"There's Always Room at our House"

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When is a ‘bedroom’, not a bedroom?

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In my case, when it’s a ’Music-room’.

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When I bought this bungalow, twenty years ago, it was described as a bulk standard, three bedroom bung. with lounge and dining room. 

(And before you ask? Yes, I have a kitchen and bathroom too.) 

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Well, four cats and their servant don’t need three bedrooms, 

even though the cats preferred sleeping well apart. 

I kept one as a ’spare’ bedroom, as you would, 

but not many ‘spare’ people turned up to try out my hospitality, 

or share with Wesley!

Although quite a few turned up to try out the music room!

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I also didn’t really like eating alone in a separate dining room, so the ‘dinner table’ was planted down one end of the lounge. 

The dining room was fitted out with shelves to house my lifetime collection of books. 

(I throw very little away you see!)

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As I never eat in there, I called it my ‘Library‘.

Even this is not now large enough 

and cookery books have ended up in the kitchen, 

music books have ended up in the music room 

and gardening books have ended up…….

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...at the local Hospice shop!

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Over the years, I have also collected a huge quantity of sheet music and a fair scattering of strange musical instruments, 

from an Appalachian  Dulcimer 

to Scottish bagpipe practice chanters!   

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Appalachian  Dulcimer

and below a

selection of 'Bells and Whistles'!

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Two bagpipe chanters (left).

There is also my harp, banjos, mandolins, 

guitar and five concertinas. 

I used to have a harmonium as well, 

but some years ago swapped it for a piano. 

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Harmonium on it's way out,

to make room for the piano.

Of course when I built the little street organ, 

I had to find room for that and the ‘sixty odd’ paper music rolls.

So, one of the ‘bedrooms’ became the ’Music’ room.

The so-called ‘spare bedroom’ now houses the PC and all it’s hangers-on.

(Printer, Scanner, Cassette converter, Disc (LP) converter and the latest addition - a VHS tape converter.)

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All my LP's are now re-worked

as CD's.

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One last spin and then down the Hospice shop!

So, when the 2011 census turned up, 

I said I lived alone in a One bedroom bung. 

(They didn’t ask about the cats.)

And of course it doesn’t end there  either. 

The conservatory, houses the washing machine and freezers so it’s really a ‘Utility’ room! 

And, the garage does not contain a car - 

but is really my ‘Hobby room’! 

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Yes, carpet!

It’s actually a workshop, 

but I don’t want the council to think I run a business from here!

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A while back I was asked, 

“What’s your next project, now that you’ve finished the Organ?”

Well, I have a huge backlog of things to do.

There is the model traction engine waiting for me for a start.

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1/4 size Burrell Steam Traction Engine.

And then there is the Symphonion musical box that needs a bit of TLC.

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Hmm. I think it might be the disc Symphonion next.

So to finish, here’s the Symphonion accompanying

 you on a wee tour of my music room. 

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Any volunteers to do the dusting?

Apologies for the sound quality.
That was the real music box
playing live,
and she, like me,
is very old!

"Four Pigs Trotters ?"

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Today, well what’s left of it, is -

“The First Day of Christmas”.

I am reliably informed, as I am no expert on Church matters,

that these “Twelve Days of Christmas” represent

the ‘Coming of Men to God‘.

The culmination of the Twelve Days was the arrival of the Three Kings at Epiphany.

Try as I may, I have been unable to trace the origin of the famous song by the same name.

You know the one - ‘What my true love gave to me’.

Try, as I also may, I was unable to find neither the words,

nor the music in my modest collection of Carol Books,

even though they span a period if 150 years!

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What you will find though, from searching the web, is that there are dozens of different versions.

I expect that figure will get into the hundreds,

if you include all those from around the world and in different languages.

So, today, all you Lucky Lovers, you can expect, in addition to all those boxes you received earlier, ‘A partridge in a Pear Tree’.

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And on Tuesday,

just when you thought you had seen off the last of the turkey,

you can expect to have to sign for the delivery of ‘Three French Hens’.

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As I didn’t have the words and music -

and as I’m sure you don’t want me to go all through them anyway -

here is an unusual version for all you foodies.

"On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me;

One boneless stuffing,

Two breasts of veal,

Three joints of beef,

Four pig’s trotters,

Five legs of mutton,

Six partridges with cabbage,

Seven spitted rabbits,

Eight plates of salad,

Nine dishes for a chapterful of Canons,

Ten full casks,

Eleven bosomy maidens,

And ........

