"You're All Wierdos!"

That's what a colleague of mine said when I started to tell her about the evening at Baskerville Hall last week. I'd been telling her about the tribute to David Bowie that happened early on in the evening. Huw the Poet had written down a few thoughts, entitled On The Day that David Bowie Died, and I sang Life on Mars as my TV theme of the week.
I didn't even start to tell her about Susan's contribution to the evening. She handed round copies of a Breugel painting, The Fall of Icarus, to go with a poem she recited. Poor old Icarus is not, as you might think, the most important part of the painting, but just a tiny pair of legs disappearing into the sea in the middle distance.
"Will there be homework?" Archie asked. And when it was her turn to perform again, she read out Mrs Icarus, by Carol Ann Duffy (Mrs Icarus was not very impressed with her high flying husband).
Bob sang The Wild Welsh Drovers - to a famous Irish tune.
And Mike, or "Mr Stainless Steel" as Brian calls him, because of a song he once sang about the invention of stainless steel in Sheffield, sang several songs about Wainwright, who wrote and illustrated the famous walking books around the fells and the Lake District. Near the end of the evening, he mentioned that he had got together with some friends to make a CD on the theme of Alfred Wainwright's life, and he just happened to have a copy. I'd been enjoying the songs so much that I asked for one, and it is very good, touching on some of the more painful parts of Wainwright's life as well as the hill-walking (his first wife didn't seem to get much enjoyment out of the marriage). Mike has a website at www.mikerimmington.co.uk
And Bob Evans' CD Just An Opinion is also still available. He can be contacted on bobevans.powys@btinternet.com
It's really nice to have CDs performed by people I know!