Second half

Hi all. Apologies for my absence from the blog. Last weekend I was with family up in Northumberland, so unfortunately wasn't able to move forward with the book. Whilst up there we paid a visit to Cragside, the first house ever to be lit by hydroelectric power. This was the country home of the enterprising industrialist Lord Armstrong and later on in 1977 it became a National Trust property. The grounds of the property are spread over a spectacular 1.54 square miles of beautiful land. I've put a few photos, both old and new from the estate in this post.

The first image (above) is an impressive set of stained glass panels from the house and these are by artist William Morris. They represent the four seasons. From left to right: spring, summer, autumn and winter.

And so on to my progress with the book. I spent much of yesterday transcribing Manuel Gotsching's recent Redbull Academy Radio Show Fireside Chat. This was simply too good not to include, even if typing up the quotes from the one hour programme sentence by sentence was a bit of a painstaking process. Anyway, I'm there with it now and am incorporating the information in to the book before picking up where I left off: about halfway through the fifth draft (circa 1980, post Belle Alliance).

At the end of next week I have a 10 day stretch off work, so plenty of time to get stuck in and move forward with things. The only interruption, if you want to call it that, comes in the form of a visit to see Agitation Free at the Jazz Cafe in London, which should be great. I'll also be meeting up with a good old writer friend for a catch-up, something I'm very much looking forward to.

By the way: you've got to love the flyer for the Ashra show in Berlin in June (see top of the post). It certainly gave me a smile when I saw it! Is anybody going to see Manuel play E2-E4 in Madrid? Unfortunately I can't make it but if you go along and you get any pictures please feel free to send them on and I'll post them right here on the blog, along with an acknowledgment, if you'd like.

Ok: more work to do. Back soon....