 |
| Yesterday...... |
 |
| Today........ |
With both the sun and the spring proving to be very fickle, there’s nothing for
it but brighten up the day with a touch of sardonic humour from Tom Lehrer, a
song which I remember our two singing with enormous relish when they were still
at primary school. J
But before you
all start enjoying yourselves, I’ve just remembered that today is the second
birthday of my blog. I can’t believe it’s two years since I tentatively sent that first little post out into the big wide cyberworld, with no idea what a
life-changing and life-enhancing experience it would prove to be. Thank you all
so much for putting up with me over the past two years. Blogging is hugely rewarding and such fun and I look forward with
keen anticipation to what the next blogging year will bring.
Hello Perpetua:
ReplyDeleteThese are indeed the most fickle of days. After a lovely spring like day, when the sky was the most brilliant blue, we are expecting quite considerable amounts of snow by the weekend plunging us, once more, back into winter.
Congratulations on your blogging anniversary. We can only endorse what you say about the wonderful way it has brought one into contact with so many very kind and generous people around the world. The relationships are, so often, very real and then there are those moments, which we know you too have experienced, when one actually meets one's friends face to face. And that is, of course, the greatest joy of all.
Oh dear, sorry your winter is proving as hard to dislodge as ours, Jane and Lance. We've had grey skies for so long that two days of sunshine just weren't enough before the grey returned. I do hope your snow proves to be less than forecast.
DeleteYou are so right about the reality of the friendships made through blogging. There is nothing virtual about the interest, support and generosity shown by blogging friends and the sheer pleasure of meeting a fellow blogger in the flesh has to be experienced to be appreciated. Long may we all contnue to enjoy this world of blogging.
Only two - it seems much longer!
ReplyDeleteI do like Tom Lehrer, and interestingly so do my teenage sons who introducded me to him. His song / recitation of the chemical elements always makes me laugh
It does indeed, Mark, and for all the tight reasons. It's hard to remember what my life was like before blogging, except that I had more time for other things. :-)
DeleteOur whole family are huge Lehrer fans and the children were brought up on his songs. Not sure about our son, but our daughter certainly still listens to him. It's great that he is still being discovered and enjoyed.
Happy Bloganniversary! My goodness, you took to blogging like ducks to water.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Rosaria. I certainly did and absolutely loved it from the very beginning.
DeleteHappy Blogging Birthday P. I love this song too.
ReplyDeleteThanks, BtoB. Tom Lehrer always puts a smile on my face and this song is a cracker. :-)
DeleteThanks for the chance to hear this wonderful bit of maniac glee from the brilliant Tom Lehrer. I found I remembered every word!
ReplyDeleteA very happy blogiversary to you.
Looking forward to the next 10 years.
ps. Loved the misty ghost tree.
Glad to oblige, Ray. I remembered that you're a great Lehrer fan and like you I know this one off by heart (and it's not the only one).
DeleteI'd love to think I'll still be blogging in 10 years time. There's nothing like thinking big at my age. :-)
We were very much lost in the mist today and the tree was almost the only thing we could see this morning.
Ray's description "manic glee" is perfect. Happy 2 years anniversary...time does fly, I remember congratulating you on your first year. I look forward to the third year,and beyond, and maybe more lovely photos in all sorts of weather conditions of your tree ( is it the Ash tree you have posted about before ? ) J.
ReplyDelete'Manic glee' sums up Tom Lehrer exactly and I wish i'd thought of it. :-) I almost missed today's anniversary as the past 2 years have gone by so quickly. They always say time flies when you're enjoying yourself and nowhere is that more true than with blogging.
DeleteYes, this is our special ash tree because it so dominates our view over the valley and we see it every day in all weathers. To keep you going, you might like to look at the first post I wrote about it.
http://perpetually-in-transit.blogspot.co.uk/2011/03/tree-for-all-seasons.html
I listen to Radio Four in the mornings on my little tablet and hearing that you had sunshine this week - for a day! I was so pleased for everyone!! Here it's been like your second picture and chilly but when the sun comes out it's beautiful.
ReplyDeleteAlways loved Tom Lehrer - clever and spot on!
As for TWO years of blogging - well, how time flies when you're having fun! Long may it last.
