Bonamassa, Birds & Brazil

I make no apology for the musical accompaniment to this post, I simply cannot turn Mr Bonamassa off, OK I'll turn it down a bit. Loath as I am to 'keep on about it' this man is a real sensation. Having shaken hands with John Mayall and Jack Bruce, been confused (on many occasions) with Peter Green, shared audience with Sting and Trudi, lunched alongside Ginger Baker and supped a pint or twa with Joe Brown I consider my Rock 'n' Roll credentials in tact. This is something extremely special, it's a long day coming when you discover something this phenomenal, I just have to share it. Without being too selective, The Ballard of John Henry is the most deep down dirty blues I've heard in many a year. Check out this link, double it, take away the number you first though of and you'll get some idea of just how good 'Live' at the Royal Albert Hall is - get on with it!

the ballard of john henry lyrics - Google Search - just left click, and select and video site.

Brown Shrike

Indian Flying Fox

Anyway, wot a night! My dear friends came over from Parley Green for dinner and one of the best evenings I've had in many a day. We first met Hugh and Janet in Sri Lanka when drummer and record producer Alex Robinson and I did our 2006 'Teardrop of India' tour. By a quirk of fate they too lived in Dorset and almost immediately we decided this was a meeting not to be forfeited. Brill with game chips, carrots julienne and asparagus kicked things off, adequately complimented by a 'cheap' Soave. Pudding, a pecan nut and toffee Roulade with double cream, took quite a bit of preparation as sometimes they seem to super glue those damn box lids down. Finally we hit into Camembert, Crefee and a delicious Somerset Farmhouse Cheddar with a Louis Jardot Volnay Clos de la Barre fielded by the Dampneys. Unexpectedly, it turned into one of those rare event evenings when someone actually requests a look at my photies - poor, blind, fools! Sri Lanka was obviously high on the agenda, so here is a folder with a selection showing some of our experiences in that magic land. Let's hope the conflict is over for ever. If you want more click as above - sorry for the blank images seems Picasa has a mind of its own.

Picasa Web Albums - captbagsy - Sri Lanka

Deep Constructor

My mate Andy (Lindsay) currently Chief Engineer on the Technip owned Pipe Layer 'Deep Constructor' is, as we speak heading for a long contract off-shore Brazil. Having left France some days ago, a quick call into Las Palmas, Islas Canarias for bunkers and they have made good progress since. The photographs below show their first encounter with foreign birds, and by my reckoning they are Masked Boobies, I hope there will be others to follow.

Masked Booby - unless you know differently?

Ditto

and while on the subject of sea-going pals, no sooner had I 'posted' Bye-Bye Buchan and I start getting Autumn reports from Dave Penney on the rig. He was telling me while on his last 'field break' that his next 'hitch' coincides with the same dates we had the massive migration in 2005, and he was getting a feeling of de ja vous. He went back last Tuesday but so far not a lot has shown up, but feel some of you will be interested to learn what is going on out there. So far:-
Gannet - Fulmar - Great Black-backed Gull - Herring Gull - Kittiwake - Meadow Pipit - Jackdaw - Goldcrest - Starling - Wood Pigeon - Teal - Blackbird