Search the site

  

Grab my RSS feed | (What's this?)

Profile...

cliff.jpg

Tag cloud...

Sponsored links

Recent comments

Recent Posts

Feeds

Categories

Useful links

Archives

Sponsored links

May 2008 Archives

Llama Ted

Posted by Cliff Birchall on May 13, 2008 4:39 PM

IT must be my propensity for whimsy that causes me to smile every time I pass Llama Ted's and see one of his llama's heads popped up over the hedge.
We are not talking about a new cult on the moss, by the way [that would be Lama Ted spelt with only one L, a funny way to spell Ted I know] but the movement of Farmer Ted's herd of llamas to his big field.
It must be a surprise to strangers to see these Andean animals grazing on a West Lancashire farm but, after a while, you look forward to seeing them there.
If camels are said to have been designed by a committee, then llamas must have been put together by a small working party. Their camel-like neck, pointed ears and goat-like face sitting atop a woolly coat any sheep would be envious gives it a character all of its own.
Music On The Moss: I read an interview in one of the quality papers with author-TV presenter-columnist Clive James that he was going into partnership with Pete Atkin again. Pete who? Thirty years ago, James and Atkin were a formidable partnership with James' lyrics matched with Atkins' music and stage performance.
As you can imagine, their songs were erudite, witty and off-centre enough to make you smile. Master of the revels is a jaunty funsong which the original liner notes said featured the former Salvation Army tuba played on the Sgt Pepper album. Have you got a biro I can borrow is a wistful tale, while Girl on a train is another subtle twist on the boy-girl theme. Beware of the beautiful stranger is one of their better tracks, though few fall below the very good mark. Tracks like Session man blues show how perfectly Atkins could adapt James' lyrics to form a perfect song.
If you come across one of their LPs in a rack somewhere, snap it up, though they're apparently quite pricey these days.

Casting clouts

Posted by Cliff Birchall on May 12, 2008 11:05 AM

I THINK we can safely cast our clouts now. May is well and truly out.
Not the month, but the blossom.
The old folk always admonished youngsters taking advantage with a bit of early spring sunshine with the tried and trusted country saw Cast not a clout until May is out.
They were, of course, in their Olde English way, warning us not to stop wearing winter clothing until the may blossom was on the trees.
Once the hawthorns in particular had started producing flowers, then it was safe to cast off your winter clothing and wear something more appropriate to spring.
The hedgerows are filled with blossom now. Gardens are pink and white with cherry blossom - and magnolia if you are lucky enough to have a tree - while the country lanes are bright with the white flowers of the hawthorn.
Now the buds have burst [and until then they are apparently quite tasty as a countryman's snack] it really looks as if the countryside has come to life.
The trees coming into leaf is exciting enough but the sight of the blossom always brings summer that much closer. Magnificent trees like the horse chestnut are also in flower now, tall splendours that they are.
Other trees will also be in flower. Hay fever sufferers will already know that the silver birch is shedding its pollen as this is one of the major causes of early-season hay fever.
Music On The Moss: Back to the sixties again with Shawn Phillips, one of my favourite musicians. Red hair down to his waist, a 12-string guitar in hand and latterly a double-necked guitar, his music moves easily from folk through rock to jazz, aided by a voice capable of covering several octaves that was powering a music far ahead of its time.
I'm listening to his first major album, Contribution, along with his second, Contribution II. From the stunning beauty of Withered Roses which opens the first to the way Phillips works with slow ballads, adding orchestra to a catalogue of rock heroes which include Traffic's Steve Winwood and Jim Capaldi along with session guitarist legend Jim Cregan, in a variety of styles which range from the complex to the simple.
Phillips is still making music thankfully. Check out www.shawnphillips.com

Somewhere in my mind there is a painting box...

Posted by Cliff Birchall on May 8, 2008 4:34 PM

That's the thing about spring, you notice all the new colours that suddenly burst forth.
I was going down a tree-shrouded lane in West Lancashire the other evening when I suddenly noticed the effect of the sunlight on the new leaves.
There was every shade of green imaginable in just a short stretch of road. Sycamores are differently leaved to whitebeams, chesnut to beech and so on. And the intensity of the colour is heightened at this time when they are still fresh from the bud.
It's the same in the fields going across the moss, too. I think of a couple of fields which have been left fallow all winter and now they have a pallette of colours which sweeps into the distance.
Yellow blades of stubble have green swords of new growth running through them, while there are plants that turn red and orange from weathering, particularly rain and frost.
As if this is not enough, there are now brilliant fields of oilseed rape blazing by the roadside, almost dazzling you.
Other fields have been ploughed, harrowed and drilled into a uniform brown landscape, though that will soon be picked out in green as the potatoes start to show through.
Music on the moss: It's been a varied week. Legendary folkie John Stewart has been strumming away on his live Pheonix Concert recording. He helped make the Kingston Trio famous in the sixties, then ventured into a solo career. He came to prominence with California Bloodlines, a landmark album, then took on board Fleetwood Mac's Lyndsey Buckingham as his producer for some more rockier albums. Then there has been Hot Tuna with their blues-rock on Yellow Fever.
And just in case anyone is wondering where the title to this blog came from, it's the opening line of a song from The Incredible String Band's terrific album The 5000 Spirts Or The Layers Of The Onion. I wonder why they don't write album titles like that any more?

This page contains an archive of all entries posted to Man on the Moss in the May 2008. They are listed from oldest to newest.

April 2008 is the previous archive.June 2008 is the next archive.

Many more can be found on the home page or by looking through the archives.