"We'll Gather Lilacs"

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Last week, when I was putting this 'post' together, I remembered that years ago I had done 'small drawings' of places around this area. I went up in attic room to search around and found a whole folder of drawings and so got side-tracked into the "Sitting Outside Pubs" post.

So now back to what I initially intended.

Littlewick Green - Berkshire.

Littlewick Green’s most famous resident was a composer, actor, film star and man of the theatre.

He was Ivor Novello, one of the most talented men of 20th century British theatre, and from November 1927 until his early death in 1951 his country house was 'Redroofs' at Littlewick Green.

The village is set just off the main Bath Road two miles west of Maidenhead and has a certain charm, with many of its cottages and houses set around a sizable green, with the pub, school and parish church completing the picture.

Born in Cardiff in 1893, Ivor Novello was wealthy and a household name at 21, thanks to his First World War song ‘Keep the Home Fires Burning’.

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Novello went on to compose many other songs and a string of musicals that dominated British musical theatre.

A combination of film acting with writing and starring in his own plays, Novello blazed across the West End scene throughout the 20s and 30s, and his ‘The Dancing Years’ was the hit British musical of the Second World War.

I found out that he bought this house at Littlewick Green in 1927, by demanding a fee that matched the asking price, to appear in the film ‘The Constant Nymph’.

The house, Munro Lodge, was rechristened Redroofs.

It had a small swimming pool and live-in staff, who were devoted to him; at Christmas time he ordered two hams, one for his guests and the other for his staff and their guests! Here at his “Court of Bohemia” he would hold countless weekend house parties for his friends from the world of the stage.

They became colourful regulars at The Cricketers and during the Second World War he put on shows at the village hall.

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The Cricketers - Littlewick Green

Other guests might include politicians such as Churchill or artists such as Picasso, who is reputed to have painted a picture of the house – present whereabouts unknown. Ivor’s song “We’ll Gather Lilacs” was inspired by the garden of “Redroofs” and local people often used to stop in the lane outside to listen to the music.

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Ivor Novello said of himself -

“I am not a highbrow. I am an entertainer.”

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“Empty seats and good opinions mead nothing to me…

I am an unrepentant sentimentalist.

I have always tried in everything that I have written

to appeal first to the heart.

Rightly or wrongly

I believe that the theatre is primarily a place of make-believe.”

His old house, ‘Redroofs’ is still there, but is now the home of the Redroofs Theatre School. This was established in London in 1947 but moved out to Littlwick Green in 1964.

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The way to keep Slugs off the Hostas

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The common frog, in spite of its name, is not common in many areas of Britain these days. In the intensively farmed countryside the frog has almost completely disappeared. Agricultural sprays, draining wetland habitats and filling-in small ponds that the frogs use as breeding sites, are the main reasons for the frogs’ decline.

However, here in my unpolluted ponds, I have, as every year, more frogs than I know what to do with. I was going to tell you how to cook them, but I think I have teased Kath enough for now.

I have seven ponds, two medium size and five smaller. They overflow into each other in a cascade (when the pump is turned on). The frogs only seem to leave spawn in the two larger ponds, so it probably something to do with the depth of water.

There was plenty of commotion in this pond in the Spring.

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At first the tadpoles eat the remaining egg gel from which they hatched. They then eat submerged vegetable matter whilst absorbing oxygen directly from the water using their gills (fish also use gills to extract oxygen from the water). As they grow in size, lungs will develop inside the tadpoles and they will then begin to visit the surface in order to breathe in some of their oxygen from the air. Eventually the diet becomes more carnivorous as the tadpole will start eating small invertebrates in the water and even each other.

The whole process of change - from tadpole to young frog – takes about 12 weeks

As I always have loads of spawn, I put some in a separate container to help ensure a few survive.

One February the ponds froze over and that must have killed off a lot.

Later on the Blackbirds sit on the rocks picking out the eggs!

It's a real struggle to become a tadpole.

Having a few in a container,

means I can photograph them more easily as well.

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A young frog, still with a tail. Taken last week.

And this weekend the little frogs all ready to go.

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Once they try to climb out, I catch them and release them into one of the smaller and shallower ponds. The pump will not be turned on for a few more weeks so that they get time to hop off.

The only noticeable difference from the adults is the size, the young froglets are about 1cm in length, compared to around 8cm for a fully grown adult. It will take three years for the young froglets to reach their full size. Of all the tadpoles that emerged from their gelatinous egg cases back in early March, only a very small proportion of them have actually made it to the stage of leaving the water. Most will have been eaten by other animals or succumbed to disease during the four month period of development in their freshwater habitat.

