Porrige for Breaky together, and Ron Talbot (below on the left), a neighbour to Neil Barringham (below, on the right) popped in to check if Neil was in need of any shopping.
Ron has walked the “Camino pilgrimage” from France (St. Jean Pied) to Santiago Di Campastella (in Spain) (in stages of two weeks per year apart from the COVID years) & finished last year the last stage to Finisterre. They often sing ballads in outdoor spaces like cafes or pubs, and then sometimes people around join in… last night at a pub here in Brisbane some of them started singing and folk around joined in… When I said I’d like to get into that sort of thing here, & asked him for some songs that might work here in Australia, he gave me these:
The green fields of france (only 19, by Eric Bogle, & the fury brothers)
The rain never falls on the dusty Diamontina.
The band played walsing Matilda
The pub with no beer
Waltzing Matilda
We talked about “sacred times” like those alone times on pilgrimages, and sometimes even walking with friends, sharing life.
His group of school friends have decided to continue now and start the Appalachian trail this year.
Neil got out some pictures of he and his late wife
when they rode the Camino some years ago, and a map
of the whole Camino trail in Europe.
We gave each other a hug on the way out. Thanks Ron (& Neil), for sharing so beautifully..
I got to listen to Neil play some beautiful music on his new piano; one of Mozart’s sonatas (Trey Facile), Shubert, and “What a wonderful world!”, have a sumptuous lunch, talk about mutual friends and catch up on parts of our own lives, our thought lives, and remembrance of them, and “our funerals”. I got a list of some worth-wgile and thought provoking books.
And visit Neil’s youngest son where he was staying, meet a friend of his, and his dog, and do some visiting to pay a bill and have dinner with some of Neil’s good friends, where we played some games of “500”, Mrs.Mumbley, and Spoons.
A very rich day.
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