Well, we’ve had absolutely lovely weather up here in The Highlands this week with mild temperatures and blue skies. I love spring, as a whole new world opens up ready to be explored, compared with the indoorsy, dark days of winter. I love it so much I celebrate it’s arrival three times and have done on these pages over the years. Imbolc falls on the 1st of February and was one of the cornerstones of the Celtic/pagan calendar signifying the coming of spring. The success of the new farming season was of great importance and rituals were performed to ensure a steady supply of food until the harvest six months later. The weather forecasters mention meteorological spring which of course falls on the 1st of March, but an even better date is the Vernal Equinox, astronomical spring, when the number of hours of daylight overtakes those of darkness. That fell this year on Friday, the 20th of March and to celebrate I had a lovely walk with a friend along the river that flows through the centre of our town.
Rockery plants in full bloom, the castle and my kitchen flowers
Yes, it’s a fine time to be alive and I’ve done a lot of gardening this weekend, tidying up after winter and getting some of the garden furniture out. There is still another date to come of course, when we turn our clocks forward an hour to BST, and that’s Sunday the 29th of March. Summer, we’re coming to get you!
It’s been a good week to be full of the joys of spring as Mr WIAA has been off with his brother, leading the life of James Bond (without the licence to kill) on the ski slopes of Switzerland and France. This is the longest we’ve been apart for an awful long time but I have to admit I’ve quite enjoyed it. I have a pretty full calendar nowadays so I’ve been out of the house quite a bit and when I am here life is so simple. Catering for one, tidying up after one and exclusive use of both the car, and the remote. It will be lovely to have him home again but as an experiment I think I’ve coped very well as a singleton.
The term singleton came about to describe those who live in a single-person household, especially those who prefer the lifestyle of living alone. It was popularised by the Bridget Jones novels and films, whose lifestyle mirrored my own when I bought my first flat at age 27. I worked hard and also played hard (if that’s not too naff a thing to say), but all the time my friends and I were “going out” to find that special person to “stay in with”. At this stage in life being a singleton would be very different indeed, but I’d like to think I could cope if god forbid it should ever happen.
But I’m probably going to remember this week as being one of watching a lot of really good films. Last weekend we watched I Swear about Scottish lad, John Davidson, who developed Tourette’s Syndrome at the age of 12. It did really well at the BAFTAs although there was a bit of fallout after the inevitable happened at the actual ceremony. It could have been edited out but I suspect those in charge of televising of the show were making a point. Anyway, it was very funny (made that way deliberately) but also heart-warming. The real John has done much to raise societal awareness of the condition so that others don’t have to go through what he did as a youth. It’s going to be one of my favourite films of the year.
Once Mr WIAA had left for his trip, I had full control of the telly so the next film I watched was this one, Man On The Run, a documentary about the years after the break up of the Beatles when Paul McCartney set out on a whole new journey, ending up fronting a highly successful band that I liked a lot during my teenage years, Wings. Did I enjoy it? There was nothing new to learn from the doc but you did get a lot of footage from the farm on the Mull of Kintyre. It wasn’t glamorous at all, just a ramshackle holding with outbuildings and sheep, but the growing family could relax and be at one with nature, which really suited them at the time.
What I did take away from it however was that because Paul didn’t deal with the finances, he lost a lot of good band members by not realising they were only being paid a small retainer for being in this new endeavour of his. At first they were flattered to have been asked, but that wears thin after a while. Also, Paul and Linda literally spent all their time together, with Linda even becoming the first recruited member of the new band. It didn’t come naturally to her and the fans at first were pretty scathing but it meant they could carry on being a family unit, wherever the wind took them, which is why they stayed together until Linda sadly died of cancer, at age 56.
Mr WIAA and I spend an awful lot of time together and always have done as he has mostly been self-employed working from home, and I worked part-time after having DD, never going back to full-time employment. This little break is highly unusual for us. I often reminisce about student life around here and also about the flatmates I shared with in the years after we left university. We all split up with our long-term student boyfriends during those years and I know exactly why. We all came from families who in the early ’80s would have been horrified at the thought of us living with someone we weren’t married to, and none of us were ready for that. We went from spending nearly all our time with our boyfriends, in the library, in the pub and in the various shared residences we “officially” lived in, to not seeing each other much at all, especially if jobs were found in another part of the country. Life happens, and although there was probably more to it than that, I am a great believer in spending as much time as possible with your special person, even if it hurts the finances. We can’t all be Paul and Linda, but it certainly worked for them.
It was however lovely hearing all those Wings songs played throughout the doc and they even show the session where they were photographed for the Band On The Run album cover. A veritable who’s who of mid ’70s stars. Can you still name them all?
Band on the Run by Wings:
I’ve almost run out of words which is a shame as I’ve left the best ’til last. My friend came round on Tuesday night for cocktails and a film, and it didn’t take long for us to choose Song Sung Blue starring Hugh Jackman and Kate Hudson, which is currently on Prime. For once it’s not a biopic but instead the real-life story of a couple from Milwaukee, Wisconsin who back in the mid ’90s start “interpreting the songs of Neil Diamond” (they refused to call themselves a tribute act). They say real life is stranger than fiction and in the case of these two, that was the case. I won’t say much more about them in case of spoilers but suffice to say they became quite big cheeses in their local area. Like with Paul’s doc, we get to hear all those great songs again and it shows what can happen when a couple spend all their time together. Like the film I Swear, it is both funny and heart-warming. Another one for my list of favourite films of the year.
There were so many songs in the film that I found it hard to pick one to share. Play Me is a 1972 song from Neil’s album Moods. It was also hard to find a decent clip of the song but here is one of him performing it with Shirley Bassey, dressed in one of his most extreme bejewelled outfits. He is clearly using all the powers at his disposal to make Shirley fall in love with him, and by the end of the song, I think she has.
Until next time…
Play Me Lyrics
(Song by Neil Diamond)
She was morning, and I was night time
I one day woke up
To find her lying beside my bed
I softly said “Come take me”
For I’ve been lonely in need of someone
As though I’d done someone wrong somewhere
But I don’t know where, I don’t know where
Come lately
You are the sun, I am the moon
You are the words, I am the tune
Play me
Song she sang to me
Song she brang to me
Words that rang in me,
Rhyme that sprang from me
Warmed the night, and what was right
Became me
You are the sun, I am the moon
You are the words, I am the tune
Play me
And so it was that I came to travel
Upon a road that was thorned and narrow
Another place, another grace
Would save me
You are the sun, I am the moon
You are the words, I am the tune
Play me
You are the sun, I am the moon
You are the words, I am the tune
Play me……
Postscript
In case anyone is is interested, here is a picture of the real-life couple who were the inspiration for the film Song Sung Blue, and a link to the documentary made about their lives is included below.
Song Sung Blue – The Original Documentary (The Full, Real Story)
What's It All About? 