Axxx
Much of Britain has had 3 or even 4 sunny days running, but our bit of wales only managed 2. Still we're supposed to see the sun again tomorrow, so I can't grumble, though I may shiver. The wind is cold!
DeleteAnother Lehrer fan! There are a lot of us about and with good reason. :-)
Yes, two whole years and that means that I've been reading your blog for nearly as long, as yours was one of the first I discovered, thanks to Ayak. It's been a great 2 years. :-)
Congratulations on 2nd blog birthday. Your blog is so refreshing to read, with beautiful photos. I like Tom Lehrer too!
ReplyDeleteI had no idea so many of my readers were Tom Lehrer fans, Nancy. :-) Thank you for the kind words. I love blogging and am glad people enjoy my efforts.
DeleteLovely Lehrer!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations on the blogging anniversary...you've given us all a great deal of help and pleasure in that time....and I'm looking forward to a great deal more!
He's a star and I never tire of his songs.
DeleteI'll do my best to oblige with the more, Fly, and have surprised myself with my determination not to be beaten by Blogger - or WordPress come to that. As always, if I can help, I'll happily do so.
Congratulations! your posts are always a delight to read -- please keep 'em coming :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks, I'm glad you continue to enjoy them and I'll do my best to keep 'em coming. :-)
DeleteWhat a difference a day makes! Great pictures though. Congratulations on your bloggerversary and yes it really is life-enhancing.
ReplyDeletePatricia x
Tell me about it! I overslept because it was so gloomy this morning. :-) I love taking photos of this tree as it looks so different in changing conditions. Thanks, blogging has been such a great thing to happen to me and I still love it.
DeleteIt's been very foggy and grey here today, as well. Happy 2nd Blogging Birthday. Keep them coming.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Molly. We can't say we weren't warned, as the forecast yesterday was quite explicit. Bother them for being right. I was really enjoying the sun.:-)
DeleteCongratulations on your 2nd Anniversary. Looking forward to many more blogs.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Bonnie. I've no intention of stopping any time soon, as blogging is such fun.
DeleteHappy BlogVersary, Perpetua!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Penny. It's hard to believe it's been 2 years already.
DeleteWonderful - dear Tom! What a wicked sense of humour - and so risqué when he first performed (I'm surprised his University didn't sack him for some of the songs!) My favourite for years (coming from a fellow mathematician) was 'Plagiarise' (or 'Nicolai Ivanovich Lobachevsky'). But the 'Folk Song' ran it a close second. I must look out my DVD set of his stuff and remind myself of them. In the late 70s/early 80s a group including, I think, Andrew Ray (Ted Ray's son) and Julia Mackenzie did a show based on his songs in London, and a friend took me to see it - I ached for quite a time afterwards from laughing so much. They were brilliant.
ReplyDeleteHappy Blogversary: 2 whole years - well done. I can see that it must be somewhat time consuming, judging by the amount of time I spend just following - but I really must get started. I somehow don't think my photos will be up to the standard of so many of the ones I've seen to date, though - even when I've worked out how to do them. I'm full of admiration for so many folk who are so brilliant at photography, let alone the words to accompany the pictures. And I'll need to find out how to get clips from YouTube as I haven't located that yet, either.
My CDs of Tom Lehrer get played regularly and I never tire of them. I'd be hard put to it to pick out one or even two favourites, but this one, plus Rickety-Tickety-Tin and the marvellous version of Clementine are definitely up there in the top five. But to be honest it depends on my mood as I listen which ones particularly tickle me each time. :-) Such very clever words and music.
DeleteThe last two years have sped by, probably because blogging is so time-consuming, but I don't grudge the time as it's also so satisfying, both the writing and the reading of other blogs. As far as getting going is concerned, you really need to read Google's own guides to how to blog and then just make a start. It's what we all did back at the beginning and then learned and improved as we went along.
Go to this page:
http://support.google.com/blogger/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=1623800
and start reading...... :-)
Congratulations on 2 years blogging. Hadn't heard the song before and thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Susan. I'm glad you enjoyed Tom Lehrer's marvellously dry humour. He's a great favourite of mine and if you don't know him well, you can find a lot of his best songs on YouTube.
DeleteGosh, I can't believe it's two years either. Happy anniversary! It's been such a pleasure to get to know you and your writing.
