Musical Monday: Écoute moi camarade

Last night, doing the dishes, I suddenly realised that this is the first time in five years that we haven’t been in France in mid-September. This time last year we were in a tiny apartment in Paris and the Small Girl had slept through the night for the first time (her exhausted parents lay awake anyway, because they couldn’t believe she wasn’t going to wake up). The year before that, Corsica, where I suspected I might be pregnant but ate lots of unpasteurised cheese anyway.
September is the time of La Rentree in France – everyone gets sorted and goes back to school or work after the long summer holidays. I think September in New Zealand is about waiting for the rain to stop!

Musical Monday: Sister Rosetta Goes Before Us

A busy weekend – Ottolenghi’s apple and olive oil cake, a sort-of braised venison with red wine and mushrooms, lots of Volare bread, a family reunion of sorts, a long drive and a new tooth for the Small Girl. This is what I listened to to keep sane(ish). A storm of busy-ness is coming our way and it’s nice to have some distraction…

Musical Monday: Coeur de Pirate

Bills to pay, wet washing to wrangle, work to do… time for a burst of French sunshine via Coeur de Pirate.

Musical Monday: The Dog Days Are Over

Just the thing after a wet weekend – oh if only we could all frolic like this!(I wonder what Florence likes to eat?)

Little boys do not like being chewed

A dull Monday, brightened by a burst of sunshine, a pot of peppermint tea and Natalie Merchant working her musical magic on a collection of 19th century poems. Make sure you watch to the end, when she gives the stuffed shirts in the audience a lesson in how to clap in time.

Natalie Merchant sings old poems to life Video on TED.com