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On Sitting outside Pubs

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Many years ago (circa 1975) I used to be a member of CAMRA.

The Campaign for Real Ale.

CAMRA led one of the largest consumer revolutions of all times. It proved to the Brewers that not everyone wanted the characterless processed beers that at that time were being forced on the public. Here in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire were active groups producing their own local Good Beer Guides.

Well the word got round that I was a bit of an artist and the groups approached me to see if I could do some small 'Pen and Ink' drawing of some of the pubs. Not every pub, just a few to break up the pages and pages of listed pubs. There were about 400 in Berkshire.

So off I went to sit outside pubs in Berkshire and Buckinghamshire

and make a few sketches.

Well that is my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Click on picture to enlarge.

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The Elephant & Castle - Amersham

The results of my labours soon showed up in these little guides.

They were not of course meant to be proper pictures,

just a small illustration.

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The Old Five Bells - Burnham

The publishers wanted black and white drawings rather than photographs, or coloured pictures, in order to keep the costs down. This was way back in 1977.

Today, with all this computer technology, thing would be totally different of course.

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The Blackbird - Bagnor

I've just picked out a few here.

Mustn't bore you with dozens of pictures of pubs.

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The Chequers Inn - Wooburn Common

Some of the pubs, like the one above, started using my line drawings in the local press to advertise their restaurants.

One year CAMRA asked me to do a Christmas card drawing for them with a bit of snow.

I did not sit outside for this one!

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The Cricketers - Littlewick Green

It was done on 'Scraper-board' in the summer and the snow was added by scraping away more of the black backing.

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A sketch done on holiday in Cornwall - just for fun!

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PS Anyone spot that those Beer bottles are 30 years old?

A couple still have beer in them!

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"Coo, what a sight!"

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Chim chim-in-ey, chim chim-in-ey,

Chim chim cher-ee!

A sweep is as lucky, as lucky can be.

Chim chim-in-ey, chim chim-in-ey,

Chim chim cher-oo!

Good luck will rub off when he shakes 'ands with you.

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I spent the best part of yesterday morning clearing up soot from the lounge.

It is amazing how it floats all over the room. A quick 'finger test' showed that it had landed on virtually every flat surface in the room.

Now - what had caused this mess?

A flapping noise from somewhere up the chimney gave the answer.

A poor bird was stuck on a ledge half way up.

I put down dust covers on the floor and furniture, opened the 'French windows' and drew the curtains closed on all others. The plan was that he/she would fly out from where the light came from.

Went away and waited, Hoover in hand.

It must have been about ten minutes before the next bout of flapping started, but in a few seconds a poor sooty pigeon ended up in the hearth.

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I left him/her there to recover,

but another ten minutes passed and he/she was still there.

"Though I'm covered with soot From me 'ead to me toes

A sweep knows 'e's welcome Wherever 'e goes."

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"When the's 'ardly no day

Nor 'ardly no night

There's things 'alf in shadow

And 'alf way in light

On the roof tops of London

Coo, what a sight!"

Eventually I decided to get a bit closer and see if I could encourage him/her out.

Sure enough, and to my relief, out she/he went through the patio door and sat there on the slabs outside in the sun, blinking.

Of course all this commotion brought Hazel and Wesley onto the scene to investigate, but the pigeon decided it was definitely time for a bath!

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Ah, that's better!

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You Shake it All About.

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You put your left leg in

Your left leg out

In, out, in, out,

you shake it all about.

You do the Hokey Cokey and you turn around

That's what it's all about...

Wikipedia tells us:-

“The Hokey Cokey, Okey Cokey, Hokey Pokey, Hokey Tokey, or Cokey Cokey is a participation dance with a distinctive accompanying tune and lyric structure. It is well known in English-speaking countries. It is of unclear origin, with two main traditions having evolved in different parts of the world.”

The Hokey Cokey, as I have always called it, peaked in popularity as a music hall song and novelty dance in the mid-1940s in Britain and Ireland.

According to one account, in 1940, during the Blitz in London, a Canadian officer suggested to Al Tabor, a British bandleader of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s that he write a party song with actions similar to "Under the Spreading Chestnut Tree".

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You had to wave your arms around as per the instructions on the back.

The inspiration for the song's title, "The Hokey Cokey", that resulted, came from an ice cream vendor whom Al had heard as a boy, calling out "Hokey pokey penny a lump. Have a lick make you jump". He changed the name to "The Hokey Cokey" at the suggestion of the officer who said that 'hokey cokey', in Canada, meant 'crazy' and would sound better.

