Today's the Day

[Richard Tarleton]

And on this date, Mary, Queen of Scots was executed at Fotheringay Castle (1587); the Earl of Essex attempts a rebellion against Elizabeth I (1601)

Mrs T has just read "Rival Queens - The Betrayal of Mary Queen of Scots" by Kate Williams. Well reviewed in The Times before Christmas.

Here are the Julian Bream Consort (Mk.2) playing a consort version of Dowland's Earl of Essex Galliard - it of course also exists as a lute solo, Poulton no. 42a, and is found in son Robert Dowland's anthology "A Varietie of Lute Lessons".

[Edgy 2]

8th Feb is national kite flying day (according to Talksport)

[Bryn]

8th Feb is national kite flying day (according to Talksport)

Though I still have one, I do not know where my chequebook is.

[ahinton]

Though I still have one, I do not know where my chequebook is.

I too have one but I do know where it is; that said, however, I'm far from certain that I can remember how it is supposed to be used and I've not attempted to use it in years.

[Bryn]

I too have one but I do know where it is; that said, however, I'm far from certain that I can remember how it is supposed to be used and I've not attempted to use it in years.

And we are both probably far too honest to 'fly a kite', anyway.

[teamsaint]

8th Feb is national kite flying day (according to Talksport)

Southsea kite festival. A very enjoyable afternoon out !

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iRnGMw3RrII

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Online "Urban Dictionaries" give some very "alternative" definitions of "flying a kite" (some of which you would not wish your wives or servants to read) - but, in the genuine, Mary Poppins meaning, I, too, have a kite - bought in Aberaeron in August, 2010, and first flown on the tiny beach at Aberarth. A woman walking her dog (in the literal sense - just in case there are other meanings) asked of me "Second childhood?" "No," I replied, "Making up for the first one."

Probably a trifle too blustery to go kite flying today.

[cloughie]

Online "Urban Dictionaries" give some very "alternative" definitions of "flying a kite" (some of which you would not wish your wives or servants to read) - but, in the genuine, Mary Poppins meaning, I, too, have a kite - bought in Aberaeron in August, 2010, and first flown on the tiny beach at Aberarth. A woman walking her dog (in the literal sense - just in case there are other meanings) asked of me "Second childhood?" "No," I replied, "Making up for the first one."

Probably a trifle too blustery to go kite flying today.

Unless of course you are a kite - as that is there way of getting around.

https://www.bing.com/search?q=images+of+red+kite+bird&form=EDNTHT&mkt=en-gb&httpsmsn=1&refig=0e917616cd14456fabd28e6270ccc721&PC=ASTS&sp=2&qs=SC&pq=imagesof+red+kites&sk=SC1&sc=5-18&cvid=0e917616cd14456fabd28e6270ccc721&cc=GB&setlang=en-GB

[Bryn]

So glad that Red Kites have become so common where I live, these days. What a hugely successful re-introduction they have been.

[Edgy 2]

Online "Urban Dictionaries" give some very "alternative" definitions of "flying a kite" (some of which you would not wish your wives or servants to read) - but, in the genuine, Mary Poppins meaning, I, too, have a kite - bought in Aberaeron in August, 2010, and first flown on the tiny beach at Aberarth. A woman walking her dog (in the literal sense - just in case there are other meanings) asked of me "Second childhood?" "No," I replied, "Making up for the first one."

Probably a trifle too blustery to go kite flying today.

Oh my,I had no idea

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

February 9th

St Teilo's Day - the Sixth Century Welsh saint, born in Penally near Tenby, and founder of churches at Llandeilo (named after him) and Llandaff, where he was buried after his death (one hopes) on this day c560.

On this date, the US Weather Board was established (1870); William Morgan invents the game Volleyball (much to his surprise: he called the game he'd created "Mintonette" - 1895); Senator Joseph McCarthy declares that the US State Department (the US "Foreign Office") is staffed by Communists (1950); The Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan TV show; 76 million people watch (1964); in a national referendum, the people of Lithuania vote for independence from the Soviet Union (1991); and a year ago today, the Winter Olympics opened in Pyeong Chang.

Birthdays include: Thomas Paine (1737); Anthony Hope (1863); Amy Lowell (1874); Alban Berg (1885); Ronald Colman (1891); Carmen Miranda (1909); Brendan Behan (1923); J M Coetzee (1940); Carol King (1942); Alice Walker (1944)

Final days for Fyodor Dostoyevsky (1881); Alexandre Benois and Erno Dohnanyi (1960); Sophie Tucker (1966); Percy Faith (1976); Bill Haley (1981); Yuri Andropov (1984); Princess Margaret (2002); and Ian Richardson (2007).