Twelve musketeers with their swords!"

If it sound a bit ‘Double Dutch’, you’re not far off.

The original song was in French!

Me? Well as they say in ordering a Chinese take-a-way.

“I’ll have a number four, a number ten and a double portion of number eleven”.

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A Mixed Bag.

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I do apologise for the lack of Christmas music this year.

I have found a couple on YT but not really suitable for a mixed audience.

So after a couple of hours this morning, gave up and decided to link back to...

A nice little 26 note Organ playing "The twelve days of Christmas."

The choir of "St. Francis de la Sissies."

And from Australia "Merry Christmas you Suckers."

Now on Wednesday,

Angus was enquiring as to the contents of Hazel's box.

Mystery solved.

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CherryPie was thinking that Waitrose was too expensive.

But look here, excellent value for money in their "Essential" range.

(and no, I don't have shares in John Lewis)

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Kate was expressing an interest in my "High protein pizza".

It was topped with these!

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Mealy Worms - The robins just love them.

It certainly pays to shop around these days.

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A load of reductions in Asda yesterday.

Cheers!

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"Kathy's Rainbows"

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I have had a request.

Nay, I have had two requests,

but for the same thing.

Kath and her Rainbow

The first song just had to be Kathy's Song

from

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I have the music, and have arranged it for the organ,

but try as I might,

I couldn't find the sheet music with a cover.

Now Rainbows are easy and songs and covers

are found not only in my music cupboard

but all over the 'net'.

This I suppose is the most well known:-

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A bit too popular for me, but there is a nice version here from 1955.

I like to go after the unusual and preferably old.

(that includes Grandma's as well.)

So I have chosen:-

"There's a Rainbow round my Shoulder."

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and

"I'm always chasing Rainbows"

(when I can't Grab-a-Granny.)

"I'm Always Chasing Rainbows" is a popular song. The music is credited to Harry Carroll, although the melody is actually adapted from Fantaisie-Impromptu by Frédéric Chopin. The lyrics were written by Joseph McCarthy, and the song was published in 1917 and introduced in the Broadway show Oh, Look! which opened in March, 1918. The song was sung in the show by The Dolly Sisters and was subsequently featured in a movie entitled The Dolly Sisters, released in September, 1945.

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I wonder if this is the origin of

"Dolly Birds"?

I also found this copy, but it is from a different show.

"Goody Two Shoes".

I can't find much about it.

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And to finish, my favourite

and, I'm afraid,

the

'Story of my life'.

"Waiting to find a little Bluebird, in vain."

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"Why have I always been a failure?

What can the reason be?

I wonder if the World's to blame.

I wonder if it could be me?"

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"Two Devoted Sisters"

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"There were never such devoted sisters"

(Irving Berlin).

Clare: “I say Rosie, who was that Italian fellah in the garden with that little organ?”

Rosie: “That was no Italian bloke!”.

“That was our Uncle Bernard!”.

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Just goes to show, that you need a big organ to get recognised!

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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.

Baby Barrel Organs

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My father, as a boy, had a musical box, a small plain square box with a little handle on the top and a picture stuck on the underside.

It played an old Music Hall tune called “Hold your Hand Out, You Naughty Boy”.

Strange as it may seem, I have yet to find the sheet music for this although I expect I could search the web and buy it from somewhere.

Well my brothers and I used to have hours of fun with this although it was always put away afterwards, out of reach.

“It’s not a toy” he would say, but the truth is he did not want it damaged.

When his first grandchild arrived it was lovingly passed on.

There were more grandchildren to follow, but only one musical box.

I therefore thought it would be nice to make a few more of these to ‘keep in family’ so to speak. Well, rather than the plain little Victorian box, I designed a ‘box’ as a small harp, an exact scale model of a harp I had built some 30 years ago. However it took weeks of work and I only finished two models before giving up. My nephews and nieces were having offspring faster than I could build them!

So a new plan was to make something simpler to manufacture.

A production line of small Barrel Organs.

The making of the little barrel organs required quite a lot of fretwork. Now although I have a ‘go-faster’ electric model I much prefer to use a hand fretsaw.

I still have a number of my father’s carpentry tools including his “Hobbies” fretsaw and all the side frames for the organ cart (16 off - painted red) were cut out with his old saw.

