A vulture who lived in my tree
was a wonderful creature to see
He lived solely on steak
but kept me awake
every night when he got up to pee
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Song Lyric Sunday Theme for 17/02/2019
Jim Adams continues to look after Song Lyric Sunday, giving us the chance to share lots of favourites, and some not so familiar songs.
The theme for this week is Hill/Mountain and you can find all the great entries here.
Because I was pipped at the post by THIS THAT AND THE OTHER with my choice this week, I am offering another “Hill” tune for your delight (or not). You will find this at the bottom and it morphs my SLS entry into a personal history lesson too!
Anyone who has followed my SLS entries for a while will know that my mind often goes to Beatles songs to try to find a suitable offering to present. I’m not always successful!
What I found this week is a song off the Magical Mystery Tour album. After the success of Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, The Beatles wanted to create a psychedelically themed film, and Magical Mystery Tour was the result. It was designed as an unscripted television special and featured 6 new songs.
It was never meant to be an LP, but the producers added existing singles to make up the numbers! It worked out pretty well.
Here, for your enjoyment, is “The Fool on the Hill”.
The Fool on the Hill
Day after day, alone on a hill
The man with the foolish grin is sitting perfectly still
Nobody wants to know him
They can see that he’s just a fool
But he never gives an answer
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning round
His head in a cloud
The man with a foolish grin is talking perfectly loud
But nobody wants to hear him
They can see that he’s just a fool
But he never gives an answer
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning round
But nobody wants to know him
They can see that he’s just a fool
But he never gives an answer
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning round
But the fool on the hill
Sees the sun going down
And the eyes in his head
See the world spinning round
Songwriters: John Lennon / Paul McCartney
The Fool on the Hill lyrics © Sony/ATV Music Publishing LLC
Here is the extra!
This is not a song, has no lyrics, and is unlikely to have been heard by anyone reading this blog. It is, however, special to me, and is amongst the music that MAY be played at my funeral/celebration of life/throwing on the local scrap heap!
It is “High on a Hill” by the Band and Bugles of The Royal Green Jackets
I had the honour to serve with The 2ndBattalion The Royal Green Jackets, in Dover, and Omagh, Northern Ireland. I can honestly say that they were the most professional and dedicated soldiers I have ever served with. This was the one and only time I served with a Light Infantry unit and It was a real eye opener. They are different! An example is that they march at 140 paces per minute, rather than usual 116, or 120. Examples can be seen below.
Imagine doing that for any length of time, AND carrying and playing an instrument!
Iron Nick — Little Fears
Pete, from Little Fears, was kind (or silly) enough to invite me to guest write for his fantastic site Little Fears. here is my feeble attempt to be half as funny, or punny, as Pete is. Pop over to his site to see his regular laughs by following the link below.
Thank you for this opportunity Pete!
To view the video you will need to go to the Little Fears site via the link at the bottom.
Iron Nick By Peter Matthews Iron Nick was really quite cheesed off. His boss kept badgering him to work harder. He was getting pretty steamed up about it all. Lucy, meanwhile, was egging Nick on. She advised him to tell the boss where to stick his lousy job. It became so heated that the three…
Twittering Tales #123 – 12 February 2019
It’s time again, for Kat Myrman’s wonderful challenge, to write a story, inspired by her picture prompt, in 280 characters or fewer.
Here is this week’s prompt and my contribution.
Check out all the fabulously creative entries here and, if you’ve never had a go, why not try a story of your own? You may surprise yourself!
photo by Skeeze on Pixabay.com
Darling
Great idea but, as codes go, rather complicated.
Understand that each love heart represents a letter of the alphabet and further variation is provided by the colour of the heart.
This message of 57 characters is now down to 40.
The dog ate the rest!
Please Text me, or Call me
(280 characters) and I bet some of you counted the love hearts!
Lundi limerick #21
A unicorn when she was born
had a very wobbly horn
She fixed it with glue
Well, sure, wouldn’t you
to make sure you suffered no scorn?
Song Lyric Sunday Theme for 10/02/2019
Song Lyric Sunday continues to give us lots of familiar, favourite songs, and yet never fails to let me hear something new, to my ears at least!
Jim’s theme for this week is River/Stream/Brook, and for next week, Hill/Mountain, so I’m going to combine the two and offer you an all time great from Tina Turner. You can see all the great music here.
This song was Written by Phil Spector, Jeff Barry, and Ellie Greenwich, and was among the first recordings that Ike & Tina Turner did for Phil Spector’s Philles Records. Spector was well aware of Ike Turner‘s controlling attitude in the studio, and therefore he drafted an unusual contract: the River Deep – Mountain High album and single would be credited to “Ike & Tina Turner”, but Ike was paid $20,000 to stay away from the studio, and only Tina Turner‘s vocals would be used on the record.
The song is, of course, the title track, River Deep Mountain High. I hope you enjoy it.
River Deep – Mountain High
When I was a little girl, I had a rag doll
Only doll I’ve ever owned
Now I love you just the way I loved that rag doll
But only now my love has grown
And it gets stronger in every way
And it gets deeper, let me say
And it gets higher day by day
Do I love you, my oh my? Oh baby
River deep, mountain high
If I lost you would I cry
Oh, how I love you, baby, baby, baby, baby
When you were a young boy
Did you have a puppy?
