With a strong beat.

I don’t know if it’s getting old or getting ill but these days I like my Jazz pared down to the very minimum. Life? That’s different, cram it all in, go on push it down and get some more in.

I’ve been  quite ill for a couple of weeks (and that is not good) and then for no reason this morning I felt OK, and that’s despite a very early wake up from my Mum’s carer.

That means don't waste this special day.
 
After breakfast I got the urge to bake bread again. I set off the yeast, got all the stuff out and sorted and then when the dough was proving (pretty in control, hey?) I went for a long walk.

That was when it all went a bit wrong – thick, thick mud (6 inches) loads of water, and one gravel pit overflowing into another. Strangely the water appeared to be flowing up a gradient away from the river rather than down to it. I got very messy, very wet but then I am only 11 years old.

I handed out carrots to my friends the wild horses and then had to come home a different but longer way to avoid the slush. Exhausted, I was covered in mud.

Then it was time for some serious baking. Between the two of us we scoffed nearly a whole loaf of bread, it was that nice.

In the evening, I snuck out and headed for The Barley Mow in Shepperton to catch 'Holly’s Trio'.

 

Holly I’ve seen before, filling in for Sunset Boulevard’s keyboards player.

 

 This was a trio, and as anyone who knows me knows – if there’s a quintet I always wish it was a quartet, a quartet and I wish it was a trio. So it was my kind of evening.

This was Jazz with a lot of blues and swing, played fast time. I swear there was a little stride somewhere there too. Best of all they played ‘Moanin’ by Miles Davis. Man that was good, played with a strong beat.

Lasagne and fresh, fresh bread. Mmmmmh, delicious.

Neil Harris

(a don’t stop till you drop production)