By Way of Remembrance

It was a year ago tonight that Uncle Rob left us for the ever after.  While he loved all sorts of music, I know that he particularly liked Elgar, so I have chosen Lux Aeterna set to Elgar's Nimrod, from the Enigma Variations, to put on this post... by way of remembrance.

I am convinced that Uncle Rob has been communicating to me via things electronic again.  When I was trying to choose the best video of Jacqueline Du Pre playing the first movement of the Elgar cello concerto (UR used to play the cello, so I thought that would be fitting), the sound mysteriously turned off on YouTube altogether.  So, that idea was cancelled.  Then when I was doing a search for a good Nimrod video, what was it that appeared at the TOP of the list in the column to the right?  It was nothing to do with Elgar: it was the Liebestod from Tristan & Isolde (Waltraud Meier's Isolde).   And what did I just see in Houston with AJ a few weeks ago?  Tristan & Isolde (with Nina Stemme as Isolde).  If Uncle Rob had still been alive, it would have been him by her side, not me.  [And if it had been Nina Stemme popping up on that Elgar YouTube search instead of Waltraud Meier, I would have probably fallen right off my perch.]  So, you will understand why I had to put the recording of this beautiful piece here tonight too.  People pay large sums of money to see Tristan und Isolde, just for the Liebestod at the end. This is for AJ, his eternal beloved. 

Neglect

Poor old neglected blog.  What news is there of family research from my end?  Not much, I am afraid.  I have had a busy few months recently with work and now hours and hours spent in the garden, as well as having been away on a GRAND trip to Texas on a Grand Opera tour in April.   That was quite an amazing treat, courtesy of my favorite American Aunt.  We were in Houston and Dallas, with stops in Ohio for me before and after.

As my heart is springing along full of the joys of the world in spring, I shall just add an updated picture from the garden for today.  I did spend a couple of hours trying to get more information on the Sawyer/Ingrams branch of the family the other day, and corrected a couple of things I had on that page, but I did not make any real inroads there worth mentioning.

Here's what I came home to from Texas: the daffodil shoots that were only about 4 inches out of the soil beforehand were fully formed and starting to open.