ReplyDeleteTom Lehrer was a great favourite of my late father-in-law's, along with Flanders & Swann. After a good dinner, he would head to the grand piano in the drawing room and bawl out an impromptu concert of favourite songs to his (often rather nonplussed!) dinner guests. This was one of his favourites: I can still hear his voice singing it. Even after Alzheimer's robbed him of speech, he still very much enjoyed it when we sang to him in his care home. Gilbert & Sullivan or F&S songs went down well with the other residents: Tom Lehrer had to be sung rather more sotto voce!
Thanks, DB. Yours was another of the blogs I found quite early on and the pleasure is mutual. :-)
DeleteI do wish I could have met your father-in-law. Anyone who not only loved but knew by heart enough of Tom Lehrer and Flanders and Swann to entertain his guests like this is a man after my own heart. I can easily imagine you continuing to entertain him with his favourite songs and chuckled at the thought of Lehrer being considered slightly too risqué for the other residents. :-)
Happy blog anniversary! *thunderous applause*
ReplyDeleteThanks, Nerima, says she, taking a bow....:-)
DeleteCongratulations Perpetua on two years of blogging. I wonder what I did before I had a blog - no doubt the house was less dusty, but what is a bit of dust between friends. I like your two images with the before and after. It is interesting comparing them both, the undulating fields show up so well in the first, and yet the wall is more prominent in the second.
ReplyDeleteThey say we should all have a hobby in retirement, Rosemary, and blogging is mine. I'm so glad to know I'm not the only person to neglect the housework in favour of the blog. :-)
DeleteThe first photo was taken in the late afternoon with the sun slanting across the fields and the wall in silhouette. Today there was so little visible because of the mist and the light was so flat that I think the camera focussed strongly on the tree and the old wall. Both photos were taken from the the landing window.
What fun! I'll be humming this and Tom will be wondering about me for sure if I start singing it, Perpetua. I love these little ditties you share with us.
ReplyDeleteYour photos are so atmospheric, each in their own way. What a difference a day makes. Still very cold here with a snowstorm predicted. Winter can hang on here in the midwest until March, even April at times.
Happy anniversary. I'm so glad you took that first tentative step two years ago, and that somewhere along the way we connected.
Oh, don't Penny! Lehrer's songs are so catchy and I know them so well that as soon as I listen to one again it's with me for ages. I woke up this morning with this one running through my mind. :-)
DeleteI'm glad you like the photos. I'm always trying to capture the infinite variations of time of day and weather in this view and the difference here was quite striking. I'd heard that the Mid-West is still very cold, so I hope your storm won't be too bad. It's not exactly warm here, but we're not in the same league as you where winter is concerned.
The last two years of blogging have been very happy and I too am glad our paths crossed back in my first year.
That is a fun song – I did not know Tom Lehrer. Happy blog anniversary! After I retired in 2008 I thought I would have to take a hobby but did not know which one. Blogging has brought so many changes to my life and I see it has been much fun in your life too. I know I take a lot more pictures on trips because of my blog.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, today I erased 69 spams messages on my spam page, and about 8 more of them went directly to my blog. I deleted them as you told me, but frankly 77 spam messages in a day is a lot. So I went back to “setting” and changed it so all comments have to be moderated now. I don’t like that, but don’t know what else to do.
Lehrer is one of my musical heroes for his wit and intelligence, Vagabonde. I'm pleased to have introduced you to his songs. It's interesting that you too took up blogging in retirement and found it so fulfilling. I'm certainly glad you did, as I enjoy all your posts immensely.
Deleteoh, don't mention spam! Blogger is having a lot of trouble just now with a new wave of spam which its spam filter is not picking up. I hate comment moderation and word verification, but even I have been forced to switch on comment moderation recently, for all posts older than 30 days. It's such a nuisance and I don't blame you for what you've done. Make sure to mark all the spam as spam though, as this does help to educate the filter.
I feel a new post on the subject coming on.....
Doesn't time fly in blogging world? Two years has gone so quickly, and I am looking forward to many more years of your lovely blog.
ReplyDeleteI can't believe I've been blogging for nearly 4 years now.
