Baby's on Fire

Well, babies on fire strictly speaking. Baby birds. And lots of other wildlife. Thursley Common caught fire last Friday and after blazing all weekend, is still smouldering now.

Last night I awoke at 1:30 a.m. coughing and choking. My immediate thought was that the house was on fire, so I rushed around up and down the stairs before I realised that the wind had changed, and that we were getting a lungfull courtesy of Thursley. I didn't sleep for much of the night, very conscious of the toxic (and by golly they smelled toxic) fumes. I tried shutting the windows, but the current heatwave makes it impossible to settle for long in an airless room. Even now on the Monday we can still see a whisp of smoke from three miles away.

I hadn't realised that we were so close to rare colonies of things like silver-studded blue butterflies, or various insects and reptiles. This article from English Nature goes in to some detail about the species which may have been affected by the fire:

English Nature on the Fire

The daily mail had a dramatic photo from the air:

Daily Mail on the Fire

and the BBC had a rather feeble picture taken from Farnham:

BBC on the Fire

but I think my picture from just outside Tempest Towers takes the biscuit:













To conclude this blog on a happier note, we had a very enjoyable walk around Chantry Woods near Shalford (Surrey) on Sunday. Despite the heat, it was relatively cool beneath the trees. There are some fantastic views from up there:

In-A-Gadda-Da-Godalming

Here, after much techno-fiddling is the complete 36 minute Tangerine Dream-athon that is The Rain Clouds Gather But The Fire Burns. This is a track that I spent quite a few evenings toiling over shortly after I'd got the new music PC earlier this year.

In order to upload the file I had to reduce the quality to 80kb/s, and the file is still 21MB. I wouldn't recommend trying to download this with a dial up connection.

The track is kind of a homage to the Tangs. I always loved that combination of mellotron and sequence that they mastered in their Phaedra and Rubycon period. I've tried to stretch it further and put my own stamp on it, but the influence is too obvious to deny.

The Rain Clouds Gather but the Fire Burns (mp3 21mb)

Brightness on the Edge of Town

This week I've been painting for the first time in years, and I've loved every minute. The inspiration was these photos of the beach at Selsey (Sussex)where I grew up, and where my family live:















I knew I wanted another triptych, and Sue wanted some bright colours, as the colour scheme in the house is very neutral. I did lots of sketches, which is unusual for me. Eventually I felt I was getting close to realising my idea. I wanted a big splash of summer vibrance. I painted one picture and did the washes and main background for the other two.














To cut a long story short, here is the finshed piece, hung on our landing wall:














I like this view:



















I know they aren't very subtle, but I love the warm glow they exude.

We had some friends from work to visit today, and they were delightful company. It is wonderful for me to see some friendly faces at our new home, as it seems so far away from my old London haunts. I chanced upon some lovely salad recipes to use, which was fortunate as it was a very hot day. Unfortunately by the time we had eaten and watched the inevitable exit of England from the World Cup, everyone had to leave. And I hadn't even managed to blast them with any home made noise. Tarnation...