Laetitia's Sharebook 

The rich variety of music in the first Elizabethan age is something we can all enjoy today. Renaissance and Elizabethan music came in two categories - sacred and secular. Translate that as religious and fun! There were no conflicts between mods, rockers and skinheads. There were no critics leaping up and condemning the music of the day because it wasn't classical. Serious meant sacred and appropriate to worship, secular meant wine, women and song and much, much dancing. The truly lovely thing about Elizabethan music is how very timeless it really is! For all it brings back the sense of the Past it has a beat, harmony, emotional meaning, ease of participation in a band, and all the things that make a good Eurovision number. Image courtesy of Amazon 8-Course Lute, Rosewood, Taylor - Roosebeck

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Do you want to learn how to mix vocals simply and successfully without expensive software? This page is for DIY musicians and independent artists using basic software. It tells you how to mix good quality vocals without equipment coasting millions! How do you get recorded vocals to sound good? Perhaps the hardest aspect of DIY recording is to get your vocals to sound good and stand out without being strident. This is especially vital when vocal mixing for folk music which needs clarity and sensitivity. Here I will show you how to mix a good vocal without getting too techy. It IS possible to get a good vocal mix without spending a fortune on gear. In particular I will show how I mixed the vocals of a song, St Francis' Prayer on the iTunes link below. This is an account of how to record and mix vocals which is aimed at ordinary musicians, not industry experts. It gives some useful tips to other DIY music producers in a non-techy way!I hope you will enjoy it and find it useful or interesting! Photographs and images used here are my own, please do not copy but you can click here to preview St francis Prayer .

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Mother's Day comes early in the UK, and my Mum was happy with her token gift, but unbeknown to her, I had a cunning plan! In the early 1970s, Mum decided to collect Goebel Birds. I think Dad was the main contributor to her bird figurine collection of course as my sister and I were still at school and somewhat penniless. She developed a lovely collection of Goebel Bird figurines over time which she cherishes to this day. How they escaped the predations of two clumsy kids, one crazy Afghan hound, one over eager lurcher and several marauding pet cats is beyond me, but survive they did until fairly recently. This is the story of one of mum's pretty Goebel birds and what happened to it. You can see the poor creature with its broken beak, but this is a tale with a happy ending and I hope you will enjoy it! All photos in this lens were taken by Photahsiamirabel, all rights reserved!

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Human Beings! Such wonderful pets! Don't we love them? It is so important that we don't try to felinise them too much though. They try their best to attend to our needs and if we wished, we could make them do almost anything - but their understanding is limited and their mental processes are slow. If human beings had a soul like us, we might be forgiven for thinking some of them are wicked, but they can't help themselves by and large and the more intelligent and kindhearted among their number are trainable to some degree or another. Such are human beings! Their hearts are usually in the right place and some actually display signs of a primitive intelligence and the rudiments of language. Here I will give a few examples of how we can train and improve the behaviour of humans in the house. All photos used in this lens are copyright to Photahsiamirabel. Some of her cat images are available on Zazzle

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Do you love the sea? I know I do! Sail boats and fishermen? As all my friends and those most dear to me will tell you, I have a boat fixation. I am a boat bore! Just look at me grin in the photo. I have just been on a speedboat at Whitby in North Yorkshire. Had I been born a boy, I would certainly have joined the Navy! I just have to be within earshot of a flock of gulls, a whiff of salt air, or the sound of a distant foghorn and I am off. Boats? Let me at them! It's a boat? I must go on it! My two favourite places on this earth are probably Whitby and Victoria - thousands of miles apart, but what do they have in common? The answer is the sea, and more importantly - lots and lots of boats, ships, canoes, kayaks.... Being born by the sea might have something to do with this obsession of mine. I was born in a seaside town and my biggest regret was that I was not allowed to go out on the fishing boats with my Grandad when I was young. My dear Grandfather was a stonemason by trade and a fisherman by instinct - but he didn't want me in danger and the currents there were especially dangerous. A deep undertow made the pebble beach descend rapidly and deeply. I think the adults were frightened I might dive in! I certainly found the water enticing, even when freezing - and I still do! Although, whilst I love to swim under the water, I have to admit that I have never fantasized about submarines since I was old enough to realize they were cramped and smelly! No, it is the sea air, the pebble beaches, the cliffs and caves and secret places, the wildlife, the whales, the seals and dolphins and of course the seagulls. Let me take you on a little trip through my wonderful places in pictures, poetry and song....

