This Piece of Music

In honour of the fact that I've been trying to switch the music around, or at least ensure that more than one song plays for the duration of your visit, I am sharing here the lyrics of this beautiful piece of music, which until I can figure out, might be the only piece of music you hear every time you visit. Until I work this out and actually have what they call a "playlist".

For the record, IMHO Leonard Bernstein was a true musical genius. Apart from everything else, this shows it, above all.

CANDIDE

You've been a fool, and so have I,
But come and be my wife.
And let us try,
Before we die,
To make some sense of life.
We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good
We'll do the best we know.
We'll build our house and chop our wood
And make our garden grow...
And make our garden grow.

CUNEGONDE

I thought the world
Was sugar cake
For so our master said.
But, now I'll teach
My hands to bake
Our loaf of daily bread.

CANDIDE AND CUNEGONDE

We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good
We'll do the best we know.
We'll build our house and chop our wood
And make our garden grow...
And make our garden grow.

(ensemble enters in gardening gear and a cow walks on)
CANDIDE, CUNEGONDE, MAXIMILLIAN, PAQUETTE, OLD LADY, DR. PANGLOSS

Let dreamers dream
What worlds they please
Those Edens can't be found.
The sweetest flowers,
The fairest trees
Are grown in solid ground.

ENSEMBLE (a cappella)
[which means the music stops, and normally here I catch my breath ... and get a bit choked up]

We're neither pure, nor wise, nor good
We'll do the best we know.
We'll build our house and chop our wood
And make our garden grow.
And make our garden grow!
(The cow dies)

That's life, hey?

Double Cat Fun

This is my cat. Ginger. Aka Mr Whiskers. Aka Scoodgems. Still not sure how to spell that.

This is his brother, the occasional visitor. Big Brother, I call him. Or, Bro.

Can you tell the difference? Bro has a pointier tail, and is more upright, whereas Ginger is rounder, a little bit fluffier, and cuddly.

The big difference is, when you're outside and it's dark, if you pick up Ginger you get cuddles - he moulds himself into your arms, top feet on top arm, back feet on lower arm, and a purr to accompany that - a cuddly, scoodgy little boy.

Pick up Bro by mistake, and you get FLAIL. Arms and legs everywhere, nuh huh, what do you think you are doing??

Funny thing is, apart from the fact that sure, they come in for food (I'm feeding two cats here on a regular basis, chuh)

I know that Ginger missed me when I was away in France. He was all over me, and in my face, and wouldn't leave me alone when I got back. He was like velcro.

But Big Brother? Every time I open the door, there he is. Don't you have a home to go to, kitty, I ask? Don't they give you scratches like I do? Heck, he almost did that thing recently - the kneading thing. I thought he might crawl into my lap. And he's got a purr like a drill hammer. You could hear that purr two blocks away.

Hello? You're not my cat. I love you pussums, but you're not my cat ...

Can you tell the difference?

Clinging on to Summer

It's that changeable time here. Early September, you don't expect much weather-wise. But we had a rare glimpse of summer again last week, and it was meant to last into the weekend. It almost did. Being a complete weather junkie (in terms of weather reports), I'm watching every day now.



Still wearing sandals. Summer tops, with a cardigan on top, and a light mac (both, instead of one or the other. Or neither, in the heat of things). Topping up my French tan from a bottle. Rainy and grey threatened every day now, in fact we've had both today. But I'm hanging on. Just for another week or so. I see women dressed in autumnal jackets, boots, tights, on the train every morning. But for me, not yet.



Don't ever let me forget, Summer 2010 was awesome. July, uh, perfect. Hot, sunny, hot, sunny. August, well, okay. Not too bad. Even now, it's not cold, just not ... hot. That's okay.



But the nights seem to be drawing in. Maybe because it was so grey today, culminating in the promised rain. By the time I was coming home from work, it seemed so ... dreary. Dark. And Autumnal. Perhaps it's time ...



But there is still much to ripen, and to harvest!

Whatever I'm wearing, whatever the weather, I'll keep you posted!

The other good news is - and this is seriously good news ... the arachnid situation seems to be much, much better this year over last year, or even the previous. The good summer? Who knows. I'm touching wood here, but really it hasn't been a problem for me. Just as I geared myself up to deal with it ... (I know. I know. We need them. Ick). But phew ...