Wulf's Web-Den

I am back to work today after just over a week of holiday; I'd better get going, so no more blogging today!

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Today is the day for the jam hosted by The Pico Brown Five, which I mentioned on Friday. I'm leading worship at church first though, so time to get my song lists printed off and take another run through my jazzy take on Beneath the Cross of Jesus (I thought I had based it on Todd Johnson's A Solo Offering CD, which I have been listening to recently but I see it isn't on the track list so I'll just mark it down as similar inspiration).

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Have I been transformed into a viper? No - this picture shows an adder that I encountered earlier this week while on holiday. Despite being thirty-mumble years old and having spent a fair amount of time in the great outdoors, this is the first time I have set eyes on a specimen of Britain's only poisonous snake and I was fascinating when Jane beckoned me forward on the path and pointed it out, stretched out, basking and nearly immobile.

I took lots of pictures, the best of which you can find on my Flickr account. A combination of the snake's placid attitude and the zoom on my 70-300mm lens let me get in so close that you can see a hint of me reflected in the creature's eye if you look at the full-size version.

Is that enough to qualify as a self portrait for my fiftytwo project? I think so because when I get engrossed in my creative endeavours, such as photography, I often reach a point where it is not about putting myself in the limelight but doing justice to my subject. I am the barest hint of a detail in this shot and that is sometimes the most fulfilling place to be.

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This Sunday afternoon sees The Pico Brown Five return to The Brief on George Street in Croydon. So far this has turned out to be a fairly quiet affair so we have largely used it as a chance to rehearse; this time we are planning more of a party affair.

The plan is for the PB5 to open up the afternoon with a set featuring a few of our favourite things at 3pm, followed by making music with any musicians represented among the assembled friends both in combinations of PB5 +/- and anything else that suggests itself (until 6pm or so). Anything with a hint of jazz is fair game, from Real Book standards to free-flying improvisation.

As well as the sheer joy of making music, there is a hint of ulterior motive. Musicians thrive on contact with other musicians, not just to create but to open or make the most of opportunities that come up. By throwing our afternoon open like this, we hope to meet some new friends, discover new places to play and increase our list of deps when one or more of the PB5 can't make it to a potential gig.

So, come one, come all and, if it appeals, bring your instrument to join in.

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Having just got back from a few days in the countryside and checked with more experienced rustics, I suspect that the "cuckoo" I thought I heard last month was, in fact, a pigeon.

Weak as I may be at identifying bird calls, I think I was right about the spring - I need to get out in the garden and do some tending because my patch is bursting with green life!

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I am not sure how best to categorise the next addition to my reading list, which is Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife. It might well be filed under science fiction but was also a best-seller (deservedly so); speculative fiction would be my speculative placement.

The heart of the book, which has no hard science but plenty of imagination, is that one of the protagonists frequently and inadvertently finds himself taking trips through time; the other is his wife. I wasn't sure what to expect when I started it (chick lit? unreadable pretentiousness?) but by the end, I wished I could jump back a few days and savour the book afresh from the beginning.

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I have not read so much science fiction recently because I have read a lot more detective novels. One that Paul, instigator of the reading list project, set me onto was Blue Shoes and Happiness by Alexander McCall Smith.

It is set in Botswana and the protagonist is Precious Ramotswe, the country's only female detective. The style could hardly be called laconic because, frankly, not much happens compared to the labours of most of the fictional investigators I have followed. However, Mma Ramotswe still achieves an admirable success rate even though the book is as relaxing as sitting down to a cup of rooibos tea.

I have recently also read the first book in the series but, on balance, preferred this recent addition which sees the characters a little more rounded. However, I look forward to filling in the intervening tomes over the next few months (and the recent BBC / HBO adaptation for television is also worth watching).

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