Written in the months after my mother’s death. I haven’t created much since we moved here, but sometimes things need to be written, so it was back to the computer and keyboard.
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There’s a stretch of road between Talog and Meidrim where the verge and hedgerow is quite overwhelming in its richness and beauty. I don’t go that way too often but over the years this song – about Spring in Wales – has gradually emerged.
Special thanks to David Thomas for help with the welsh bit which was both daunting and exciting to do, and also to Caerthan for helping with the mix, which my deaf ears can’t quite manage on their own.
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So I felt I needed to capture the moment. It was the end of March 2020, and the country had just gone into lockdown because of the coronavirus pandemic …
The tune is one I have used before (well why not?), but the lyrics are pretty much spur of the moment – the stuff that was going through my head at that time. Lockdown here has not been hard – we have a field and a bit of woodland to walk in. I’ve never taken them for granted, but right now they seem like sheer magic.
I had thought my singing(?) days were over – it’s just so hard trying to mix music when you’re half deaf, and vocal tracks really stretch me at the best of times, but hey ho, this song needed it, so I bite the bullet …
Cherry-Blossom.mp3 (6 MB)
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Originally written for ‘The Time Now Standing” a community theatre production in Exmouth, back in 1995. When I used to work for Exeter and Devon Arts Center. We were creating story snapshots from our own lives, one of which was of a women who used to walk her dogs on a hill near Exmouth, giving her time to reflect, re-energise and escape. The story was worked into the play, with an earlier version of this music.
Twenty years later I am living on my own hill and I find the music has returned as I walk my own dog, reflect and re-energise (not escaping though). The hill lies east of Talog, near Carmarthen in West Wales and we look north-west over the village and the Cywyn valley. The music is simpler despite being asked to stand on its own with no words, unlike the earlier version.
Dedicated to Liz, her dogs, and hill-lovers everywhere.
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It has been an exceptionally beautiful spring here at Pistyll Gwyn. Good weather, multitudes of wild flowers and birds and the crowning glory of the hawthorn blossom. We have many hawthorn trees and this year’s display has been spectacular.
This piece of music evolved over the spring months and has come together today, as the end of May approaches and the hawthorn blossom starts to fall, heralding the start of summer.
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