It’s May

It’s been pouring rain for the past couple of days, and the temperature remains in the single digits for the most part, along with high winds.  Thankfully we haven’t been affected by power outages, although I’ve heard that there are areas suffering darkness.  Jerry doesn’t like the sound of the wind; it makes him very clingy, and he growls at it.  It’s worse when the wind picks up and blows from the east, as then it rattles the windows.  Don is completely exhausted today, after cheering his preferred teams to victory last night.  (His team won a couple days ago, and he wanted them to play a particular team in the next round; they won; then he was rooting for another team so he could get a particular paring in the finals.  I feign interest, but really tune out)  Yesterday I had a rush of energy and I cooked meatballs (that I made the day before) in a tomato, mushroom and pumpkin sauce with some pasta.  I was just clearing the freezer, although the pumpkin was a surprisingly tasty addition.  My plate yesterday was 2 meals, and today I managed a scrambled egg.  I think that the new pill is effective.  Once again, a photo of Trinidad; this is the south-east road to Mayaro, which passes through an old coconut estate and the sea is nearby.

It’s May… and as I’ve done for many years, I was listening to the song The Lusty Month of May from Lerner & Lowe’s Camelot.  That’s one of my favourite movies — I know the lyrics for all the songs, and most of the dialogue, even though it’s been over 25 years since I last saw it.  I’ve always loved the Arthur legend (and Robin Hood, incidentally) and I’d collected a number of books on it, including the 14th century La Morte d’Artur and then The Once and Future King (based on Mallory’s work and used as the basis for the movie.)  I know that there will be a lot of people sniggering at my preferences, but I’m not concerned.  Modern historians agree that both Arthur and Robin are strongly mythologized, and their alleged accomplishments are a blend of several people.  As for Merlin — he who lived backwards — I’m always heartbroken at his story.  I got a collection of Tolkein’s Arthurian tales (Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, etc) and lost myself in the tales of long ago chivalry.  The stories seem to be less popular than they once were, although the themes still appear in disguise, frequently in fantasy works, and they’re still broadly understood (although all too often incorrectly!)  Every May, therefore, I go through some of the songs from the movie and sing along (badly) because I just love them so much.  My preference is surprisingly not Julie Andrews, but Vanessa Redgrave.  I also have never just listened to the one song, but I play almost the whole soundtrack, so today Jerry was giving me some odd looks as I belted out If Ever I would leave you; C’est moi and, of course, the title track.  I admit to having some outdated preferences.  My mother and aunts really loved all the movie musicals from the 1950s and we watched them all; when we got our first VCR we watched many of them repeatedly.  I confess that I don’t remember large chunks of Sound of Music and although I enjoyed visiting Salzburg because of it, it’s not my favourite.  I love My Fair Lady, Showboat, Cinderella, Slipper and the Rose and Wizard of Oz — until I was about 13, I honestly thought that Rogers & Hammerstein were the only songwriting team in existence.  I’ve broadened my listening since, but I still have this rite of listening to this song every May.  Do you have any practices like this?

Someone introduced me to the acronym “TL;DR” lately (too long, didn’t read) and I was quite disappointed to find that it appears on articles that are under 100 words.  It’s shocking to me, really.  I’d use it on most of Tolstoy and a couple of Dickens, but otherwise, I’m happy to lose myself in pages of text.  Anyway, before someone appends that to my blogs, I’m off to play with the tiny dictator who is reluctantly allowing me to crochet (I have a deadline on this piece, and I had to frog about a quarter as I somehow lost count and added in too many pattern repeats, making it needlessly bigger and more complicated!  Incidentally, “to frog” a piece means to “rip it, rip it” 😉)  Good night!