The Gallery - Love - is it possible to keep finding room in your heart for more love?

This week on Sticky Fingers Blog the theme is "love."  It's a toughy  because so many pictures encapsulate love because we really do experience it in so many situations.

Imperfect Pages and Sticky Fingers have photographed sibling love.  Mumra posted a great picture showing the love she shares with her girlfriends through thick and thin. And Mummy Mishaps and Alexander Residence with their extra sensory perception both went for the love of their baby's favourite toys!

Here are my closest loves.

Love is patient

This is my Mum with my beautiful big sister.  She is eleven months older than me and lives with my parents still.  She has cerebral palsy and requires round the clock care, which my parents have patiently given her for thirty six years.  I went into social work so that I can be the best that I can be for her when it is time for her to move out and me to take over from my parents.  She is unable to talk, so she has never told me that she loves me.  But I know that she does.

Love is kind 


My three beautiful children - so special each one of them - of curse I am thoroughly biased!

It does not envy

This my best friend and I, she will not appreciate me posting this picture.  But I love it. I  love her too and we have been best friends for eighteen years now, through thick and thin, through all our ups and downs and she is always there for me when I need her.

It does not boast

Here are just a few of my many beautiful cousins with my children and I taken in 2003.  They live on the island of Borneo on the edge of the rainforest.  When I am with them, I feel a real sense of love and belonging. There are a few language barriers, but we still manage to communicate perfectly!  I do not love this picture.  I was the 27 year old boy in the St George's cross top!

It is not proud

Here we have brotherly love.  I was so worried about having more children.  My little boy would become the "middle" child and coupled with his Asperger's and his lack of ability to get on with other children,  I was worried that all the change would be a bit much or worse, that there wouldn't be a bond between them.  But I couldn't have been more wrong, Aspie Boy adores his little brother and Dizzy adores him back.  Between them is a real love.

It is not rude, it is not self seeking

Here is a moment of love between my eldest two and our dog Caleb when he was just a puppy.  He is huge now and very muscly, so we all keep our distance.

It is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs

Here is out beautiful ginger tom Mr Schneebly.  He is a greedy self centred little cat, but we all love him none the less, even Caleb the dog loves him.  It's all about the cuteness.

Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth.

This is my little girl.  My first baby, she really is special, so thoughtful, full of love and wisdom.  When she was born I couldn't imagine the possibility of loving anyone more than I loved her.  But when her little brother came along, my heart grew bigger like the womb that nurtured them and made way for endless love for them both in equal measures.  When baby number three began to grow, I knew that nature would work it's magic and create room in my heart and mind for all three of them. 

It always protects, always trusts,
always hopes, always perseveres.

Parents, grandparents, an aunty, sisters, brother,  and grandchildren.  The many roles in which love is fulfilled.

This hangs on my loo wall!

Love never fails.

Headhuntress's Southsea Music Review

So, one of the great things about the baby sleeping through the night now is that I finally have my social life back. I have been off the scene for a few years. Now that I am back on it, everything seems to be brighter and shinier than it was before.

Big Love Soul Live At The Golden Eagle, Southsea

There are some great things happening in Southsea at the moment with regards to art and music. I would like to give a nod and a mention to the beautiful people in Big Love Soul http://www.biglovesoul.com I have been to watch them play many times now and they sound superb. Miche's vocals are so sexy without her even intending them to be and she does that while playing the keyboard too. Steve is a legend on the drums, Lee will blow you away with his tight bass playing and Paul is just out of this world on the guitar, he's a technical genius with mighty fast fingers and his vocals are really cool too. Their Halloween gig was a huge success and their Bonfire Party went down a storm. Watch this space for more of their gigs coming up. They will be big, mark my words!

I also had the great pleasure of attending the first gig of The Retrospective Soundtrack Players



They performed a set based on the lead singer's favourite film "Cool Hand Look" starring Paul Newman and created a big fat country sound in The Edge of The Wedge, lil ole Albert Road on a balmy Autumn evening. My friend and I didn't quite know what to expect when the group came on wearing muddy white t-shirts.  It made a lot more sense once the double bass player, Ben Ottesen explained that it was based on the film afterwards.  Everyone else that attended that night has given me feedback saying htat, they were their favourite performance of the evening. They happen to have the added advantage of all being highly talented, swapping instruments from time to time.  You can hear how great they sound from the video recording made that night, which isn't easy to capture at a live gig.  The only cover they did was of the Plastic Jesus ditty taken from the film, but given an injection of their own sound.  The best version of that song I ever heard, by far and it's a truly great track.  Hell yeah.

So, next up were Bear Cavalry technical whizz kids with their little keyboards, electronic backing sound loops and guitars.  I'm a sucker for a loop.  They came with their own supporters who were mouthing along delightedly to every word.  I thought they sounded rather splendid even if they did make me feel more like Mutton Dressed As Spam than ever.  You'll love them if you like Bombay Bicycle Club (I'll probably get stampeded by one of the bears on the frontline for saying that) and The Beatles when they were going through their acid years.

Bear Cavalry

My favourite track was Will Smith Solves The Rubik's Cube which had lovely trumpets in it, (hmm, starting to sound like a music review written by your nan or what?!) which sounded spectacular live as they extended it and took the room on a beautiful little journey. 


Finally, the latest new (to me) band I have heard recently were The B Of The Bang



They've been around for a while now, but it's the first time I've heard them.  You can see from their video released in 2007 how sophisticated their sound and look is.  I was captured and enraptured by their stunning sound.  Their technical brilliance and confident presence shone through with a clever sound that was made to look easy.  The mark of true genius. They did some wicked stuff with some bouncy boingy resonance (sorry for the appalling use of adjectives chaps, I'm no musical scientist) which always blows my skirt right up and makes me feel as though I've having a musical hug, i love it so much.  Plus, they got their glockenspiel out.  I'm anyone's for a glockenspiel.

Listen to some of their latest tracks here:

• First Thought of the Morning by The B of the Bang (this was my favourite)
• Film Noir by The B of the Bang
• Reykjavik 101 by The B of the Bang

The B Of The Bang, Aaron Bennet Photography