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Using it, takes me back to the days when Dad made all our toys. After the war toys were hard to come by and quite expensive. The earliest I remember, was an alphabet of wooden letters, about 2” high, cut out of ¼” ply. It must have taken him ages and maybe a few broken blades. As there was only one of each letter, we learnt the alphabet but could only make up short words with no repeat letters.

I can also remember “tumbling acrobats”. A small jointed figure, hanging by his arms from a twisted bit of string between two rods. Squeezing the rods together caused the string to unwind and the little figure flew round!

Batch production on the organs continued and the above picture shows the organs and carts having had a 'lick of paint'. I have to admit I cheated and bought the wheels ready made. They came a horrible colour and I had to give them a coat of yellow paint.

Here is a couple of pics of the finished Musical Boxes.

They took me four weeks to make (all eight) with the slowest part being the painting. I had to wait 24 hours between coats. They have now all gone to good homes.

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And a close up of one of them. I put their initials on each one so that they didn't get them mixed up.

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Originally posted on Tracker-bar in March 2009.

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Topsy-Turvydom

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I‘m all out of sync. at the moment. It’s nice to have a bit of routine; at least you know where you are.

I can’t do the washing when I need to….well I suppose you can and end up with it all over the radiators!

I can’t go shopping when I need to….well I suppose you can….and I did!

Backed the car off the drive and away I went. Main roads were OK but on returning home do you think I could get back on the drive? Oh no. Sliding all over the place and it’s only a slight slope. It’ll just have to stay in the road where it ended up.

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It’s all Topsy-Turvy here. The above was taken on Wednesday and the one below on Tuesday. What a difference a day can make.

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Topsy-Turvy. I like that word…..or is it two?

Blogging is a bit like that at the moment. In the summer I had loads of ideas and loads of material and photos for posting, but what a shame to stay in on a lovely summers day staring at a screen. Now here I am, snowed up, needing to stay in the warm and hardly an idea left in my blog-chest.

I can always resort to a few jokes I suppose.

However whilst on the subject of Topsy-Turvy, I might mention Gilbert and Sullivan.

Their world was all TT. It was of course Gilbert who wrote the witty verse and nonsense full of word play, but did you know he was doing this sort of writing long before he teamed up with Sullivan.

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Long before the Savoy Operas were launched Gilbert was composing rhymes and poems. He seldom wrote about real people, preferring instead the fantastic or improbable. In one of his earliest poems, 'My Dream', he introduces us to Topsy-Turvydom:

Where vice is virtue - virtue, vice;

Where nice is nasty - nasty, nice;

Where right is wrong and wrong is right,

Where white is black and black is white.

So I have no idea what today has in store for me.

Hope your's is better.

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Musical monstrosities.

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I didn't get what I wanted for Christmas.

I did try but couldn't get it past the checkout!

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So how did everyone else do?

“Did Father Christmas bring you everything you wanted this year? Or were you left with the usual pile of unasked-for smellies, oversized kitchen gadgets and ill-fitting, unflattering clothes?

If so, you are probably not alone. Recent research indicated that British shoppers wasted £1.7 billion on unwanted Christmas presents this year. “

Novelty panties topped (or should that be bottomed?) the list of unwelcome gifts, after all, who wants panties at Christmas?

Maybe in cold wind-swept Devon, where I am told they require fleecy lined sheepskin Directoire style underwear.

Well it appears that musical ties, musical doormats and musical coasters were also cited in the survey by the environmental group ‘Green Thing‘, with mothers-in-law and workmates as the worst donating culprits.

I suggest we have a competion to suggest what tunes these ‘musical’ gifts played. I’ll kick off…..

1) Musical tie - “Ying Tie, ying tie, ying tie, ying tie, ying tie. Tiddle I Po.”

Sorry I’ve just been informed it’s “Ying Tong” so I’ll have to revert to “Tie a Yellow Ribbon on the Olde Oak Tree”.

2) Musical Doormat - “These Boots were made for walking…..and one of these days these Boots are goin’ to walk all over you.”

3)Musical Coasters - “Oh, I do like to be beside the Seaside”

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It's Hard to make Ends Meet.

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At this time of the year there is so much talk of food...the papers seem full of it. You would never know there was a recession on. It is mainly expensive food, rich high in calorie food, lots of saturated fat food.......Ah, they say it's only once a year.

But here is a meal which I enjoy many, many times a year and usually with a different type of sausage. Mainly from the Farmer's Market in Thame.