It feels like yesterday, which is why I almost missed the anniversary. I certainly hope I can continue as it's hard to imagine life without blogging.
DeleteThanks to Fly yours was one of the very first blogs I discovered and you and she were two of my earliest followers. It's been so much fun. :-)
I didn't know Tom Lehrer, and this was fun! I listen to your Radio 4 at least a couple of times a week, and it always makes me feel closer to you and some of my other blogging friends. I begin to realize what you're experiencing in weather and it really is an amazing way Internet Radio and then blogging relationships has made us all neighbors. I just love it. I'll have my two-year anniversary in May, so I'm not far behind you, and I agree with your thoughts. I never could have foreseen how enriching I find the experience. I'm so glad that in the many blogs "out there" I found yours. I know that I went knocking on your door first. I kept seeing your name on a few of our mutual blogs, and I was initially attracted to the name of your blog. You never know what it is that initially makes us branch out! But it's great. And so happy Anniversary. And yes, what will one more year bring? oxo
ReplyDeleteOddly enough, though I love Lehrer this is only the second of his songs I've posted and the first was before we'd found each other's blogs, so i'm glad to have been the one to introduce you to him. You'd love his other songs and there are lots on YouTube.
DeleteI would never have imagined you in Los Angeles listening to Radio 4, but it's a wonderful thought and it does make the world seem so much smaller. I bet our winter weather forecasts make you shiver though. :-) It must be a good thing that there are so many of us learning about each other's countries and cultures through blogging.
It's hard to remember now but I think you saw my name on Penny and Dee's blogs and left a comment on mine one day. I returned the compliment and it all went on from there. It's pure serendipity (one of my favourite words) and I'm very grateful for it. I shall look forward to your blog's second birthday and many more years of blogging for the two of us.
I love that song, I remember my grandmother singinig it with her mancunian accent. Two years of blogging already? Wow. I'm glad I climbed on you train on it's way through blogoland!
ReplyDeleteIt's sheer brilliance, MM. I'm glad it brings back happy memories of your grandmother. I know you've been blogging for a bit less than me, but believe me the time soon goes. I love the way we stumble across new blogs, in the case of your blog it was thanks to Sarah. :-)
DeleteThank you for the song. I do like that type of dry humour with musical accompaniment on the piano. It takes me back to radio days listening with my parents to musical commentators such as Flanders and Swann. Congratulations on
ReplyDeleteyour blog anniversary!
Thanks, Linda. If you like Flanders and Swann you should enjoy all of Lehrer, as they are very much hewn from the same vein of satire. I've loved both since I first heard them back in the 50s and 60s. Lehrer is as talented a pianist as Donald Swann too.
DeleteTwo years? Well done! Here's to many more!
ReplyDeleteMy mother is a great fan of Lehrer too and I got to hear many of his songs thanks to her and my dad.
Thanks, but two years is nothing compared to your blogging career, Sarah. I've a long way to go to catch up with you. :-)
DeleteWe Lehrer fans have a bad habit of inflicting him on everyone around us, so our two grew up knowing many of his songs by heart.
Happy bloggiversary Perpetua, two years and going strong! You must have started about the same time I did, and I am glad you still enjoy it to, as I do, and that I found your blog too. Your photos are always so lovely and evocative of what I remember of the gentle beauty of the English countryside. Long may you blog!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Patricia. Yes, we started within a few days of each other and I too am glad we came across each other's blogs eventually. Interestingly, few of my photos are of England itself, most of them being split pretty evenly between Mid-Wales and North-West Scotland. I really must start taking a few more of my favourite bits of England. :-)
DeleteCongratulations on your second Blog anniversary Perpetua.
ReplyDeleteLove the photos.
Thanks, PolkaDot. Blogging has certainly kept me happily occupied for the past 2 years and I still find it very addictive. :-) The contrast between those two days was so strong I really had to capture it and this view will always fascinate me.
DeleteAnd just in time for your anniversary, a mystery advert from an admirer!! :-)
ReplyDeleteThese two years have really flown, and I remember your first tentative steps and much agonising about backgrounds, colours and font size!! Congratulations and thanks for the laugh with Mr Lehrer
ROFL!! There's a new wave of spam about, which isn't always caught by Blogger's spam filter, but this was the first to express affection for me. :-)
DeleteAh yes, those anxious days of asking for opinions from you and the others and wondering a) whether anyone would want to read what I wrote and b) whether I would be able to keep it up beyond a handful of posts. It seems ages ago and yet just yesterday.....