There is a claim of authorship by the British/Irish songwriter Jimmy Kennedy, responsible for the lyrics to popular songs such as the wartime “We're Going to Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried Line”

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and the children's song “Teddy Bears' Picnic.”

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Music by John Bratton & Lyrics by Jimmy Kennedy.

I don't have the sheet music for the Hokey Cokey (only in a book).

Sheet music copyrighted in 1942 and published by Campbell Connelly & Co Ltd, agents for Kennedy Music Co Ltd, styles the song as "the Cokey Cokey".

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Scrolls and Cherubs

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I have spent the best part of five weeks painting the scrolls on the organ front.

They have been in their white 'undercoat' now since April 2009. See here.

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The reason for the delay was that I just couldn't decide on what colours to finish them with.

There are so many combinations - some bright and very fairground, others more subdued.

I drew the shapes out on cards and tried dozens of combinations.

Here are just a few of my attempts.

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Some were too dark, some too light.

I got there eventually and then started on the organ front.

It needed a VERY steady hand. One slip and the paint went on the pale background.

I couldn't use masking tape as there were no straight lines, so everything was done free-hand.

And to make things worse, they needed two or three coats to get a good finish.

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So here is a picture of the finished thing

and a close-up of the cherubs at the centre top.

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I did cheat and buy the moulded cherubs - but painted them myself in the colours to match the scrolls.

I may add some gold lining to the scrolls later. I shall have to experiment on card as before in case I spoil the real thing!

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April 2011 ?

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An after-thought.......I forgot to screw the Lady Bell-ringers

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That looks better!

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"I'm Calling You, oo-oo, oo-oo-oo"

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I’ve been invited to a wedding.

No, that’s not strictly true.

I’ve been invited to two weddings, one in July and one in August.

OMG I have nothing to wear!

Since I’ve retired I have thrown out all ‘office’ clothes and ‘special do’ clothes and have spent the last seven years in ‘casual’ comfortable bliss.

Guess I’ll manage to come up with something. I saw some nice shirts in Thame market on Tuesday - £4 each or 3 for ten quid.

The July wedding is that of my niece, Rosemary - or I should say Dr Rosemary as she is now a qualified doctor.

I dug around in my heaps of music for “Oh Rosemary, (I love you)”,

only to find out that it was spelt “Rose Marie”!

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Oh, well, you can’t win them all!

Anyway, with the invitation, I was sent a John Lewis wedding list number, whatever that is?

So I set off up to a John Lewis store just off the M40 at Handy Cross, to investigate.

Well they had a fancy ’touch-screen’ machine into which I had to key the magic number, and, hey presto, out popped a print-out of all the goodies that Rose would welcome as a wedding present.

Well, this suited me down to the ground - look down the list, pick one, pay the nice lady for one, all over. How painless. No worry, no wrapping, no postage, no chance of her receiving fourteen toasters! Excellent.

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The romantic Musical, “Rose Marie” was a dramatic hit in 1924 with a staggering 557 performances on Broadway. Later, in 1925, it moved to London’s Theatre Royal in Drury Lane where it ran for two years.

The above picture is a poster for the production in France, where it had its largest success with a record breaking 1250 nights.

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The two most memorable songs from the show were of course “Oh Rose Marie I love you, I‘m always dreaming of you” and the “Indian Love Call”. The later being the piece with the “I’m Calling You, oo-oo… oo-oo-oo” refrain. I have the old 1924 sheet music to both of those. I have found that old music that survives all these years, always is of the popular tunes of the day. An ‘Edwardian Top of the Pops’.

Other pieces from the show included “Door of my Dreams”, “Pretty Things” and “Totem Tom-Tom”.

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Three Groans Today.

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As I was sorting through my sheet music files last week, I unearthed some very unusual titles.

What sort of blog could I use these on?

I know, I'll "kill two birds with one stone", as they say and get rid of some awful jokes out of my 'joke folder' at the same time.

So, for Foody's Christmas Crackers........

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Sherlock Holmes and his assistant Watson,

were investigating the murder of a

Spanish gentleman by the name of Juan Martinez.

“How do you think he was killed” said Watson.

“He was obviously shot by a golf gun” said Holmes.

“A golf gun?” said Watson. “What on earth’s a golf gun?”

“I don’t know” said Holmes, “but it’s sure made a hole in Juan.”

