Monday, August 14, 2006

Old Posts Revisited

It's nice to get comments on posts, as I've said many times before. It's almost even nicer to get comments well after the posts have "aired" and been commented on. It shows that someone is still reading your words well after you've written them.

Back in June, I wrote a post about rainbows...of the garden variety kind. I found a stunning picture that just captured the message and I posted it too. People commented then, and I got a new comment this morning.

I am the photographer who took this photo and it is of course in my backyard or garden as we say here in Switzerland.

I just wanted to thank you for posting this on the 12th of June as coincidentally it happens to be my birthday.The photo is in the gallery on my old site but if ever you are interested you can see my latest posts at http://www.justgraham.net.

Have a nice day! Graham.

It was so nice for me to receive that comment. Someone's thanking ME for using it, and #2, there's that personal Swiss connection again!

I did also feel somewhat guilty because the photo hadn't been attributed to anything when I posted it. But you should know, that unless I specify where a photo is from, all of them are always from GOOGLE images...so that's like my blanket copyright statement!

So, thank YOU, Graham, for taking such a lovely picture that gave me and many other people a taste of simple pleasure.

And last week, I found this comment on an old July post, "Sweet Home, Alabama":

I am from Hatchechubbe, Alabama. It's not that hard to say. Try this one on for size if you think Hatchechubbee is hard to pronounce... Chunnenuggee or Tchefuncte.

One really has to be careful with what one says in their blog; it becomes part of the Internet files -- anyone can have access to them at any time...even months after, and years later. We type our posts, we forget about them...and then there are readers like Graham and "Anonymous" who remind us about them!


Classical Past

While driving to a friend's this evening, I had my car windows down and was enjoying the light and refreshing breeze. One hand on the wheel, the other on the radio dial, I tuned in to my favorite all-classical music station...the one I used to play 24 hours a day in the nursery when my children were babies and toddlers. And while listening to a piece of music, I was carried back to my childhood...

We went quite regularly down to Ontario Place, a beautiful entertainment venue at the lakefront, and sat to watch open-air concerts that took place, the Toronto Symphony playing with many talented and world-renowned soloists accompanying the orchestra.

To sit on the benches under the covered roof, or on a blanket on the grassy hillside, if we were too late for the concert, was a beautiful setting. The breezy air, the stars overhead, airplanes flying overhead and momentarily drowning out thunderous applause or magnificent music, the cawing of seagulls overhead... All lent themselves to the beautiful ambience of listening to classical music.

I can almost guarantee that if any of you readers -- even those who normally wouldn't be listening to classical music, favoring rock music, alternative, heavy metal, even R & B or country -- tune in to a classical music station, while under a canopy of stars and dark sky, or driving at night with a warm breeze on your cheeks and slightly mussing your hair, you will be caught up in the music, in the magic of the moment.

Get musical with Mendelssohn; slumber with Stravinsky; vacation with Vivaldi; repose with Rimsky-Korsakov.

Classical music...what a gas!