Five Minute Friday - Song

 Five Minute Friday is when bloggers write for 5 minutes on a specified topic - this is my take on SONG:

My earliest memory of a song is my mum singing to me as a child. If I couldn't get to sleep, or had a nightmare, my mum would stroke my forehead and gently sing Psalm 23 "The Lord's My Shepherd". 

She would stay by me for the first verse, then leave slowly and quietly, continuing to sing. As she went down the stairs she would continue to sing, getting quieter and quieter - finishing the final verse at the bottom of the stairs.

The combination of the comforting words and beautiful tune helped me settle back to sleep.

I managed to find a clip of it HERE

Growing up as part of the Reformed Presyterian Church, we had a split-leaf Psalter (hymn book of just Psalms which we sung in church - unaccompanied). So as well as announcing which Psalm we were about to sing, the tune we were going to sing would be announced too. So with Psalm 23 my Mum used to sing it to the tune of Crimmond.  Hearing it again immediately takes me back to my childhood.

This is a picture of an older Psalter I own, dating back to 1880, so it doesn't actually have Crimond in it!

And here is a little about the composer of the tune Crimond, and the origin of it's name. (You can read the article in full HERE

In the Church of Scotland, there is a strong tradition for worship songs to be sung without musical accompaniment. This is still in eveidence today, particularly in the Free Church of Scotland and some Reformed Presbyterian Churches. In 1650, the Church of Scotland published it's metrical psalter - a collection of 150 psalms for unaccompanied singing. Originally, psalm 23 was sung to the "Wiltshire" melody. However, by the 1930's, the "Crimond" tune had become the most popular setting to this Psalm. 

 The Crimond melody was originally composed by Jessie Seymour Irvine, from Scotland. It is said that she originally wrote the melody as an exercise for her organ lessons. Initially, a David Grant was credited with writing the work. However, it later emerged that Grant only devised a piano accompaniment for the Crimond melody. In 1929, the Scottish Psalter corrects cites Jessie Seymour as writer of this famous hymn. Irvine was the daughter of a Church of Scotland minister. For a period of time, the family lived in Crimond in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, hence the title of this famous hymn tune.

My other song memory from my childhood is my Dad singing "Some Enchanted Evening" from the musical South Pacific.....but only under certain situations - when my brothers and I were squabbling! Whatever the reason for our fighting, it was all forgotten as we united in pleading with Dad to stop singing ..... worked every time.

So ...... do you have a song or two from your childhood which brings back particular memories?

Do share - either below in comments, on my Facebook page, or even by email - all welcome!

Finally, to see what other bloggers have written on the topic of "Song" visit the lovely Lisa-Jo and tell her I said "hi"!

Have a lovely weekend, wherever you are.

A Family Celebration

I was glad I took the photo of the sunny warm day with the blue sky last week, as there has been very little blue sky since, and even less sun! Mostly rain and even hail this week.

However the weather didn't spoil our weekend, when my parents, my brothers, their wives and kids (all but 1) and my own husband and 3 kids all headed to Burrendale Hotel in Newcastle, Co Down for a night away to celebrate my Mum's birthday. There were 15 of us in total.

We headed into Newcastle for coffee and ice creams at Mauds, dodging the showers, and managed to get a few photos.   I took my DSLR with me, but only took photos with my iphone! So here are a few pics from the weekend:

The kids enjoyed the pool before we had a delicious meal in the hotel restaurant.  There was some reluctant posing for photos!
 

There was a lot of reminiscing and my daughters enjoyed learning a bit more about how we were as teens.

The next morning we had breakfast and farewells.......but no more sun - this was the view on Sunday morning

Thanks Mum and Dad for a lovely time away.

Review of Skylanders Giants Lunch Bag from the Internet Gift Store

As a parent blogger I am sometimes given the opportunity to review some products for my family.

When was asked to pick a character lunch bag from the online shop Internet Gift Store, there was really only one to be selected.

My son is a HUGE Skylanders fan, so the opportunity to have a new Skylander Giant Mini Bag lunchbox was perfect.

Here, in the words of my 8 year old, are his views on the Skylander Giants lunch bag

1. It is very cool
2. It has 2 parts - one for break and one for lunch which is useful
3. The sides of the lunch box and the zip pulls are decorated with the Skylander elements : Magic, Water, Tech, Fire, Earth, Life, Air and Undead.
4. It's awesome!

So there you have it - the perfect lunch box for all Skylander Giant fans.

For a great selection of character lunch boxes, check out the Internet Gift Store. There are also lunch boxes featuring Hello Kitty,One Direction, Mr Men, Moshi Monsters and much, much more!

Disclaimer : I was provided with the Skylanders Giants lunch bag for review, but all opinions expressed are my own or my son's!