Owls, the Llanfair Singers and Laila

My Auntie Jean sent me a cd today of the Carol music that she had recorded with the Llanfair Singers at the Church of St. Cuthbert in Clungunford, Shropshire a few months ago.  The site of this church dates back to Saxon times and the current building is over 600 years old.    

Jean was not very well on the day of the recording, she had a terrible sore throat and chest cold and you can hear it in her voice.  This doesn't detract, though, from the work that she did and in fact just adds to the charm.   The cd is really lovely and well recorded, some of the Carols - like Jingle Bells and Ding, Dong, Merrily on High, as well as Have yourself a Merry little Christmas are recorded in the traditional version but there are other Carols on the cd that are done in an entirely different style and some are really beautiful - so of course, I had a little weep because I know my mum would have loved to hear it ... well maybe she did through me, hey? The Llanfair Singers are going to be singing in St. Paul's Cathedral. London in 2015, which is no mean achievement!  

I've only extracted a piece from the song that Jean sang solo on - 'The Lord at first had Adam made'

I took most of the pictures from the cd liner notes and also grabbed some off ye Olde Interweb.  In most of these pictures, Jean is at the front. 

Jean also sent a lovely Owl mobile for Ewan and an enamel and gold Owl necklace for Faye ...  the little video I did is too big for Blogger to handle, so here's the YouTube linkie

Lucky kids, hey?

Hayzel and Kevin took the kids out this morning to get stuff for Laila, so that Hayzel could give her a bit of a 'groom' - i .e. bath, blow dry, hair trim, bum shave, hair tied up all pwitty.  Of course, Faye had to get her a pretty pink ballerina tutu with a velvet/glittery bodice. So now Laila is the belle of the ball ... and she knows it.