Edition 13 Monday 22nd June 2020 Welcome to the Thirteenth Edition of our Newsletter No, I am not superstitious! I hope you are enjoying our newsletters, it is so good to know that they are being shared with family and friends around the world! Please let me know if there are any features you would like to see and any ideas you may have for future editions. Gardening seems to be the theme at the moment so let’s hope the weather bucks up and we have a glorious summer! Now we are moving into the second phase of the reduction in restrictions of lockdown, I hope some of you are meeting up with family and friends – observing social distancing of course! I would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has contributed to this issue and please don’t forget to send in any articles, jokes, recipes, interesting news or anything you think might be of interest to other members – especially any tips on keeping busy or any community news. Please send any contributions to Karen: [email protected] 1 Music in Our Time This is a regular item so if you have a relevant piece of music which reflects either the season , an event or our wonderful land, please email [email protected] Music Inspired by Roses by Alan Malloy Whether you have a garden, patio or you simply enjoy walking in the countryside, flowers, be they cultivated or growing wild are an absolute joy, particularly at this time of the year. For me, roses are the ultimate flower. I must say that I’m reluctant to buy a rose if it isn’t fragrant, never mind how beautiful the flowers look. The fragrance of some roses really is ‘the bouquet of paradise’. ‘My love is like a red, red rose’ Many songs have been written about love and roses, none better than the one by our own national poet, Robert Burns. I find this song particularly moving. This version is beautifully sung by Nicky Spence. Nicky was born and raised in Dumfries, and now regularly sings with English National Opera and opera companies abroad. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VSuN2eyui3k ‘Roses of Picardy ’ ‘Roses of Picardy’ was one of the most popular songs of the First World War. Picardy is an historical province in France. Here, the Somme battlefields are located, where some of the fiercest fighting of the First World War took place. This song became popular with British soldiers on their way to France. Interestingly, it helped soldiers suffering from ‘shell-shock’ - post-traumatic stress disorder - to regain their speech. This version is sung by Count John McCormack - the wonderful Irish tenor, whose parents both came from Galashiels. Apologies for the quality of this old recording. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myOIkKuhCO0 ‘La Vie En Rose’. The title literally means ‘life in pink’ but more colloquially ‘seeing life though rose-coloured spectacles’. The song is about love: the love of a woman for a man, in which she says that the man she loves makes her happy with everything he does for her. When she is with him, she can’t be unhappy. What a wonderful sentiment. Sung by of course by Edith Piaf, ‘The Little Sparrow’, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFzViYkZAz4 Rose Adagio from The Sleeping Beauty. Tchaikovsky was commissioned to write the score for this ballet, in which he used a number of texts, most notably, those of the Brothers Grimm. We all know the story of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ who is poisoned and falls into a long sleep, only to be awoken by a handsome prince. The rose adagio is so named because four suitors dance with Princess Aurora (Sleeping Beauty), and each hand her a rose. In this clip, Darcy Bussell effortlessly copes with the demands of this technically very difficult piece, staying ‘on pointe’ throughout, while pirouetting and dancing with each suitor. Watch this if you can. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoHuTUo6_l4 2 Karen’s Crafty Corner Please remember to send in your craft ideas!! Yarn Butterflies These are fun and easy to make and would be a great project to do with grandchildren! Here are the materials you will Instructions: need: Take two lollypop stick and form a cross. Wind the Any leftover wool wool around and around, crossing over so that the wool holds the sticks in place securely (picture 1). Pipe cleaners Lollypop sticks Wind the wool up the sticks until you come to the Scissor gap. Then switch to a figure 8 pattern (picture 2). Beads When you get to the end of the sticks either thread the wool back through or just tuck it in. thread the wool back through (picture 3). Repeat the same pattern on the other side of the sticks (picture 4). Trim the ends of the wool (picture 5). Bend the pipe cleaner in half – if you have a shorter pipe cleaner use two and wind the ends together (picture 6). Add a couple of beads to the end of the pipe cleaner (picture 7). Slot the butterfly between the two lengths of the pipe cleaner, twist the ends and add a bead for the head. 3 Fold over the end of the sticks to form antennae (picture 8) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 4 Each week we will be publishing a member’s Desert Island Disc choices This week it’s Yvonne MacDonald’s selection Some songs take you right back to a particular place and time and ‘Without You’ by Harry Nilsson takes me right back to being 16 and having to part from my first serious boyfriend for the summer as we were going away and I was not allowed (quite rightly) to stay at home on my own. One of the joys of living in Edinburgh is the annual lunacy that is the Festival and in particular, the end of the Festival Fireworks. Watching the fireworks explode in time with ‘Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture’ is a really amazing experience and one I will miss. Some people say ‘Flower of Scotland’ should be our national anthem but ‘Caledonia’ by Dougie Maclean is more thoughtful and meaningful for me. I'm very lucky to have known my best friend for 44 years and ‘Army’ by Ellie Goulding resonates with both of us as we've stuck together through thick and thin. In particular, caravans featured in our early friendship and my friend has one now. For something to put a smile on your face and get the circulation going you can't beat ‘Happy’ by Pharrell Williams. I grew up with Jimmy Shand and his band on a regular basis so ‘Don't Sit on My Jimmy Shands’ by the not normally so light hearted Richard Thompson just makes me giggle - especially since 'you just can't get the shellac since the war'! Something else to get the circulation going (which you need on a desert island!) is ‘Loch Lomond’ by Runrig - really good for a wee bop around! Finally, something for the strange times that we're living in – ‘The Sound of Silence’, the Pentatonix version - particularly haunting and rather beautiful. A book to keep me company? ‘The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse’ by Charlie Mackesy - it's a lovely book to dip into. I'm very fond of the Mole and his love of cake - something I can identify with! . Oh, the heady The song I would save from the waves is ‘Without You’ by Harry Nilsson days of youth! Finally, my luxury would be a good camping stove - if I'm going to have to eat fish, I at least want it cooked - raw fish is a total anathema to me! 5 Letters to the Editor Hello Karen What a wonderful album and happy event for John’s 100th Birthday. Well done you & your team. It was lovely to have a little peep at Franca’s delightful garden. My poppy this year has flourished most profusely with over 70 buds now coming into bloom. Think the garden is responding to a little extra care and attention due to Covid19. With thanks for your astonishing magazine. Best of Wishes Jean (Cheyne) Jean sent in this beautiful photo of her poppies Dear Karen, Thought I'd let you know that the poem about Lockdown raised a good laugh a long way away in Sidcup Kent. I sent a copy to a friend in a retirement block there and all her friends The ‘Old Girls’ as she calls them enjoyed it. The Manager copied it and put it on the newsboard for others to see it and gave her a copy to send to a friend in Australia who also had a laugh. Needed these days. Thanks for all your efforts. Best wishes. Jean (Griffiths) Have you got some news you would like to share or are there features in the newsletter you particularly enjoy or maybe those that you don’t! I am hoping many members will use this page to keep in touch and let us all know how they are getting on, 6 An email to the Editor! A few days ago I received the following email from Andrew Bullen who is the secretary of Scunthorpe & District U3A. I thought it would be nice to share it with you Good morning Karen, I have been reading your newsletters for while now and am rather impressed that you manage to gather so much material for them. I was looking at other U3As to see what they were doing during lock-down hoping for some new ideas.