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Yes, aloo methi is made from potatoes, fenugreek leaves and curry spices, but what if you can't eat potatoes? I have an allergy to potatoes. It is not a fatal allergy like some people who have commented here, but it is nasty. The very worst bit is I actually LIKE potatoes. I like the taste and texture of things like aloo gobi, potato salad and samosas so imagine my chagrin at watching Manjula's Kitchen on Youtube! This recipe was just so mouthwatering and so simple. Well, if you follow my posts on potato free cooking, you will know I am not afraid to experiment. So taking Manjula's recipe and applying a few little twists of my own I came up with this little side which would be wonderful with a fish, meat, bean or vegetable curry. Apologies to Manjula, but something needed to be done to strike a blow for potato allergy sufferers worldwide. Potato Free Aloo methi with Red Bean and Ginger Curry and Pilau Rice - photo is my own

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Why spider shower curtains? I love spiders! Spiders are so cool. Their silk is amazingly strong, and apart from the spiders in my house, their webs are neat and artistic. (My spiders seem to be unhinged and intent on producing candy floss, so we must live on a ley line or something! Anyway, for those spider fans who want to assert to all their friends "Love me, love my Boris!" here are some great spider shower curtains that will spin you in a web of wonder. Photo taken on holiday of me holding my first ever tarantula. It was a little freaky at first, but such cute little feet!

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I have searched the hills, dales, bogs and enchanted places for some lovely green cat jewelry gifts for St Patrick's Day. What do cats have in common with St Patrick? First of all, all cats are lucky, especially the green variety. Green cats are variously known as Leprecats or Faerie Cats. They are very small and rarely seen except when posing for artisan jewelers and ceramic makers. Secondly, have you not all seen that cats hate the vacuum cleaner? Known in our household as the big hissy, this all consuming snake with a distended stomach is enough to send our cats fleeing for cover and praying for St Paddy to come and drive all the snakes out of our house! Thirdly, they love to roll in the clover and who knows they might just find that four leaved shamrock to bring you the luck of the Irish?

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Have you seen the Pickbay Guitar Pick Holder? What an amazing gift for guitarists! Anyone who loves to pick guitar will know that there is a special inaccessible and secret dimension of space time which, like a black hole, sucks favorite guitar picks in! Sometimes many years later a chance discovery will lead to a fossilized guitar pick or two, but it is always frustrating when your picks go walkabout and somehow those old credit cards don't cut the mustard. What better gift for a guitar player than an item of jewelry that will always have a pick ready wherever you go? Image credit Harley Davidson Guitar Pick & Pickbay Guitar Pick Holder Stainless Steel Pendant Necklace & "Bigger Ball Chain 3.2mm" Adj necklace

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St Patricks Day should be fun for everyone! This selection of St Patricks Cat Mugs and other St Patrick's Day Cat Gifts makes it fun for cat lovers too! When cats are as important in your life as they are in mine, you see every Saturday as a Caturday and even St Patrick's Day becomes St Cat-Tricks day! Zazzle is a wonderful place where you can find crazy and beautiful gifts and this page showcases just a few. Here we have lucky black cats, the luck of the Irish, a touch of the blarney and a dash of the water of life in your Irish coffee! Read on for more St Patrick's Day Cat gift ideas and I hope you will enjoy checking these lucky Irish cats out! Image created especially for this page please do not copy! Good Luck Irish Kitty Leprochan Coffee Mug by Spiritoftheraven

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