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Shop Assistant: “Can I be of any help madam?”

Lady Customer: “Yes, thank you. I’d like to try on that blue dress in the window.”

Shop assistant: “I’m very sorry madam,

but you will have to try it on in the fitting room like everyone else.”

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Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were feeling a bit cold

so one of them lit a small fire at one end to keep them warm.

Unfortunately it sank.

Which only goes to prove

that you can’t have your kayak and heat it!

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No rest for some of us!

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I have just remembered that I have 'comment moderation' turned on, for comments on posts over seven days old. (As poor Cherry Pie found out). I have been doing this as it is the only way of finding comments on older posts ( ie a couple of weeks old).

I thought Blogger might have given people the message that "it would be visible after the owners approval"?

Well, I have had a busy week. I may have given my typing finger a rest, but I have certainly been using all the other muscles and given my joints a good working.

The fence on the right hand side of the back garden was in need of repair after the strong winter winds. The problem was to get to it. There was an old Forsythia in the way. It just had to be cut back.

This year I treated myself to one of those 'Garden Mincers'.

2.2 horse power!

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I could have done with one of these years ago but I thought they were noisy, like the ones that tree surgeons use. But earlier this spring, over near Henley, I saw a chap take down an old shrub and feed it through this machine.

It was quiet.

It just gobbled up all this woody old shrub

and reduced it to chippings - quietly!

Must get one of those I thought - so I did.

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You can see how bad it was by the height and density of the 'hedge' on the left. It was the same height all the way down to the greenhouse!

I cut it back, fed it into my 'beast' and reduced an old overgrown Forsythia to three sacks of chippings.

That was on Monday - and do you know, that bush was sprouting again by Friday!

Further down the same side is an equally tall and dense 'Mock Orange' which will need to be 'topped'. As it is now in flower I shall leave it for another couple of weeks so that I can enjoy the blossom.

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A Gardener's Work is never done.

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555 Not Out.

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I am just so tired today.

It's going to be hot again and I'm never very active when it's hot.

When I signed on I noticed that I had posted 202 items

on 'Tracker-Bar'

and 352 items here on 'Monkey Organ'.

That's a total of 554 - but if you include todays -

it's all the fives - 555.

Gosh, what have I found to write about?

I do have a backlog of subjects, pictures, texts and ideas, but I regret to say they all need a lot of work to get them up and published.

You may have noticed that when I get like this you will find a 're-post' or I may pop up a few jokes.

Well, I'm a bit low on jokes and I did a re-post on Wednesday, so I'm going to have a little rest to get organised.

I didn't manage to get a holiday away last year - and the way things are at the moment, I still have no plans for one this year either.

I'm going to take a little break from posting,

to 're-charge my batteries' so to speak,

and get myself sorted out.

I'm still around.

See you soon.

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Just touch the Harp gently, Louise.

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I looked up at the calendar this morning

and it was still showing May!

What happened to April?

Where has May gone?

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It wasn't the above from 1895 thought.

In March we long for April;

In May we long for June:

Don’t be in such a hurry,

It will all be gone too soon.

A couple of weeks ago I posted up pictures of Barrel Piano Musical Boxes that I had made.

Now, as I seem to be a couple of months behind myself, I am going to cheat and re-post the bit I did about the harps in April 2009.

Touch the Harp Gently

Just touch the Harp gently, my pretty Louise,

And sing me the songs that I love;

They’ll recall the bright days when we play’d in the wood,

And watch’d the birds flitting above.

There was one that you sang, my pretty Louise,

The words, I remember them well,

I lov’d it, and when you had finished each verse,

I kiss’d you and said: ‘Never tell’;

Just touch the Harp gently, my pretty Louise,

Just touch the Harp gently, Louise.

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Earlier on the blog I wrote a bit about how I had made small Musical Boxes for my great nephews/nieces. These ended up as small Barrel Pianos, but the original plan was to make them in the shape of a harp. Thirty odd years ago I had built a folk-harp and the small ones were exact scale models of their larger 'sister'. In the above picture you can see the full-size harp in the background.

Each model took about four weeks to make, so making eight would have taken eight months !

I made two, and called it a day. They are made in mahogany with spruce on the front.

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The strings were made of nylon 'fishing-line' and the little tuning pegs were tapered 'clock pins'.

Each plays a different tune and are started by the small lever on the side.

They are about 7" tall as you can see shown against a £2 coin.

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"Just touch the Harp gently, Louise."

Written by Charles Blamphin (1830-1895) a well-known English harpist

who also composed ballads.