THE BELLS ..... THE BELLS ..........

I guess we all have good things and bad things about where we live. One of the lovely things about where our house is, is that it's a stones throw away from the 600 year old C of E church, built between 1418-1448,  with evidence of an older church on the same site, dedicated to St John the Baptist. 

The bells ring out every Sunday and for every wedding { if the happy couple have paid for bells !!! } We also hear them a few evenings a week when they practice and they are rung whenever there is a significant celebration. 

I took the above little video at 9.45 a.m this morning, the bells calling people to the Holy Eucharist service { you have to have the volumne up high to hear the bells ! }. I know a bit about the church, not because we go but because our son was a choir boy there. I think I might have told you this but, when he was seven, he came out of school saying the choirmaster had visited asking boys if they would like to join the choir { it was all boys then but they have girls now } and he said he did !!! He went on to get his grades in singing, then a degree in music and now works in the music industry..... he was born with the music gene !

Our garden is going over now but it did look nice in the Spring and Summer !!! 

XXXX

SNOWFLAKES ARE DANCING ..... ISAO TOMITA .....

Snowflakes are dancing here in Hertfordshire. 

Award winning Isao Tomita performing one of Claude Debussy's finest melodies, Clair De Lune ..... from his 1974 masterpiece album, ' Snowflakes Are Dancing '.

Turn the volume right up and stick with it 'till the end ..... I've been listening to this since 1974 !! ........ it is such a haunting interpretation of this well known piece.

video: YouTube

THE PARTY'S OVER ..........

Well, the swimming cossies have been rinsed, dried off and packed away with the goggles. The hockey sticks, track suits, batons and spikes, oars and canoes, bikes and balls, tail-coats and top hats, nose clips and hair gel, boats, wetsuits, racquet's, guns, and bows and arrows have all been put away for another four years, but what a brilliant time we've all had ( well, most of us !!)

After a Closing Ceremony of fun, classic British music, iconic singers, bands, dancers and a ' right good knee's up ', it was time to hand over the Olympic flag and...........

.......... to extinguish the Olympic flame for another four years.

Even John Lennon and Freddy Mercury turned up ..... that's how good it was ..... but the party's over and it's time to hand over to Rio.

Here's to the athletes, the coaches, the games makers, the builders, the gardeners, the BBC coverage, London Transport, the overwhelming support of the spectators for all of the athletes, not just for our own, and for everyone who made these Olympic Games the best EVER !

I'll have to get off of the sofa now and do something a little more active ......... but, I'm not heading for the gym .......... that would just be going a little too far. I might have enjoyed the Games but that's as good as it gets !!

I don't know about you but I've had a ball !!

images 1, 2 & 3: via Reuters, image 4: via mysinchew, image 5: via Matt Dunham ( Associated Press), image 6: via J C. Hong ( Associated Press)