Archive for the ‘Inspirations’ Category

A taste of elsewhere

Posted by Susan Tomes on 25 February 2021 under Daily Life, Inspirations, Teaching  •  1 Comment

In a cheese shop the other day, conversation turned to exotic cheeses and someone mentioned Gjetost, the Norwegian goat’s milk cheese which looks like a block of fudge and has a distinctive, caramel element to its taste. It’s a cooked cheese made with whey and cream, very rich and usually eaten in wafer-thin slivers. Mention […]

Larks ascending

Posted by Susan Tomes on 21 February 2021 under Daily Life, Inspirations, Travel  •  2 Comments

One of our regular walks in the nearby hills takes us past a cornfield, which we discovered in the first lockdown. It was Spring then, and the field was softly green. We were thrilled to see larks emerging from their hiding-places among the rows of corn, rising up into the sky and singing when they […]

Janis Joplin documentary, ‘Little Girl Blue’

Posted by Susan Tomes on 11 February 2021 under Concerts, Inspirations  •  3 Comments

This week we watched Amy Berg’s 2015 documentary about Janis Joplin, ‘Little Girl Blue‘, which tells Janis’s story with the help of letters she wrote to her family while on tour. It’s an absorbing watch, full of great footage, excellent interviews with her family, friends and bandmates, and touching insights into Janis’s evolution from spiky […]

Burns’ Night

Posted by Susan Tomes on 26 January 2021 under Books, Inspirations  •  2 Comments

Last night, on Burns’ Night, my book group met on Zoom to read Robert Burns’ poem ‘Tam O’Shanter’. Several members of the group had grown up taking part in annual Burns recitations on January 25, with prizes given for the best or most dramatic performances. They recalled the sound effects and props used by winning […]

Learning to play the spoons in lockdown

Posted by Susan Tomes on 10 January 2021 under Daily Life, Inspirations  •  1 Comment

Last weekend, reading the Guardian Review, I was struck by a comment of Joe Moran’s about having learned to play the spoons in lockdown. I was vaguely aware of spoons as musical instruments, but a bit of research put me in the picture: spoons have long been used to produce percussive rhythm in folk music […]