Another day gone

I'm only nine hours behind...
Behind what?
Behind in reading the postings of my fellow bloggers.
As soon as I get near catching up someone posts a new blog.
One day...

Granny made a comment on my Butts and Pieces posting about having given up wood-turning because she could never achieve the standard she set herself. How often do we do that in life? I remember attempting - very briefly - as a child to learn the piano. Because I couldn't instantly play Beethoven's Piano Concerto, I gave up. Later in life I tried again and had I learned my lesson? Of course not. After having mastered the first few bars of Fur Elise I gave up. It required too much effort and, more to the point, I felt I would never be good enough to satisfy myself. The same applies to painting. Every now and then I have a spell of painting and sketching but rarely is the result up to the standard I would like to achieve. But there is one big difference here. I carry on. Just occasionally one is satisfactory and, more to the point, the process of trying is enjoyable. It can be hard to accept that we aren't all brilliant at what we attempt but everything is relative. I expect Michelangelo was rarely satisfied with what he painted but it looks pretty good to me.


Fortunately I am less exacting in my photography. I often photograph things 'just for the record'. So whilst I have lots of better photos of Common Blue butterflies I am just as pleased to have got this one today because it is the first time I have seen one here on the croft. Indeed, so far as I can recall it is only the second Common Blue I have seen on Lewis - the other being at The Bridge to Nowhere.

There were lots of other things on the croft and when I have time they will go in a posting on my Hebridean blog but for the moment here are :-


A pair of mating Green-veined Whites.


A beetle - as yet unidentified. It appears to be a species I haven't photographed before.


A hoverfly - species as yet unidentified. Yes, it's a hoverfly not a bee. One can tell by the veins on the wings. So there is no need to be afraid of this chap, it doesn't sting. It uses its similarity to a bumble bee to deter birds from eating it.

I know not everyone gets as excited as me about insects, so to round the posting off in typical style - with something completely different...


A still life.

May you all have a still life today.
 

AROUND the Piano

When I was young New Year's Eve always consisted of a visit from Aunty Dolly and Uncle Ernie and Aunty Ella (later on with her sister Elsie). We would gather round the piano and Mum would play all the favourite oldies with everyone else singing - Dad and Uncle Ernie to the fore. Sometimes there would be other occasions during the year when visitiors like Uncle JPD and Aunty Muriel would sing along to Mum's playing. These are some of the songs I can recall being sung -

Scarlet Ribbons (for her hair)
Underneath the Arches
You made me do it (I didn' wanna do it)
All through the night
Blue Moon
I'm Gonna Sit Right Down and Write Myself a Letter
Pennies from Heaven
The Lambeth Walk
The Sun has Got his Hat On
You must have been a Beautiful baby
Run Rabbit Run
We'll meet again
Hang out the Washing on the Siegfried Line
Old Man River
Swing Low Sweet Chariot
All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth
There's no business like show business
I've Got A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts
There's a little white house on a little green hill where the red, red roses grow...

I think there were also some Rodgers and Hammerstein and Irving Berlin songs from the various musicals of the 50s and early 60s but which ones I'm not sure. I suspect "The King and I" provided some of them as it was by far Mum's favourite musical.