Wulf's Web-Den

Contrary to the photographic evidence above, I cannot play the piano. I can pick out tunes and block out chords but I cannot make it dance and sing.

I was taking some shots of the piano at church earlier this week and, having got a neat angle on the keyboard with wide-angle perspective (kit lens at 18mm) giving a dramatic diagonal flow to the lines, decided to add some hands to the mix.

However, while I don't play piano and don't have any immediate plans to learn (I'm still working on being a beginner with the flute), I am a musician and so this shot will serve as my latest fiftytwo self portrait.

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I started a reading list post on Wednesday where I mentioned that I like UK based crime novels featuring police detectives as the heroes. I left open the question of which ones. Here is a short list of some of my favourites:

Inspector Morse

Morse is irascible, erratic and brilliant. With Lewis as his foil he works things out even though by a tortuous route. As I recall, Colin Dexter's series helped get me hooked on this sub-genre. I was also fascinated by Morse's mortality - one novel sees him working on a historical mystery while confined to a hospital bed as a side effect of his inchoate lifestyle and the series ends on a bittersweet note as he succumbs to his frailties.

Inspector Wexford

Ruth Rendell's Wexford, by contrast, has a balanced private life and enjoys a strange kind of immortality. While he too has health concerns, albeit not self-inflicted by smoking and drinking, he and his companions age more slowly than the world. I have enjoyed both the early novels where Wexford, a few years short of retirement, gives unexpected insights into the attitudes of the late 60's and early 70's when they were written, as well as the more recent ones when, still a few years short of retirement, Wexford is equipped with mobile phones and computers but continues to serve as an angel of justice.

Time has run out on me - more to come in my next post in this series.

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I have decided to put yesterday's police mystery on old for today. Having being tagged by Andrew last week, I have been mulling over the seven songs challenge:

List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they're not any good, but they must be songs you're really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your 7 songs. Then tag 7 other people to see what they're listening to.

Several of my fellow Lewisham bloggers, like Max and Kate have met the challenge but I have to admit that I'm struggling.

My problem is that I tend not to limit myself to particular songs. For example, the one I most recently listened to (see my last.fm profile) is Mozambique by Emily Remler. She was a great jazz guitarist and is one of my favourites (currently number five in my last.fm artists chart) and I love the song. Is that enough to count it though?

Another track I listened to this morning was Scatter by Manring, Kassin and Darter. That is more seasonal since I only picked up the album when I rejoined emusic.com last month but I'm not sure if this track is the one that is shaping my spring even though I am listening to the album a lot. The same is true of other new albums I am listening to. For example, which should I pick from Branco Stoysin's Quiet Stream Breaks the Rocks (more fantastic jazz guitar)?

The tunes that work their way round my head most are the ones I am performing. For example, there was the bass led arrangement of Beneath the Cross of Jesus that I mentioned on Sunday but there isn't a recording of that anywhere. There are also songs from The Elusive Teeth (Midnight has worked very well the last couple of times we have done it live... into the studio this Sunday to capture another version) or what about the new one I have been writing for The Pico Brown Five, Everything's Normal (Almost). That one has definitely been a regular feature of my mental soundtrack although I haven't even had a chance to try it with the full band yet!

So, all respect to those who have met this challenge but I am going to let it slide for now.

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Back to my reading list project and I am onto the police. Over the past decade I have become familiar with numerous books that share several characteristics: crime novels as part of an ongoing series featuring British police. I have read more widely than that in the crime genre, and discovered some excellent work (like Alexander McCall Smith's novels about Precious Ramotswe), but cannot ignore that notable subset.

Why am I drawn to them? I like the blend of familiar places and customs with the spice of the investigation. I like the chance the older novels give to reflect on what has changed and what has stayed the same in British society. I like the fact that I can generally rely on the case being satisfactorily resolved and justice being done. Most of all, I enjoy my own investigations, piecing together a picture of the leading characters as I encounter them in various tales often (through the vagaries of library shelves) read out of sequence; my own chance to do some detective work.

But which should I pick? I will ponder that for tomorrow. What fun is a mystery if it is resolved too soon?

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I still have a lot of photos from last week to work through but I am feeling an urge to head out the less far-flung climes of my back garden to take yet more. Spring is fully sprung and summer feels like it is coming into land. With ample rain from April showers and now a spell of warmth and light, life is bursting out all over the place.

Our cytisus (broom) is in its full glory and, across the other side of the garden, forget-me-nots and borage bring an answer note of blue with their tiny, delicate flowers. The overall colour though is green - life and hope and (in some cases) food!

I hope I get round to capturing this phase although I am anticipating plenty of future excitement too, as different plants take their turn in the limelight.

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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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