Staying Calm

I'm not generally a nervous flyer but there have been times when I have consciously plugged in my headphones and listened to something soothing, usually when the crew have been told to strap themselves in quick!*  So when I can across a Spotify playlist called "Calming Music to Fly to", when reading this blog, I was interested enough to download the tracks and save them to my ipod.

After all, there are times when I need to be calm even though my feet are firmly on the ground!

What do you think?  Would this playlist calm you?

Someone like you - Adele

Orinoco Flow - Enya

Piano on the beach - Liborio Conti

Piano Concerto #21 - Mozart

Better Together - Jack Johnson

Pure Shores - All Saints

Buffalo Soldiers - Bob Marley and the Wailers

Scar Tissue - Red Hot Chili Peppers

Paradise - Coldplay

As I lay me down - Sophie B Hawkins

Inside Out - Britney Spears

Ignition - R. Kelly

Flaws and All - Beyonce

The Christmas Song - Nat King Cole

Space Oddity - David Bowie

Yes, it's rather an eclectic mix, isn't it?

* The most memorable flight was the one when the young member of the cabin crew was sitting facing us in her seat, strapped in through the heavy turbulence and crying!  (Not a British Airways flight, I hasten to add ;-)

Fun, from start to finish

That was my Friday.

Friends telephoned earlier in the week to ask if we'd like to join them for lunch and a demonstration of planting ideas for summer pots.  Finding that their idea fitted nicely with plans we already had in place for later in the day, we didn't hesitate; of course we were up for some fun!  It was a glorious morning as we drove through the Cotswolds to meet them for lunch at The Plough and being there a little early meant that we had time to slip into Daylesford for a loaf of bread (or two).  For some reason, I wasn't quite in photo mood, so you'll have to imagine the scenes here and there and simply believe me when I tell you about our great lunch.

From there, it's a shortish drive to Whichford  through a maze of narrow lanes which always demand utter reliance on the satnav.  The villages in this part of the country are lovely - thatch roof cottages, delightful country churches and the most stunning views across open fields and yes, it was one of those days when it was good to be alive and able to appreciate just being here.

The demonstration was by Derry Watkins of Special Plants.  Being neither passionate about plants or very knowledgeable about any aspect of gardening, my hero and I loved her presentation. Surely it must have been as fascinating for those around us who did know about these things as it was for us, who didn't!  suffice to say, Derry inspired us to bring home a few plants for our pots and to make a special effort this year to be a little more imaginative than we usually are!

Needless to say, the pots in the Whichford garden were extraordinarily lovely and the tulips absolutely amazing.  After a cup of tea in the midst of these beauties, we left our friends perusing the pots and my hero and I headed northwards, towards Birmingham.

We had tickets and our favourite seats awaited us in Symphony Hall.

On the programme were two Harold Lloyd Silent Classics - both with live accompaniment from the CBSO.  Carl Davis has composed music for a vast number of silent movies and last night was to be the premiere performance of his score for The Freshman .  There for this special occasion was none other than Harold Lloyd's granddaughter, Suzanne Lloyd.

First was High and Dizzy which was excruciating to watch at times, especially in the scene above where Harold walks drunkenly along that narrow ledge.  Especially interesting was that Suzanne Lloyd had explained before the film began, that the heroine was none other than her Grandmother, Mildred Davis.  Imagine being able to watch your Grandparents walking along that high ledge like that!

The second film, The Freshman tells the story of "a collegiate patsy who finds love and unwittingly becomes a football hero".  I found this one rather more difficult to watch since it's a comedy of embarrassment from beginning to end and though of course all works out well, there are some awkward moments!

We left Birmingham just gone 10pm as things were just kicking off in Broad Street.  The NAHT (Headteachers) conference was on at the Convention Centre and as we drove home, I wondered if those tight knit little groups who'd been having deep and meaningful conversations outside Starbucks earlier were now dancing the night away...

Buds and blooms

A couple of patches of Lily of the Valley in the garden have struggled on, through wind, rain and the occasional house painter's ladder.  The original clump came from my parents' garden up in East Yorkshire and whenever I catch the scent of these sweet little flowers, the inevitable memories spring into my mind.  I love them and can never believe how such a tiny flower can exude such a rich and heady scent.

There weren't enough of them to fill a second vase though, so I cut a few of these blue cornflowers too. 

Thinking I'd take a second photograph on a non-reflective background, I was surprised at the difference in the intensity of the dark purple in particular.  Dear me, this photography lark demands a great deal of thought, doesn't it!?

Earlier in the day, stopping by the supermarket to buy milk, I caught the spicy scent of the first of the stocks and couldn't resist buying a bunch.  When I got them home, though, I found there were four stems in the package - so my vase has either a clump of flowers to one side, or "one in each corner".

How strange to package flowers in a bunch of four.

Loose ends

I've bought a few of these Moleskine Messages notebooks recently, thinking that they'd make a great idea for a small gift, or replace the traditional postcard.  I'd taken one of them to Stockholm with me, thinking that it might be the ideal journal for this short jaunt.

I even scribbled in one over lunch in the middle of the cherry blossom last Tuesday.  But, time was short and I never got round to adding any colour, ephemera or anything else.

Shortly afterwards,  browsing the books in the NK store, I came across this one and my mind began to work.  I took more photographs than usual, thinking that I might have a go at a kind of collage, inspired by those in the book,

Well, of course, mine would be created digitally, rather than with scissors and glue.

Anyway, I've been tying up those loose ends, gathering the ephemera and sorting through the photographs.  I began by opening the individual photographs and editing a large collage in Photoshop but soon thought better of that and allowed Picasa to do it automatically for me!

My mind works slowly, so it wasn't until today that I hit upon the idea of creating my own "messages" style journal, drawing the design in my Silhouette software and cutting the shape with the machine.  In no time at all, it was done and I could enjoy the fun bit of filling it up with all the bits and pieces.

Rather than glue the photograph collages into the book, I printed them out as pages to include in the book.  I'd already sized them to Moleskine proportions.

I'm always aware of these events being recorded in so many different ways - I blog, there's the photographic record in Picasa, there's my Project Life pages, my scribblings in my notebook and now, there's a little journal as well!  So, I try to record different things in each, but it's inevitable that I end up repeating myself.  And in a short trip such as this, there are only a handful of themes: in this case, the journey and hotel, the food, the city, the ABBA museum and the Vasa.  Oh, and a bit of shopping ;-)

I didn't intend to post this one to anyone, but thought the flaps were a great way of keeping everything contained.  After all, when I cram lots of stuff into a few small pages, there's sometimes a danger of some of it coming adrift.

I used my sewing machine to stitch the pages together and then glued in the cuttings or used a bit of washi tape to create an extra page or two from them.

Yes, of course there's a map, showing off the fact that I can still do the Turkish Map Fold and there are a few strips of my favourite Moomin washi tape which I bought in Osaka, but hadn't found a place to use it until now.

I had a cherry blossom sticker which I thought I'd use (even though it doesn't really fit) and wrapped a yellow ribbon around to keep the whole thing closed.  I packs up quite neatly and is all comfortably enclosed.

I'm really pleased with the end result and will add it to my repertoire of journal designs for using in a variety of situation.

It's fun to sort through the bits and pieces from our little jaunt, but even better, to step outside into the garden here at home and discover that Stockholm doesn't have the monopoly on beautiful blossom.  The apple tree in the garden here is looking lovely this weekend, and if I can manage to step outside in the five minutes between the torrential rain and hail showers, I might even manage to capture the blue sky too!

Cloudy with a chance of...

Meatballs with lingonberries, pickled cucumber and potatoes.