Forté #17
A few things that have inspired me lately and what I've been working on..
Hi you, it’s so close to Christmas now — this will be the last edition of this little inspiration sharing newsletter in 2023. I’ll be travelling home to Suffolk for Christmas and spending it with family. It’ll be great to get off the boat for a week or so and dry myself out properly!
Here's another fortnightly collection of things that caught my attention:
🍃 This utterly gorgeous record from Lisa O’Neill. If you’re partial to a bit of Irish Folk then this’ll certainly hit the spot. And even if you aren’t, maybe this is the record that will sway you? Also, here’s a lovely Tiny Desk Concert of Lisa and her band playing in the NPR offices. Beautiful stuff.
Feathered friend, dig up and resurrect me
I long to live among the song of birdies
A lawless league of lonesome, lonesome beauty
Skies and skies and skies above duty
🍃 One of the oldest traditional sweet-making factories in the UK, Teddy Gray’s in Dudley, opened their doors for a documentary film crew and the resulting film is such a nice step behind the curtain of a business that simply refuses to change. Not many businesses would survive without adapting to the modern world, but Teddy Gray’s seem to be doing all the better for it!
🍃 I found this letter from
on Substack and loved it as much as I (really) Loved Smoking.
🍃 I get stupidly excited about weird articles like this one I found over on Hacker News: UK Address Oddities. According to this, the highest house number in the UK is 2679—which is not even close to some American house numbers but is huuuge compared to the norm here. And the lowest house number in the UK is Minus Two, Woodend Lane…
🍃 And finally I’ll leave you with this quote from Tom Waits:
I realised that, as a songwriter, the only thing I really do is make jewellery for the inside of other people’s minds.
Thank you for being here, let me know what’s inspiring you recently. Hitting subscribe is always welcome and please do share with someone who might enjoy. If you'd like to support this newsletter please buy one of my albums over on Bandcamp, or consider becoming a paid subscriber here on Substack.
SJF