2007

FRIDAY 5th OCTOBER 2007

Qol Ibri

8.12pm. A great day! Jim arrived at 7.25pm (I was upstairs, just changed into night attire) with a copy of Niek’s Qol Ibri. Within five minutes Niek phoned me to ask if I had got it & did I know what day it was? -- Jesus’ birthday “according to Davidson”, he chuckled, knowing that I disagree. And in his “Table of Dates” (pages 66-67) he employs “my” O.T. chronology & gives “my” date, & then Davidson’s for Jesus’ birth in case I am wrong. I guess Jim has had something to do with this as my Notes on Bible Chronology is not yet published. I am overjoyed that Niek’s book is published at last. I kept on at Jim earlier in the year to get Jim’s book finished – if Niek were to die on the meantime, he (Jim) would never forgive himself. Niek’s is a great accomplishment, based on Frederick Weinreb’s teaching, & a valuable introduction to the Bible Hebrew & its esoteric significance.

By coincidence, we returned from a wonderful, sunny day spent at Sanders Garden World & then at Weston, returning at 3.15pm. At 3.25pm I began a letter to Niek about my feeling to compose a “Symphony-Oratorio” entitled The Apocalypse. Lacking any formal training in music the idea is absurd BUT if I were to supply the libretto, based entirely on Jesus’ words in the Gospels & John’s in The Revelation, & sang some of the music onto a tape, then something could come of it. For fifty years I have been “singing in the Spirit”, the language & music of which I have no human understanding. But I sing with all my heart, the tears streaming down my face. I “hear” the music in my soul.

SATURDAY 6th OCTOBER

Oratorio

9.34pm. I slept for about 3 hours last night. When I woke at 8.15am, all four parts of the “Oratorio” were clear in my mind, the participants, the words, & two motifs which recur from time to time. One is “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me” & the other, “We will not have this man to reign over us”. Now where does all this come from? I have had “ideas” before, such as the “Smallbrains” strip cartoon. But this is Biblical & historic truth communicated – if I am able to pursue it – through music. I have often said “I shall be a composer-conductor” in a “future” life.

I washed up after breakfast then worked in the garden until lunch time. After lunch I slept & then had a bath. No one has phoned or called all day & there have been no letters as there is a postal strike.

FRIDAY 19th OCTOBER

Wig Creations

8.10pm. A lovely day. I was up by 6.45am & worked at intervals throughout the day on the 1955 Diary, mainly expanding my sermon notes which I can do only as I touch the spirit of the preacher. Many of the sermons are inspiring: today’s anaemic offerings bear no comparison.

After breakfast Freda took over the washing up, releasing me to write a letter to Clarice. This finished, I delayed going to the Post Office until the post had arrived. There was a card from Charlotte & Matthew, their photo on the front, thanking us for the £100 we gave them, a letter from the Library to say that The Clevedon Branch has now become available & is waiting for me to collect it. Well, of course, it was I who returned it on Tuesday! There was a letter from Ken Birrell informing me that he is not the “Kenneth Birrell” whom I saw in the Folies Bergère in 1951 – he wishes he was!

There was also a nice letter from Pamela Green in which she tells me that in 1954 she found a red wig in “Wig Creations” in London & so created “Rita Landré”, a French cabaret singer who was six inches taller than she & so never appeared live. The added height was obtained by a lower camera angle, a device I used to make Janet look taller the last time I photographed her, up a mountain in Wales (Tuesday 19th September 1978). Pamela also created another character, a Moroccan beauty named “Princess Somnar”, with black hair & very dark complexion. Eventually Pamela owned up to being “Somnar” but not to Rita. So Ken was not “Kenneth Birrell” & so could tell me nothing about the Folies backstage, while Pamela was “Somnar” but could tell no one she was Rita Landré.

Pamela, who lives in Yarmouth, Isle of Eight, sent me her video Never Knowingly Overdressed & tells me she did five Posing Guides (of which I had number three, see my entry for Monday 2nd October 1972).

I went to the Post Office to take Clarice’s letter [and] met Sue Mawson as she emerged from the Wholefood Shop (where she works) on the way. There were still no eggs to be had at Top of the Crops. On the way home I met Chris. He & I worked in the woodland yesterday afternoon where I hope to improve the stream by creating proper waterfalls & pools. Chris carried down some spare breeze blocks from under the chalet. Chris came this afternoon & dug out the privet root.

SATURDAY 10th NOVEMBER

Never Knowingly Overdressed

9.19pm. I washed up before & after breakfast & fed the birds. Later, needing a loaf, we walked the long way to Morrison’s, down Roman Way & back along Street Road, now much wider with traffic lights – Glastonbury’s first – providing easy access to Morlands when eventually it is developed. After visiting the store we returned via Fishers Hill & Hill Head, thus completing our circumambulation of Wearyall Hill, which years ago – Arthur Orr & I ran around a time or two. It was a delightful walk, full of interest, with the lovely Jacob sheep continuing to graze the hill – they were introduced earlier in the year [by Margaret Parsons] -- & seven or eight handsome cows in their own enclosure. A group of longtails flew all around us – they are very numerous this year.

Over lunch we began watching Pamela Green’s video Never Knowingly Overdressed, completing it earlier this evening. Although the video is a very amateurish production, Pamela has a remarkable story to tell, her 8mm silent films are genuinely funny, the photographs beautiful, & by the end I felt exhilarated & uplifted.