In the Pink

Rhodohypoxis.  A South African bulbous plant great in a pot inside or out in summer and can be grown in the open garden.  It likes to be kept moist all summer but dry in winter.  They are quite hardy but being in frozen wet soil in winter wipes them out.  This one is a cultivar called 'Susan Garnett Botfield.'  There are numerous others in shades of pink and white.  

Another work day with some admin beforehand.  I finished earlier than expected which was a big help as the evening was rather complicated.  Singing, Jamie's return and a live Zoom gig by The Young Uns all collided in time .... and then my visitors (friends of Jamie's PA Rachel) were very late arriving and got caught up in the collision of events.   It all worked out.  We met our new Musical Director and I led a song before collecting Jamie.  I missed the first half hour of the gig but was able to meet my visitors in the interval when I also popped back to singing .... and ended  up leading another song.  So now I have a houseful and with Tilda coming on Thursday it's a busy week on that front.

The live zoom gig was good, not as good as being in the audience but still great to have all the banter and the stories behind their songs.   I have sung their praises here before but for the uninitiated, The Young Uns are three lads from Teeside who stumbled across a folk club as teenagers around twenty years ago.  They tell of it as a place where they heard songs about their area and it's people which they'd never heard before .... and a place where seventeen year olds might get a drink!   The locals christened them the young 'uns when they were pushed to sing a song.  Now world renowned folk singers, one of the band, Sean Cooney has developed a reputation as one of the leading young songwriters in the genre, with songs about real people, often unsung heroes.  Their stage shows include a lot of silliness as David Eagle has also made a name as a stand up comedian.  Keeping in touch with their roots, Sean and Michael are qualified teachers, they also do a lot of work with schoolchildren, including song-writing workshops.

Here's an song of Sean's from their 2017 album Strangers: These Hands
 This song tells of Sybil Phoenix who came to Britain from British Guiana in 1956. She overcame racism and personal tragedy to become the first black woman to be awarded the MBE for her work fostering hundreds of children in Lewisham