And the morning schedules on Radio 3 on Thursday, 9th February, 1989 were:

Morning Concert: (Purcell, My Heart is Inditing; two pieces by Dowland; Mozart Concerto fo 2 Pianos; Handel Concerto Grosso Op 6 #4; RVW "Tallis Fantasia")
Composers of the Week: Vagn Holmboe & Rosenberg
Deakin Pinao Trio: works by Herbert Sumsion and Fauré
John Williams Guitar recital (Praetorius, Roncalli, Weiss, Dodgson, Villa-Lobos)
BBCSSO: Mendelssohn Calm Sea; Wieniawski 2nd Vln Conc; Rachmaninoff 2nd Symphony

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Oh my,I had no idea

Nor I - and I think we're the better for such ignorance!

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

So glad that Red Kites have become so common where I live, these days. What a hugely successful re-introduction they have been.

- on previously-mentioned holiday, they were in the process of reintroduction, and flocks of them could be seen from our cottage, feeding of an afternoon.

[Richard Tarleton]

- on previously-mentioned holiday, they were in the process of reintroduction, and flocks of them could be seen from our cottage, feeding of an afternoon.

And from me. Hard to imagine, catching my first glimpse of one of the tiny Welsh kite population on a visit in the early 80's, that one day they'd be not only doing so well but even on my garden list. I'm not going to ruin my google search history by looking it up.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

February 10th

St Scholastica's Day - the early Sixth Century Italian saint, sister of St Benedict. She had a love of learning and intellectual dispute, especially with her brother - and the story has it that she was so dismayed that her brother had to leave during one of these discussions, that she prayed for - and was granted - a heavy storm that prevented his leaving. She is thus associated with both education and storms, and her followers would invoke her name to prevent or ease storms - curious, then, that today is also the feast day of St Paul's Shipwreck.

A storm of a different type was caused in Oxford on this day in 1354 - students, objecting to the low quality of wine that they were served in a local tavern, expressed their opinion by breaking a tankard over the landlord's head. Unfortunately, said landlord was also the town's mayor, and, in revenge, he assembled a posse of friiends and a fight ensued - that lasted for two (or three, or "several" - sources aren't agreed on this point) days, the townspeople emerging victorious, damaging University property and killing sixty-three of the students. Edward III was not pleased with the townsfolk: he withdrew privileges from the town, took legal authority on University matters from the town and gave it to the University itself, and ordered an annual church service of repentence very 10th February, and ordered an annual payment of 63 pence (a penny per student) - a situation that continued until 1825.

Also on this date, the Siege of Baghdad ends with Hulagu Khan's Mongol forces bringing to an end the Golden Age of Islam (1258); Robert I ("the Bruce") murders John Comyn, Edward I's appointee as Lord Guardian of Scotland, beginning the Second War of Scottish Independence (1306); Mary, Queen of Scots' second husband (and the father of her son, James VI/I) is strangled after an explosion at his home (1567 - three months later, Mary marries the man generally believed to have engineered the assassination); Queen Victoria and Prince Albert are married (1840); Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony is premiered in Moscow (1878); Offenbach's Tales of Hoffmann is premiered in Paris (1881); Krenek's Jonny Spielt Auf is premiered in Leipzig; Puss Gets the Boot, the first Tom & Jerry cartoon, is premiered (1940); Roy Lichtenstein has his first solo exhibition (1962); IBM computer Deep Blue beats Gary Kasparov in a game of chess (1996 - Kasparov easily wins the following table tennis match, however); and the first collision of two artificial satellites occurs, creating a huge amount of space debris (2009).

Birthdays include: Charles Lamb (1775); Samuel Plimsoll (1824); Adelina Patti (1843); Fanny Kaplan and Boris Pasternak (both 1890); Jimmy Durante (1893); Harold MacMillan (1894); Bertolt Brecht (1898); Lon Chaney jnr (1906); Larry Adler (1914); Leontyne Price (1927); Jerry Goldsmith (1929); Roberta Flack (1937); Barbara Kolb (1939); Michael Apted (1941); and Keeley Hawes (1976).

Last days for: William IX, "the Troubador" (1127); William Dugdale (1686); Montesquieu (1755); Alexander Pushkin (1837); Wilhelm Röntgen (923); Edgar Wallace (1932); Laura Ingalls Wilder (1957 - three days after her 90th birthday); Grace Williams (1977); Arthur Miller (2005); and Stuart McPhaill Hall (the sociologist, not ...) and Shirley Temple (both 2014).


And, on Monday, 10th February, 1969, the Radio 3 morning schedules were:

Overture (gramophone records)
Morning Concert (BBC Welsh Orch, conducted by John Carew)
This Week's Composer: Mozart (Symph #26, BPO/Böhm; Pno Conc 24, Curzon/LSO/Kertesz
The Master Pianists (7/14 programmes; Ernst Dohnanyi)
Music Making - BBC West of England Chorus