Not quite twilight but a mystical quality about the light
which puts me in mind of a song.
which puts me in mind of a song.
I was taught to sing this as a party piece when very young.
I would be brought forward for visitors, to stand pigeon-toed
and squirming to warble the melancholy chorus which for
some reason I thought was all about traffic lights.
It came in useful many years later when the demand for a 'turn'
was sprung on me at a supper party.
Kazuo Ishiguro was one of the transfixed guests on that occasion.
Love the highlighted rim on the sheep's backs - beautifully captured almost twilight pictures. I can just imagine you doing your 'turn what a shame they didn't have video cams in those days - we could all have had a laugh, or not, depending on whether you were doing the singing.
ReplyDeleteI think you would have cried.
DeleteHad he already written "The Remains Of The Day" by then................. (am I right that he wrote it?) or did he write it after you sang?
ReplyDeleteI had to check, but yes we would have been in that row of cottages then. He was a visitor to an Irish writer called Des Hogan who was briefly a neighbour before he disappeared both from London and the literary scene. Apparently Edna O'Brien was a guest there once but we missed that evening.
DeleteSince you mentioned that, I have been panicking quietly lest anyone should ever ask me to do a party piece. All my Christmas engagements are cancelled just in case. I speak as one who was once invited to a bring your own chair party and forgot to bring a chair.
ReplyDeleteYou should have suggested a game of Musical Chairs. That would have shown them.
DeleteThere's better than a good old warble at a party !
ReplyDeleteSorry , perhaps I'd been over-partying . I meant :
Delete"There's nothing like a good old warble at a party "
I do like your twilight photographs, Lucille. There is something very tranquil there...or so I think.
ReplyDeleteThank you for including, as reference, Mr McCormick's version of your tune. I thought that was the one with that title, but wasn't sure. Maybe next time we get together I'll be able to persuade you to sing just a bit of the song?
Hey, here's a slight coincidence. Long, long ago, before Barnes & Noble ate up just about all the independent bookshops, there would be an annual event called Fifth Avenue is Book Country. The Fifth Avenue book shops and book publishers set up tables and displays to interest us visitors in their newest books. Well, the antiquarian book shops featured old books, but you get the idea.
Midtown Fifth Avenue was closed to vehicles during thise Sunday event (just like on Easter) and lots and lots of young and old readers turned out to wander in this paradise. Guest authors would spend some time at their publishers' stands. It was lovely. And, coming to the point, that's where I met a young Kazuo Ishiguro whose The Remains of the Day was just being published in the States. I had previously bought the UK version and it was a delight to tell this still somewhat unknown writer how much I had enjoyed his book.
Never encountered him again, but have definitely kept on reading his books.
xo
You and Mise have made my day what with her comment and your very funny reply!
ReplyDeleteHow horribly embarrassing for you but at least you were not of an age then to appreciate Ishiguro which hopefully helped.
ReplyDeleteI love the light at this time of year, just before it fades completely, and these pictures are once again putting me in mind of Kent/E Sussex and the marshes. So much a part of my life once and the place I would love to return to one day. Nostalgia.
I don't suppose that many people can claim to have sung for Kazuo Ishiguro!
ReplyDeleteI loved your images.
Our best twilight is at this time of year. I just went to my bookshelf to check that the person you sang for at the supper party was indeed the author of Remains of the Day. Such an interesting life you lead, Lucille!
ReplyDeleteI am trying to imagine a small child singing this song...I confess to being somewhat perplexed by the image :-)
It was an odd choice wasn't it?
DeleteSuch beautiful photographs, Lucille. My favourite time of day.
ReplyDelete