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Bangers 'n' Mash

By definition 'bangers 'n' mash' is a dish made with cooked sausages served with boiled then mashed potatoes (not to be confused with Toad-In-The-Hole which is an entirely different dish made with sausages and Yorkshire Pudding batter).

Anyway, this traditional British dish was made world famous back in the 1960's by an unlikely hit record created and sung by comedian Peter Sellers and (of all people) the then sex-pot Sophia Loren!

The 'rough' history is that the two had embarked on a torrid affair during the making of a film called 'The Millionairess' in which Sellers played a pre-PC role as a Doctor of Indian origin.

Somehow Sellers persuaded Loren to 'sing' along with him on a record spawned from the film "Goodness Gracious Me". This was a hit, and they followed it up with "Bangers and Mash".

"I met her down in Napoli and didn't she look great?

And so I brought her back to Blighty just to show me mates,

And though we're married happily I'll tell you furthermore

I haven't had a decent meal since 1944."

" Eat your minestrone, Joe."

"That's all you ever say."

"Eat your macaroni, Joe."

"Every blinking day."

"No wonder you're so bony, Joe, and skinny as a rake."

"Well then, give us a bash at the bangers and mash me mother used to make."

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Strange as it may seem this is not the only song I have that is about sausages.

There is this little gem from the 1920's - "The Sausage Song".

Turn me over, turn me over,

I’m waiting to be done the other side.

Turn me over, turn me over,

Remember Sausages have got some pride;

I’ve got no lovely clothes, I’ve got no silken hose,

But in my skin I’m welcome far and wide.

Turn me over, turn me over,

I’m waiting to be done the other side!

Believe it or not, but this little song had a great tune to it......and it fitted the organ scale.

So I believe I have the only paper-roll version of the Sausage Song.

Better not sign off without a (bad) joke.

A customer complained to her butcher about the sausages she had bought from him last week.

“They were all meat at one end, and all bread at the other.”

“I’m sorry, madam,” said the butcher.

“In these times of recession, it’s difficult to make both ends meat.”

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Bushel, Bushel….Sacksful.

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I thought I may go out and wassail the old apple tree tonight.

No firing of shotguns through the branches though, just a few kind words and to drink it’s health for next seasons apples.

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In some parts of the country the guns were used to wake the trees so that they would hear the stimulating message of the songs that were about to be sang to them, and bonfires were lit to scare off evil spirits.

Now in Devon, being a county famous for its cider, the farmers take all this very seriously as their livelihood depends on a good crop of cider apples.

Then, the men would encircle the tree and with large jugs of cider, toast the trees three times reciting the following:

Here’s to thee, old apple tree,

Whence thou may’st bud,

and when though may’st blow!

And whence thou may’st bear apples now!

Hatsful! Capsful!

Bushel, bushel….sacksful,

And my pocketsful too!

Huzza!

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Cupfuls of cider were thrown over the branches and pieces of toast soaked in cider were lodged in the tree for the orchard spirits to ensure a good crop for next year.

The toast is supposed to attract the birds and when they’ve eaten it, they stay on to eat any insects lurking in the bark.

On second thoughts…..I’ll drink the cider and eat the toast with a nice coating of Marmite!

And look, even Marmite jars are telling jokes now!

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"R O F L "

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I had to ask what ROFL stood for the other day. I'm afraid I'm not quite up to speed with all this modern texting and stuff. The only ones I remember from earlier days were SWALK and NORWICH which was written on the back of envelopes!

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Well, I learnt ROFL was "Rolls on floor laughing" so as I'd left a joke in the comments I was quite relieved.

It also gave me an idea for todays bit......Music Rolls.

I found this piano roll in the local charity shop for 50p. A bargain? Not really. I don't have a pianola to play it on, but it seemed such an unusual roll as it had the words to the music written vertically so that the child could sing along whilst pedalling.

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More 'junk' to require a home. I ought to open a museum!

Now the winter is upon us with a vengeance, I tuck myself up in the warm and arrange and punch up a few more tunes. Of course before you can do this you need rolls.....and lots of them.

Being unable to buy these off the shelf we have to make do with what is available and convert it.

I use Fax rolls myself which come in useful 40 metre lengths.

The problem is they are too wide, so the first job is to cut them down to 115mm wide with a saw.

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The roll is then transferred to the lathe where I take two cuts to take it down to 110mm.

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It always amazes me that the paper does not fly all over the place. I just parts off in a nice little 'coolie hat'.

Just a quick check...........

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110.03mm

That's less than a hair's breadth over...excellent

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