spot is the site of the mysterious disappearing rhubarb plants.
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Garden update
22/03/09 11:13 Filed under: Personal
I’ve been protecting these damn seedlings like a mad mother hen -- with such a fuss I sometimes scare myself!
Pumkins, eggplants, tomatoes. All a week old.
Spring blooms
My laughing gnome
outside, courgettes and garlic getting some sun. In the back some thyme and sage
There’s Matt consulting his precious DIY book. One wonders what schemes he plots this morning...
More quartet action coming up
Got another string arrangement to do for Monty (I worked for him previously on “Ballad of St Valentine”, there’s a clip on the audio page). The deal is if the recording session gets done early enough I may get some time with the players to record some new material for myself. My head is racing with ideas already, there wouldn’t be enough time in the world to record everything I’m thinking of right now. Got to narrow it down...
I see my name has been added to the Classical Composer’s Database. Definitely getting a kick out of seeing my name listed here alongside Sculthorpe and Brumby! Check it out, Ma! heh
On the weekend I got out into the garden and got my hands good n dirty. This summer I want it to be spectacular! And mostly edible. If the credit crunch kicks me down, at least I’ll have loads of courgettes and garlic to get us through for a few months. For the first time ever I am going to attempt growing pumpkins - the really big-arse kind. I might document my progress in this blog, why not, eh? Also starting from seed with rhubarb, gooseberries, black chilli, bell peppers, onion, romero tomatoes, more courgette and eggplant. Planted out a stack of garlic cloves too. When it’s all ready I’ll be able to make wicked antipasto. Mmmm.
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