Happy Second Birthday to your blog Perpetua & sorry for being a couple of days late in congratulating you. Like others have already said, I enjoy your posts very much, along with your fascinating photos such as the two in this post. Here in Prague, we're also waiting for the weather to improve. We currently have some snow on the ground & more forecast for Sunday.
ReplyDeleteI'm sorry to see that you are suffering from spam. As I write, there are three spam comments immediately before this one. Unfortunately, the more visitors your blog attracts, the more interest you get from spammers. Despite having a simple Captcha on mine with which you are familiar, I still have loads of spam comments that get around it, which I have to delete each day.
As I know I said when you posted a previous Tom Lehrer song, I'm also a great fan, my favourite being 'Pollution' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nz_-KNNl-no
You lead a busy life, Ricky, and I've been a bit behind with my blog reading and commenting too. I'm glad you enjoy my blog as you are partly responsible for its existence in that yours was one of the first blogs I started to read before deciding that blogging looked fun and I wanted to try it. :-) No snow here but the temperature is close to freezing even without the marked wind-chill factor.
DeleteDon't talk to me about spam! As I said in my previous reply, recently there's been a big increase in spam which is formatted differently enough for Blogger's spam filter not to be catching it yet. It's a right pain, as we say oop North, and I'm having to do comment moderation on older posts, but on principle I'm resisting putting it or word verification on current posts unless I absolutely have to.
Thanks for the link. 'Pollution' is another great song. :-)
Obviously the end of the third week in February 2011 was a great time for starting a blog :) May there be many more happy blogging years ahead, for you and me :D
ReplyDeleteIt must have been the weather or something in the water. :D It's certainly a decision I've never regretted, as it's helped me meet so many wonderful people.
DeleteHappy second blogging anniversary, Perpetua! And thanks so much for sharing that wonderful video! I'm so glad you find blogging so rewarding because your posts are a pleasure to read -- and I look forward to reading them for a long time to come!
ReplyDeleteThanks, Kathy, and I'm glad you enjoyed Tom's Lehrer's wonderfully sardonic wit. After two years I'm still finding blogging so satisfying and enjoyable that I don't think you'll be getting rid of me anytime soon. :-) How could I desert my friends?
DeleteDear Perpetua, I am so glad that you began your blog two years ago. (I began that same year in late May.) Your blog is one of my most favorites as your subject matter so often speaks to me of things I want to know more about and experiences I've had or am having and of a philosophy of life that dwells on the essence of peace within and among us. So thank you and congratulations on your 2nd anniversary.
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you also for the Tom Lehrer video. I need to go to YouTube and find more of his songs and his singing. I don't know whether he ever became popular here in the States. I've never heard of him except I think one other time you gave us a video of him singing. Peace.
I think 2011 was a good year for beginning blogs, Dee.:-) Quite a number of the blogs I follow with such enjoyment began that year. I love the way we find blogs whose writers' insights and attitudes chime with ours, even though we are so very different in other ways. This network of friends all over the world is wonderful.
DeleteI think the reason you don't know Tom Lehrer is that he was at the height of his fame during your convent years in the 50s and 60s. He dropped out of sight after that, but has more recently been rediscovered by later generations. I think his songs are so clever and funny.
I wouldn’t even insist on poisoning those pigeons if only spring would make an appearance, no matter how tentative.
ReplyDeleteSadly I think we'll be waiting quite a bit longer for spring to show its face, so the pigeons will have a reprieve. :-)
DeleteHi Perpetua,
ReplyDeleteLoved this post and 'Poisoning Pigeons in the Park' - I've never heard the full version before. Looking forward to seeing more pics and reading about more of your adventures. Best wishes, Lucy (homesickandheatstruck.com)
Hi Lucy and welcome to my blog. I'm starting to think it's my bounden duty to give people the chance to meet or renew their acquaintance with Tom Lehrer. :-)
DeleteYes, my photos must look very different from what you see when you look out of your Dubai window. That's the marvellous thing about blogs - they can take us anywhere.