That always followed you around
Well, I’m gonna be as faithful as that puppy
No, I’ll never let you down
‘Cause it grows stronger like a river flows
And it gets sweeter, baby and heaven knows
And it gets sweeter, baby, as it grows
Do I love you, my oh my? Oh baby
River deep, mountain high
If I lost you would I cry
Oh, how I love you, baby, baby, baby, baby
And it gets stronger in every way
And it gets deeper, let me say
And it gets higher day by day
Do I love you, my oh my? Oh baby
River deep, mountain high
If I lost you would I cry
Oh, how I love you, baby, baby, baby, baby
I love you, baby, just like Robin loves to sing
I love you, baby, like a flower loves the spring
And I love you, baby, like a school boy loves his pet
Songwriters: Jeff Barry / Ellie Greenwich / Phil Spector
River Deep – Mountain High lyrics © Universal Music Publishing Group, BMG Rights Management
Twittering Tales #122 – 5 February 2019 – It starts with one word…
It’s time again, for Kat Myrman’s wonderful challenge, to write a story, inspired by her picture prompt, in 280 characters or fewer.
Here is this week’s prompt and my contribution.
Check out all the fabulously creative entries here and, if you’ve never had a go, why not try a story of your own? You may surprise yourself!
It starts with one word bt can’t contine mch frther becase this keyboard is tterly seless.
Jst how can I seflly se it?
Have yo not heard? Some stpid person called Trmp has decided to ban one of the letters!
He says it is nconstittional, and shold not be sed.
It’s jst pre rbbish.
Fck!
(279 characters)
St Kilda – Island on the edge of the world.
Anyone who saunters through my blog will very soon find that I was, for over 28 years, an Army man, a soldier, a squaddie!
This involved living in all sorts of weird places, in peculiar circumstances, and doing all sorts of things that the average joe doesn’t get to experience.
One of the places I lived was on the remote island of Hirta, in the archipelago of St Kilda. In all I spent over 8 months there, normally on a rotational basis of 6 weeks on, 12 weeks off. You can read a little about it here, and here.
During my time there I don’t think that I ever experienced the superb 4 day block of good weather that Angus Mackie and his group of kayakers did for their trip that is shown here.
This post is not about me but it does show a place that is dear to my heart, and to anyone who has ever been lucky enough to experience it.
Just as anyone who has experienced a true desert will know what “desert fever” feels like, those who’ve been to Kilda will be forever drawn back there, even if it is only in memories!
This expedition report is rather lengthy, and will be hastily skipped through by some, but for a few it will be of great interest. The link at the bottom will take you to a marvellous set of photos and videos. It takes a while to load as they are high resolution, and lots of interactive 360˚ shots. I hope you have time to enjoy them.
A link to a newly updated blog post of “A Superlative St Kilda Sea Kayaking Expedition with Skyak Adventures.”
St Kilda is a place of superlatives!
The remote island archipelago of St Kilda lies some 40 miles west of the Outer Hebrides and not only is it a UNESCO World Heritage Site but it has the highest sea cliffs in the UK, the largest seabird colony in northern Europe and a quarter of the world’s gannet population.
It’s also an amazing place for sea kayaking…!!
I’m Angus Mackie, a professional forester and photographer, based just north of Inverness on the beautiful Black Isle. I’m on the North Coast 500 and am well placed to discover most of the Highlands. The iconic scenery of Glen Affric and the Cairngorms are close by whilst many of the wild and dramatic locations on the west coast are within easy reach.
Mountains, landscapes, coastlines…. As a landscape and panoramic photographer who specialises in 360° photography, I enjoy exploring Scotland and its wild and remote places and have discovered some of the best photography locations in the Highlands over the last 35 years of living up here. With a broad and wide ranging knowledge of the Highlands, I still enjoy finding new locations and fresh perspectives for my photography. The use of natural light to capture stunning scenery at spectacular locations is very much a key factor for my photography.
I’m a qualified Summer Mountain Leader, a Sea Kayak Leader and a UKCC Level 2 Sea Kayaking coach, with many years experience of leading and guiding. I am also a longstanding member of Dundonnell Mountain Rescue Team.
Copyright © 2018 Scotland360° and Angus Mackie.
Lundi limerick #20
A tiger called Toni from Maine
developed a terrible pain
She sent for some pills
to cure all her ills
and was never heard of again
Song Lyric Sunday Theme for 03/02/2019
Jim, over at Getting Better All The Time is continuing to look after Helen’s Song Lyric Sunday, and is doing a fine job getting us to share our well known, and not so well known, songs.
You can find all the fabulous entries this week by following this link here.
Now, you probably had to be around at the time to have heard about the group I’ve chosen this week, but you may have heard about some of the people involved in working with them. Certainly, the writer is pretty well known. Lou Reed. Maybe you know “Walk on the Wild Side” and “A Perfect Day”?
Lou Reed formed “The Velvet Underground” in 1964 and, although they were never a great commercial success, they were a great influence on many people, and are regarded as one of the most influential bands in rock history.
The track I’m offering to you this week is “Ocean”, and this is an acoustic demo version. I hope you like it!
Ocean
Here comes the ocean
and the waves down by the sea
Here comes the ocean
and the waves where’ve they been ?
Don’t swim tonight my love
The sea is mad my love
It’s known to drive men crazy
Now come that murder seeks
The castle is dead and reeks
The madness can make you lazy
Here come the waves
down by the shore
Washing the rocks that have been here
centuries or more
Down by the sea
Here come the ocean
and the waves down by the sea
Here comes the ocean
and the waves where’ve they been ?
Castles glowing at night
Towers above out fright
What did happen here
Now comes it in my head
I serve you bread on a pledge
Think of your mouth for dinner
But here come the waves
down by the sea
Washing the eyes of the men
who have died
Down by the sea
Here come the waves
Here come the waves
Here come the waves
Here come the waves
Songwriters: Lou Reed
