What I got - and gave - for Christmas...

[rhythmaning]

I had been thinking that perhaps regaling anyone who might happen by with what I was given – and gave – for Christmas might be a touch too much like a primary school essay; but sheep that I am, I see that other have done so, so what the heck



I was given…

• a beautiful print of a barn owl flying onto a mouse, by Joyce Gunn Cairns, a local artist - http://www.s-s-a.org/artists/cairns/
  
• fifty trees planted on my behalf to reduce erosion, reduce carbon dioxide and provide local development somewhere in the world (unfortunately, Oxfam don’t actually tell where they’ve decided to plant them, so I have to take their word for it); this was gift from my mother since I couldn't tell anything I really wanted, and I think it was good present to give me (not least since I love trees, I worry about the environment and I think we should do more to help lesser developed nations) – so next time unblinkered http://www.livejournal.com/users/unblinkered/28208.html is wondering whether charity present are worthwhile – go for it!
  
• Charles McLean’s “Whisky Miscellany”
  
• ”Peat Smoke and Spirit” by Andrew Jefford – a book about Islay and its whisky (do you see a pattern developing here?)
  
• Doris Lessing “On Cats”
  
• the book accompanying John Houston’s retrospective which they had at the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art last year; and the same of John Maxwell, a while back – my wife gave me these, since we missed the exhibitions, and she likes the paintings
  
• ”Bird’s Diary”, a book about the last ten years of Charlie Parker’s life
  

I gave…

• a gorgeous painting of a hill village in Tuscany, by Jamie Primrose, one of our neighbours – my wife fell in love with this in an exhibition that Jamie had in October, and insisted we bought it http://www.jamieprimrose.com/latest/latest3.html
  
• a trio of jazz CDs – the new Mark Johnson record, “Shades of Jade”, which sounds very European (ie it is on ECM) – it has some lovely piano by Elaine Elias; “Come Together” by the Lynne Ariale Trio; and “Not In Our Name”, a wonderfully political record by Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra – some brilliant arrangements of American themes by Carla Bley
  
• ”Aerial” by Kate Bush (curiously featuring Eberhard Weber and Pete Erskine on several tracks – they usually play on ECM…) which is really good, together a Kate Bush compilation called “The Whole Story”, a rather career limiting title given that it was released twenty years ago
  
• an Iggy Pop compilation
  

There was a fair bit of self interest in these gifts, in that I gave them all to my wife, and hence they remain within our flat; fortunately, my wife and I have similar (but not identical) tastes, so we quite happily give each other presents that we want ourselves…