Hartpury Lake

After having a very busy day yesterday and not getting back to my cell until late, when I got into my first class and I realised I hadn't had a chance to look at my stuff, let alone do any practice to build on what I'd learned. At the end of that lesson I decided to give myself an easier day and made my apologies to the tutor of the next session. 

I got myself a coffee and wandered down through one of the open fields of what I imagine used to be parkland when the college was a big house. There's a nice looking lake there and I walked down the bank and sat down on little jetty. The ideal image would have been to sit on the jetty with my feet in the cool water but the water was a bit mucky, algae or something so I kept my shoes on. I drank my coffee and pulled out a harmonica and had a little blow, revisiting the stuff from today's and yesterday's lesson.

After lunch I went to the vocal class at which a guy called Jimmy Thomas had been invited. You might not know the name unless you're a big Northern Soul fan but he joined Ike Turner's Rythm Kings in 1958 and remained with him during the Ike and Tina Turner days. I reckon that's quite a good thing to have on your CV! He's a skinny little guy but when he sings, what a voice, amazing power and vitality. If you work out from the fact that he joined Ike Turner when he was 19, it means he'll be 80 next year. Great guy and veryquite inspirational. I sang a piece in the group that I was very pleased with too, something I'd never sung before but it suited my voice very well.

We had another excellent concert from the tutors we didn't see last night and that was thorough enjoyable. A tremendous variation af styles and people will tell you that blues is all the same. Pah!

My blip is an iphone shot of the lake and there's an extra of Jimmy Thomas in the Art Room accompanied by Michael Roach, director of the whole event.