Lenny Lee's turned 24 …

 

I expect and hope many of you remember Lenny from days of yore … he and I keep in touch …

Lenny Lee's world

He was always brilliant for my mother – she loved all the prezzies he sent her … and enjoyed the repartee he gave us …

It was back in 2011 that many of us wrote a cheering post for him … as he was at the start of a loooong journey – still continuing today …

Hardwick, Muddy Hippo, Zdena

… and from me came, in 2012, another earworm (after my Phantom earworm) … Mud, Mud Glorious Mud by Flanders and Swann ...

… he then sent us Muddy Hippo, while later in 2012, after my mother had died, Hardwick joined in for Lenny's 13^th birthday …

Lots of choice

… then Zdena joined the party at the end of my Aspects of British Cookery …

Cheese and Wine

So please from all around the world wish Lenny an easier time ahead … apparently a friend came round for (what I call supper!) dinner, with some Chinese dishes, together with some vino … I'm sure they enjoyed themselves ... 

Damyanti's book arrived a day early ... 
Diaghilev's post still being worked on ... there's
a Finnish connection

My next post will not contain an earworm … and will be on Diaghilev … all things being considered …

Z is for Zdena … the follower of Bacchus, the wine god …

Lenny Lee – Fest … Spreading sunshine for him …

Hardwick's Nose … he smelt a Birthday Party – Hardwick doesn't miss much! …

Zdena - very cheerful, Hardwick ... really
wanting to sleep - he's a very old boy now -
getting on for 100 I think ... while
Muddy Hippo just makes a mess!!

I just remembered - Lenny won a WEP prompt back in June 2022 - which explains his situation a little ... a boy who grieves for the sudden loss of his mother ... a poignant letter ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Write … Edit … Publish … Bloghop /IWSG hop: Phantom of the Opera …

 

The poor Phantom has been forced to reappear in the 21^st century with the most irreverent production he could possibly be in …

Lon Chaney as Erik, The Phantom,
in Universal's 1925 silent film version

… an advert for Bile Beans … now where did she get that idea from? Bile Beans …

Bile Beans … c/o Edward Lear … no, no, poor dear would not go near Edward Lear with her Bile Beans ad, even if he did craft this first limerick,    but not the second ...

There was an Old Man of the Nile,

Who sharpened his nails with a file,

Till he cut out his thumbs,

And said calmly, 'This comes

Of sharpening one's nails with a file!

Beans, Beans, the Musical Fruit

Beans, beans, the musical fruit

The more you eat, the more you toot

The more you toot, the better you feel.

So let's have beans with every meal!

Now the poor Phantom was totally bemused, also worried about this query …

 

Phantom – can I come in?

I don't know, can you?

Cursing quietly, the vampire backed away, foiled yet again by the English teacher's pedantry.

Another … 'scathingly brilliant idea' …

Bile on the Nile … File on Dial …

Beans Need … Jean Cleats …

She now Weeps, the Phantom Sleeps

Is she a vampile, or a phantomile ...?

Frontispiece to the sheet music
for the 'Bile Bean March'

Phantom you'd better enrol this strange dribbling living being into an English class … so she can put those grey cells to work on something sensible, rather than how to toot musical fruit …

She's a little older now - but
back then the Phantom was
interested .....

Surely Phantom in all your one hundred and twenty four years of being published you'd have something sensible to help this poor lady write about you … please come out of the woodwork, or slither down the ghostly advert for Bile Beans … Vile Beans …

Found in York, England

Tag line: Who But Me Could Come Up with This Post for the poor Phantom (of the Opera) prompt – I feel for him … I wonder if they had Bile Beans on the Nile …

Bile Beans information! - a crossing continents fraudulent concoction ... 

Edward Lear Nile limerick ... Nonsense.org - there are some other limericks following on - which all make interesting reads ... no Phantoms though ... 

Apologies to all who read this … especially to Gordon Leroux, who penned the novel Le Fantome de l'Opera in 1909

Gordon Leroux c/ Wiki

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Brief Update ... Diaghilev and WEP Phantom of the Opera

 

Life's been a bit more obtuse than it need have been recently … so I'm way behind and have been happily procrastinating … not helped with the Middle East developments.

Diaghilev with his nanny in
1905 by Leon Bakst

I've been reading about Sergei Diaghilev (1872 - 1929) (Russian art critic, patron, ballet impressario and more) – which I found far more fascinating than I thought I would – and again those rabbit holes appeared! So an interesting, I hope, post will appear after WEP … WEP will be 'odd' too …

Life's always interesting … the Turner Prize Exhibition is up and running at our amazing local Towner Art Gallery …

This is part of the adjunct exhibitions
happening in conjunction with the
Turner Prize at the Towner Art Gallery

… while within the town is Eastbourne ALIVE – an ambitious project (an adjunct to the Turner Prize) working with cultural partners in and around the resort's landscape orbit … I need to explore.

This was meant to be very short … but I obviously don't do that … rabbit holes abound …

Palais Garnier Opera House - by
Louis Beroud (1877)

So next (this week) comes Write Edit Publish – Phantom of the Opera … another quirky tale from me …

I will catch up … boiler withstanding – that's been bad again – it'd be nice if things would behave!!

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Postive Letters Inspirational Stories