Arabian nights...?

A night-time view of the Birdcage Bandstand on Brighton seafront. 

Recently renovated from a rusty edifice to this glorious blue, its tiled floor is just asking to be danced on! When I moved to Brighton in 1986 I used to live in the street that led down to this place, and it was used as a bandstand at the time. In 1990 a Breton band - Ti Jaz (their blog) - played here, on a "Small and Beautiful Places" tour of the UK,  and we all did snaking Hanter Dros and other folkdances along the seafront underneath it. Then it was left to crumble gradually, and in 2009 the renovation happened. Thanks! 

Rondeau de Marsan, with Dani Detammaeker

Well, we're all on the right foot... that is, the correct foot! Saturday's Gascon dance workshop, with Dani from Toulouse, was amazing. His style, his clear teaching, his sense of fun, his lightness! Fantastic Rondeaux and the Carnaval de Lanz, with a touch of Branle, Mazurka and a quickie Fandango... In the evening the Bal aux Harmonicas dazzled! Along with Buzznicks and Mistral, it must be said, warmed up by Jeudi Matin. A wonderful reminder of how moving and engaging a good enthusiastic dance crowd can be... thanks to all Dansez Français-ers. (More photos & videos will be up on Flickr soon.)

Staying in bed is another benefit of retirement!

Ah, I'm just having a cup of tea and listening to Today. With the curtains open I can see the sun making its glowing way over the roof opposite, and the birds flying between trees. There's time to observe nature and it seems to be everywhere! They are just talking about it on the radio, we are on track to eliminate half the species on Earth, with a 2 million year recovery time. Even though I have the new South Downs Natural Park on the north edge of Brighton, on my immediate doorstep, Zone 1, is an urban natural world... the foxes, many garden birds, lambs lettuce growing in pavement cracks... I must get up!
11am: Then the next radio programme, Midweek, was all about this natural world thing too! Clive talking about his work as a forest ranger in Suffolk, and David Gentleman, famous painter of african elephants, musing too about the natural world outside your own window... what's Bill Mollison's phrase about "the change starts at your back door"? Go to it, people!

Oooooh, what a feeling!

Sowing seeds for food, in the sunshine, in a bed of soft friable soil. This is the "nursery" - Italian spinach, leeks, American land cress (like watercress), spring onions, cornflowers, marigolds, nigella, mangetout peas... hope it's not too early! Just as Chris Wood sings "we're watching the spuds chittin'..." Whilst at home, in the warm, there's tomatoes of all sizes and colours, beans, purple basil, more flowers...
Now there's time to spend a few hours looking after these things in the daylight, rather than squeezing it in after a long working day, maybe this is where semi-retirement comes into its own. Longer days to come, light evenings after next weekend... come, pumpkins, get a move on!

Starlings swoop...

The beginning of sundown in Brighton, on the Equinox, the starlings wheel and spin and dance their crowded ballroom capers, taking the eye along with the shapeshifting mass. Since most of the West Pier has gone, they now swoop and chatter above the other pier, the one with the noise of pinballs, screams from the Ghost Train, the whoops from the helter skelter. A better place to join the human race? I haven't really watched them as avidly before, I wonder if they stay up all night as the longest day approaches?
My friend Rose, who I realise must be 80 in a few days time, says that the secret of retirement is to keep moving...

Spring Tide at Brighton

Last year March's low tide had a feel of summer about it, and the waters receded to reveal what an amazing sculpture the remains of the West Pier is. This little photo was taken by Anni Agnise, and adorns the March page of Brighton's own calendar Brighton Photography
My photo is of the West Pier last Saturday at about 5 o'clock, with the sun going down behind it, gunmetal blue sea and pale contrails, the glow across the water. Earlier this week I composed a poetic blog about it, mesmerised by the colours of the sky, the textures of the sea, the strangeness of the nazca-like lines in the sky... then lost it before publication, as I tried to upload the photo on my phone!
Living here in Brighton has the distinct advantage of a shifting viewscape... never the same, even if it's only the push of the pebbles into different spaces on the shoreline. Who needs telly?
Tomorrow the Spring Equinox happens at about the same time...

Meanwhile, in the south of france...

A WHITEOUT ON THE CATALAN COAST
CROISIERE BLANCHE SUR LE LITTORAL CATALAN


The  Pyrénées Orientales (Eastern Pyrenees), one of the most sunny departments of France, put on an incongruous show last Monday (11th) of palm trees bending under the weight of snow, and the coastline covered with 30 cm.  Bus and lorry traffic was banned on both sides of the A9 motorway, cars could go on one lane each way and only in convoy. On the national route 116 inland, heavy goods were banned and cars had to use chains starting at Bouleternère (my place is 5 km further up the valley). At the airport (Rivesaltes) flights were suspended through lack of visibility. The Little Yellow Train was stopped! Links: On the Traine Jaune
 ...or not!
Les Pyrénées-Orientales, un des départements les plus
ensoleillés de France, offrait ce lundi le spectacle incongru de palmiers croulant sous la neige, et le littoral recouvert de 30 centimètres de neige était sous la menace d'un coup de mer. Sur l'A9, circulation interdite dans les deux sens des autocars et poids lourds, circulation autorisée des véhicules légers (VL) sur une voie et en convoi, dans les deux sens. Sur la RN 116, poids lourds interdits et équipements spéciaux obligatoires pour les VL à partir de Bouleternère. A l'aéroport, les vols aussi sont suspendus pour manque de visibilité. 

Video de lindependant

Garden like....?

I never knew this was by Mark Twain, but I guess if the Wednesday Wave man Tim says it's so, then it is!
Dance like no one is watching
Sing like no one is listening
Love like you’ve never been hurt before
And live like it’s heaven on earth

I wonder what  Garden like.....  
would be?


Spring appears to be on its way, according to my friends ;-)

This is a barefaced way of trying to get some Comments to my blog!

Another look at the dew pond

Today there was a keen wind, and even at 11.30am in full sun, the ice was still on the pond. The clouds are possibly cumulonimbus capillatus, but also might be a lumpier form of cirrus fibratus; whatever it is it's cold up there! Last week's clouds, below, were fluffy cottonwool cumulus. Thanks to the Cloud Appreciation Society little pocket-sized Handbook (Gavin Pretor-Pinney) and website for this info - I was given the book for Christmas and it goes out with me for just such nerdy study!
It feels like spring is really on its way... yesterday I pruned lilac trees,  mended fences & trellis, planted raspberries into my embryonic forest garden (as understorey plants), and put up a new little greenhouse. Tomato seedlings are sitting on my windowsill. Other seeds are queuing to get out of their packets!
Kruspolska: one of my favourite tunes, played here by my walking companion, Mandy, and Ben & Kevin, at the Royal Oak Folk Club, Lewes, UK.

South Downs Way dewpond

above Ditchling Beacon, on the way to Jack & Jill windmills, today