Spring is here and the days are warm enough to get working hard in the yard. This week I started on a project to improve the watering of our lawn and a flower bed. We’ve made a lot of changes in the garden in the almost four years we’ve lived here and the original garden irrigation system has needed a lot of upgrades to keep up with our plans. Our back lawn has always gone brown in the hottest times of summer and as we’ve added drip irrigation we’ve noticed one drip zone seemed to be losing water pressure.
The solution:
New irrigation valve box
Simple – just find the existing one inch main irrigation line, dig, cut and add in a new irrigation valve box with two new watering zones. Then you get your trenching shovel, sod cutter, spade, iron bar, gloves, water bottle, a large bottle of ibuprofen, band-aids, ice packs and you dig eight feet of trench across your lawn:
This trench gets two 3/4 inch water lines, one for a flower bed and one that will water half the lawn. I’m added eight new sprinkler heads to the lawn and likely around six for the flower bed. I haven’t really added it up (because I wouldn’t have started the project if I know this number), but I think there will be around 50 feet of trench to dig.
So far I’ve been at this for three days and hope to finish the whole project next week. Being an old guy, I only work four hours day before my body says stop so it’s not as much as you think. I do find it best to take the ibuprofen before and after working. Yes, I could have hired someone to do this, but then I wouldn’t get the joy of going to the home improvement store to buy parts and going back to get the parts I forgot.
I should mention that having a good supply of band-aids is important. I only have two cuts right now and no real idea how I got them … wait, three cuts … when did I scrape my elbow?
Tomorrow I fill this trench in and put the sod back. That’s it for this week. More pictures next week so until then, if you need me, I’m limping to the kitchen to get an ice pack for my knee.
This is a series of posts about the music I listen to while writing. This time we’re up to a strange song, The Last Leviathan. I’m willing to bet that few of you have heard of this one. It’s mostly known in the sea shanty and folk music communities and as far as I know is not widely known outside those communities. It’s not a shanty, but best described as a song of the sea and a lament. The words are the first person story told from the last living whale’s point of view of its own death.
Yeah, not exactly uplifting lyrics. The music is haunting and best versions of this song are sung a cappella. I’ve included links to two version of the song at the end of this post. More about those in a moment. The song could also be classified as a protest song as it describes the effects of losing a whole living species.
The opening words are “Last night I heard the cry of my last companion / The roar of the harpoon gun, then I was alone.” It doesn’t delay or build up — it just opens with a gut punch and builds the image of the death of a vast number of whales, leviathans, and ends with the question, “What race will be next in line all for the slaughter? / The elephant or the seals or your sons and daughters?”
The song writer is warning us that if humans are willing to kill whole races, why stop at whales, seals or elephants. Perhaps when we run out of things to kill we’ll turn on own children.
The Last Leviathan is not the easiest song to research the best I’ve found out is that it was written in the early 1980’s by Andy Barnes. Originally titled, The Last of the Great Whales, it’s been recorded by at least 30 groups. I first became aware of the song in the 1990’s after buying a CD of songs recorded by the Celtic Music Group, Golden Bough. I first attended a Golden Bough performance at a church in San Jose, California and generally liked their style of Celtic, Irish and Scottish folk music. I have a couple of their CDs. I don’t think they tour anymore.
When I first heard Golden Bough’s recording of The Last Leviathan I was both repelled and fascinated by the song. The lyrics are hard to listen to, but the music sung in a high soprano backed with harp is haunting, compelling and really makes you believe that a whale is actually singing the song. Altogether it creates a realistic story that it is very believable.
It would be another couple of decades before I’d hear the song again. In 2019 Heather and were in St. Ives in Cornwall enjoying a few day at the sea side. It’s a pleasant coastal town with a small harbor and an active artist community. We didn’t realize this when we planned the trip, but the weekend we were there was their annual arts festival. There were art exhibits, talks, open studio tours and a number of music concerts. One concert we went to was at a little church in town that included a Cornish Men’s Choir and The Bryher’s Boys, a sea shanty singing crew. We enjoyed both and I eventually bought one of their CDs.
One of the songs The Bryher’s Boys sung was The Last Leviathan. It was sung as solo by a tenor backed up with the voices of the rest of the group joining the chorus. The recording I list below is from one of their live performances and how I remember them performing it. I like the emotion and feeling they put into the song and so far this version has become my favorite cover. It turns out that I also really love their other music. Sadly, they don’t do much recording as they are mostly a performance group. Since I don’t live in the UK where they tour, I’ve not heard them since 2019. I will admit that I have been tempted to look up their touring schedule and booking a trip to see them and check out one of the music festivals they do.
Even though this song is on my playlist, I tend to cringe a bit when it starts to play and from time to time find the song slightly irritating. Partly it’s because of the accusatory nature of the lyrics and partly there is a harshness to the music as it mimics the cry of a whale. Still it ends up on my playlist because it does tell a story and sometimes it best to confront yourself with uncomfortable facts. As a writer, and a poet, it’s often necessary to say things that I don’t like or find … challenging. This song is a reminder to me that not all writing is happy or uplifting and sometimes we are called to tell the tragic story or harsh truth.
Spring has finally arrived here in the high desert, although it’s still possible to get snow until the end of May, but the 10 day forecast shows no freezing temps and just a chance of rain this weekend. It’s strange to live in a desert that has freezing overnight temperatures for nearly five months of the year. The water managers tell use we’ve managed to get a normal amount of snow and rain for the season. So that means it’s time to go out and start gardening.
Yesterday I turned on the irrigation system and tested all the lawn sprinklers. Because of the low temps here the irrigation system needs to be turned off and drained each winter — a task I never had to do in California. It’s also true that in the summer a plant needs to be on the drip irrigation system or it will die.
Since we’re just warming up this week not much is out, but we have plently of green and a few early blubs flowering:
Heather is getting ready to plant a few more things out and start her vegie garden seeds. Here’s some of the things she’s planting:
Today we went to the garden center and picked a new tree for the front yard and Heather made a long todo list. That list includes improvements to the irrigation system I promised last year.
Well that’s it for today … if you need me, I’ll be out back digging trenches.
Andrew's View of the Week 