Pear Blossoms

I don't have any magnolia pictures to share this year. Last year, when I hired a tree trimmer to cut down an ash tree that was dying from an ash borer infestation, the tree trimmer had to cut back the magnolia to gain access to the ash tree. Several tree trimmers have told me that tree limbs need to grow upwards. The magnolia in the yard was shaped more like a willow with the branches nearly touching the ground. It was a great place to get pictures of the blossoms in the spring and to stay cool in the summer. This year, however, it was difficult to get any pictures because the branches are so high now.

In place of the magnolia blossoms, I am adding pictures of two pear trees that were in bloom last week. It was cloudy the first day; the sun appeared on the second day when I was taking pictures. We have since had a frost, and I haven't been back to see how the blossoms have fared. Another frost is expected next week.

Our Short Winter Seems to Have Ended

Like winter elsewhere in the world, winter where I live seems to have ended as well. I am adding a couple of sunset pictures from the last day of February when the temperature reached 63 degrees Fahrenheit (or 17 degrees Celsius).

It might be a few more weeks before the magnolia blossoms start opening. I noticed earlier today that some of the grass in the park across the street from where I live has started to turn green.

I was lucky to get the picture of the geese in the last picture here. I had turned away and was starting to walk back toward the car when I heard the geese and quickly turned around to get that shot.

My wife and I sometimes fantasize about having a house with an unobstructed view of the west, making it possible to capture the sunset every day.  Our view of the sunset currently is obstructed by hills. On Sunday, we drove about ten or fifteen miles south to a secluded spot to get these pictures.

A Writing Challenge

My wife challenged me to write two poems during the break that we had from our classes. Every year, there is a two or three week break between the end of the fall semester and the start of the spring semester. This time the break was longer than normal—five weeks or so. The last week was devoted to preparing for the spring semester; the remainder was spent celebrating the holidays and writing both for this blog and for myself. I thought for a little while that I had retired because of how much free time that I had.

Before classes ended in December, I had played with the idea of repainting part of the house. It’s what my father would have done with his time if he were in my situation. This house of mine certainly could use some fresh paint on the inside. My asthma has always been a deterrent. Any painting on the inside probably should be done in warmer weather when it is possible to open the windows.

On New Year’s Eve, we stopped at a local liquor store to pick up a bottle of wine, one with a low percentage of alcohol, say, 8% or 9%. While there, we ran into a friend who says she works at this particular store on weekends and during the holidays. I thought to myself that I should have tried getting a similar kind of part-time job during this break from school. Devoting that amount of time to a part-time job may have helped me focus more of my energy.

Writing poetry on a regular basis has always been a problem for me. I sometimes think that earning a Master of Fine Arts in creative writing would have helped me in developing a regular writing habit. Learning that skill would have been more helpful than taking more literature classes while earning yet another advanced degree.

Not writing regularly has limited my production when I should have been recording many more of the things that have occurred in my life. I need to train myself, still, to devote a few minutes every day to writing.

During this break from classes, I initially took an early draft of a poem that I had written years ago and developed it into a much stronger poem. For the other poem, I wrote something new. It was a poem that I had been thinking about but had not yet found the words for what I wanted to say. This new poem is less polished than the other one and may undergo many more changes. In any case, I fulfilled what my wife had challenged me to do. Some of my time also went to reworking two other poems, and I started another new poem while I was working on my classes.

I am not prepared to share these poems at this point, however. It is a good feeling to write more regularly. I suppose I need to be challenged more often.

Jazz Selections for 2019

My selections for those jazz albums that were released in 2019 and deserve attention appear below.

Matthew Halsall, Oneness. This new album contains tracks recorded in 2008, a year before Matthew Halsall released Colour Yes. The same meditative quality found on "Together" and "I’ve Been Here Before," two tracks that appear on Colour Yes, is present in this previously unreleased material. A similarity can also be found in "Samatha," a track appearing on the album On the Go, which was released in 2011. The track "Oneness" seems to characterize the album because it opens on a quiet note, with Matthew Halsall’s trumpet most prominent at first before he is accompanied by Rachel Gladwin on harp and Gavin Barras on bass. Once Gaz Hughes’ drums appear at 4:07, and Nat Birchall’s saxophone appears at 4:15, the track adopts a much more upbeat tone up until 6:57 when the piano becomes the dominant voice, with the trumpet returning at 10:14 to bring the track to completion. Both "Life," the first track, and "Stan’s Harp," the third track, exemplify this quieter tone. One thing I like about "Life" is Rachel Gladwin’s harp solo starting at 7:27. Gavin Barras’ bass becomes more prominent, beginning with "Loving Kindness," the fourth track. I especially like Birchall’s saxophone and Stan Ambrose’s harp on "Loving Kindness" and "Distant Land," the fifth track. The rhythm section composed of Gavin Barras and Chris Davies on tabla are particularly noteworthy on "Stories from India," the sixth track. Also of note about "Stories from India" is the interplay between Halsall’s trumpet and Mohamed Assani’s sitar. Assani’s solo at 5:50 serves as the copestone to that track. This album strikes me as one of the best of the year. Sometimes when I’m listening to this music while driving, I have to remind myself to pay attention to my driving because I become so enamored with the music.

Bagland, Cirkel. Cirkel contains many of the same musicians who appeared on Jakob Sorensen’s Bagland, which was released in 2015, that is, Alex Jonsson on guitar, Mathias Jaeger on piano/synthesizer, Frederik Sakham on double bass, Frej Lesner on drums, and Jakob Sorensen on trumpet. Sorensen’s Nomad album hinted at good things to come and was featured in my list of the best releases for 2016. Sorensen in his description of Cirkel says that it “features a new pallet of sounds including distorted drums, synthesizer and spacey guitar and trumpet effects leading to curious interplay and a more modern sound.”  The “trumpet effects” are most noticeable in the tracks "Cirkel," "Ageposten," and "Bryllup" while the “spacey guitar…effects” are most noticeable in the tracks "Open end Pt. 1," "Steps," "Cirkel," and "Ageposten." Sorensen in his description of the album adds that “the melodies are lyrical, and the music contains both hope and happiness, longing and melancholia.” The entire album, in fact, is influenced by the Skagen painters, who were active in the town of Skagen, at the northernmost tip of Jutland (Denmark), during the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Like the previous albums Bagland and Nomad, there remains a group dynamic and more of an emphasis on the melody than on any one instrument. For someone approaching this album for the first time, I recommend the tracks "Cirkel" and "Drapeau Blanc."  For me, the entire album captures my attention.

Soren Bebe Trio. Echoes. Soren Bebe released Echoes, his most recent trio album, in 2019. It had been three years since he released Home. Like the previous album by Soren Bebe’s trio, Echoes asks to be enjoyed at those quieter times of day so as to fully appreciate the nuances found in the music. The album Echoes differs slightly because it reveals Soren Bebe giving more space to his trio and emphasizing his sense of place. That sense of place is revealed in his interpretations of two traditional Danish songs--"Kærlighedstræet" and "Jeg er træt og går til ro." Kasper Tagel’s bass is noticeable on many of the tracks, such as "Echoes," "Waltz for Steve," "Alone," "New Beginning," and "Sospiri, Op.70."  Anders Mogensen’s drumming presents a sense of closure to "Homeward" and becomes more evident in "New Beginning," which foreshadows what might be forthcoming in subsequent albums. Rightly so, Soren Bebe says that he is “super proud of this album.” Echoes is Soren Bebe’s best album to date and gets my recommendation as an album of the year.