That’s a beautiful version of Coventry Carol, Rosie. I didn’t know its origins. One of my favourites, but I had to duck out of singing it with choir the other night. So poignant and melancholic.
Glad you had good memories of a British winter to take home with you to New Zealand.
I am increasingly disenchanted with the ridiculousness of Christmas , with religions in general and with the idea that a strange little man is planning to slide down a gazillion chimneys on December 24. But I too will sneak into churches to listen to choirs sing, and while (unlike my mother) I don’t have carols playing incessantly during the season, I do enjoy playing the Coventry Carol on my tenor saxophone…it makes utter magic of the melody.
That churchyard has lots of little treats. My favourite is the tomb of Sir John Stone which features a stone kiosk that was the inspiration for Giles Gilbert Scott's design of the classic red telephone box. And I still mourn the loss of the Hardy Tree!
That's the one. Before he made it as a playwright, Thomas Hardy was an architect in charge of excavating the graveyard to make way for the new railway. He arranged the gravestones around a young tree that eventually grew around and through the stones.
The northern hemisphere fixed my relationship with Christmas; in midwinter I NEED candle light, and foliage in the house. It also has made me nostalgic for our wonky southern hemisphere version, just because I can’t have it. I look forward to wearing a Santa hat on the beach with my red bikini, eating warm ham, drinking warm beer.
That’s a beautiful version of Coventry Carol, Rosie. I didn’t know its origins. One of my favourites, but I had to duck out of singing it with choir the other night. So poignant and melancholic.
Glad you had good memories of a British winter to take home with you to New Zealand.
Plant music sounds niche but fascinating!
I am increasingly disenchanted with the ridiculousness of Christmas , with religions in general and with the idea that a strange little man is planning to slide down a gazillion chimneys on December 24. But I too will sneak into churches to listen to choirs sing, and while (unlike my mother) I don’t have carols playing incessantly during the season, I do enjoy playing the Coventry Carol on my tenor saxophone…it makes utter magic of the melody.
That churchyard has lots of little treats. My favourite is the tomb of Sir John Stone which features a stone kiosk that was the inspiration for Giles Gilbert Scott's design of the classic red telephone box. And I still mourn the loss of the Hardy Tree!
Was that the tree with all the gravestones ranged around it? I saw it cut down and chopped up, if so
That's the one. Before he made it as a playwright, Thomas Hardy was an architect in charge of excavating the graveyard to make way for the new railway. He arranged the gravestones around a young tree that eventually grew around and through the stones.
I couldn't work out how it had managed to swallow so many gravestones so close together
Lovely transporting writing Rosie
Apparently the mistletoe-kissing thing is mostly Dickens's fault- read all about mistletoe here: https://overthefield.substack.com/p/a-very-festive-parasite
I knew nothing about Saint Bride’s, but I have since found out it is one of the oldest churches in London: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_Bride%27s_Church
The peril of backwards magic :) Yes!
The northern hemisphere fixed my relationship with Christmas; in midwinter I NEED candle light, and foliage in the house. It also has made me nostalgic for our wonky southern hemisphere version, just because I can’t have it. I look forward to wearing a Santa hat on the beach with my red bikini, eating warm ham, drinking warm beer.
We could invent the beach-harp
We need to write some new songs
My Mum reminded me of this amazing rendition of Tapu te Pō by angel-voice Marlon Williams... https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=LLvkazL0J70