MUSINGS FROM THE BOWER 39

The apple blosssom looked stunning against the blue sky

When Paul McCartney sang ‘When I’m 64’ in the 1960s, we youngsters thought it hilarious. What a great age 64 was!  We’d try to picture the Beatle singing the song when he really was 64 (which would be in 2006 or thereabouts) – it was just unimaginable. The Liverpool Sound was young music, music for girls in miniskirts with pale lips and lashings of mascara. It wasn’t for ‘oldies’. Our parents thought the music from the groups was, in the main, a dreadful noise – they liked Frank Sinatra or Ruby Murray. When that Liverpool Sound first made an impact, it was as though the whole of the music industry had been struck by lightning. One minute we were listening to gentle lilting songs mainly from solo artists – and then, Pow! Almost overnight, we were awash with groups. The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Gerry and the Pacemakers, Billy J.Kramer and the Dakotas, The Swinging Blue Jeans, The Searchers, The Who, The Merseybeats, The Animals and many others. Remarkably, many of the groups are still around, still touring and performing today.

Meeting Gerry of Gerry and the Pacemakers

Last night I caught up with one of them – Gerry and the Pacemakers. They were performing at a local theatre in Bishop’s Stortford, and I was amazed how the music and the songs sounded just as I remembered them from my youth. Gerry still has the voice; that unique, distinctive sound that carries ballads such as ‘Don’t Let the Sun Catch You Crying’ and ‘Ferry Cross the Mersey’ and, of course, ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. Naturally, he sang his bouncy hits as well, including ‘How Do You Do What You Do To Me?’ and ‘I Like It’. After the show I was talking to Steve, the lead guitarist, who said that Gerry has so much energy, he just goes on and on, and unlike many other older artists, his voice still hits the same key, so the band don’t have to make any musical changes. I met Gerry too and told him how much I enjoyed the show. He complimented me on the colour of my dress – I rather think it was because it reminded him of his beloved Liverpool Football team!

Same dress, different event - doll fair in Barton

Last week I went to Preston to attend a doll fair. My daughter and I publish a quarterly doll magazine, Doll Showcase, and sometimes we have a stall at a doll fair to promote the magazine and also to sell the doll books that I have written. The fair was run by a lady called Roberta and held in Barton Village Hall, and is an event we have been to several times before. For any doll collectors in the area, I thoroughly recommend these doll fairs which take place four times a year – they are so friendly and there are plenty of dolls and doll accessories to see.

Photo grabbed from the car - and another below. Not too blurry!

Unfortunately, as we were only staying for a couple of nights – at the Preston Ibis, a hotel that we hadn’t used before, but was very pleasing – we were unable to see much of the incredibly beautiful scenery of the area. In the past, we have made visits to the stunning Trough of Bowland, which is a valley and high pass in the Forest of Bowland. The views are stupendous. We have also visited Brockholes nature reserve, but this time we didn’t have the time to go exploring – we just managed a quick drive after the fair, so I had to be content with admiring the view and taking photos from the car window. (It’s okay, I was a passenger!) Even so, we saw some of the beautiful countryside, the bluebells, the gorse and the sheep and cows. It’s a bit of a hit and miss thing, trying to take photos from the car, as usually they come out blurred if you use the side window, while if you take them through the windscreen, though they may be sharper, you tend to get other cars and lots of road!

Over the past month or so I have been bothered by sciatica. First thing in the morning it is agonising, just like a knife at the bottom of my spine and shooting through my legs, but as I get walking it dulls to an ache. Often, though, my legs feel wobbly, so I can’t walk very far. The doctors have given me various tablets, which take the edge off the pain, but I think it is just one of those things that will eventually get better on its own, and I must just put up with it.

The blossom around the bower

 Clematis around the bower is just coming into flower

It hasn’t stopped me enjoying the garden though. The blossom, especially on the apple and crab apple trees, has been stunning this year. As you might expect, the view from the bower is delightful, and now the pink clematis that climbs up one of the main supports is just starting to flower, too. Although the weather hasn’t been too good, we have had a few sunny days. Yesterday morning, the sky was a clear blue with not a cloud to be seen, and the blossom looked magical, enlivened even more by the blue tits, robins and squirrels who were all seemingly enjoying exploring the branches. The petals are just beginning to fall now which is a shame, so the lawn looks as though it has been sprinkled with confetti. They are probably not doing the small pond much good, though – they will need skimming off the water surface. But it’s a small price to pay for the gorgeous blossom, and hopefully, a good crop of fruit – certainly the bees have been busy.

Years ago I was speaking to someone who had a beautiful neat garden, and she told me she ‘hated’ fruit trees and would never grow them because of the mess their petals made. To me, though, the beauty of the blossom more than makes up for any ‘mess’ caused by petal drop. To sum up, in the words of Gerry and the Pacemakers (even though he didn’t have blossom in mind at the time), ‘I like it – are you liking it too?’!