Last week I wrote of my quest for the elusive robin (not the superhero sidekick) and for dog's-eye video footage of running through trees, all in aid of making some videos for LM Cooke Music. This, of course, was in part because I will be providing two musical tracks for the forthcoming charity compilation, Raising Steam 3, in aid of New Futures Nepal. There'll be news about the release date for that compilation very soon, but in the meantime, you can find out more about it and about the two previous volumes through the Raising Steam facebook page.

I plan to make a video of one of the tracks to coincide with the release of the compilation, and am aiming to make a second video for another track at the same time. I'm still on the look out for footage of robins and the afore-mentioned dog's-eye view, so please send me any such footage you'd be willing to share. But we have also begun filming the other bits.

A few weeks ago, I made a post detailing my search for the elusive robin. Well, friends, I find myself still seriously short of a robin or two. Occasionally I have spotted one. As soon as I level a camera, it flits off. Gits.

Can you help? Are you aquainted with any robins who sit still long enough to be videoed? 'Cause a starving artist needs your support...  

That's right, this is in all in aid of LM Cooke music, which is of course one of the muscial arms of my endeavours (other musical bodyparts are available). LM Cooke music may have been quiet, but has not been idle, oh dear no. There are new tracks in the bag (aka the hard drive). There is a new studio set-up. And excitingly, there are two tracks that will soon be available on a new charity anthology album, due out in February!

​Yes, I know, none of that explains the (lack of) robin. I'm getting to that now. All this activity means that it's about time that LM Cooke music expanded to delight your visual capacities as well as your aural ones. This does not mean I will eat lots of cake and photograph the remnants, oh dear no. It means that it is time for an assualt on the Tube of You and other visual media.

So, I now have two songs I wish to make videos for - and here's where I'm hoping you can help.

• Song one is called The North wind - you know the nursey rhyme! For this song, I need video footage of robins. Cold robins, if at all possible, shivering on bare branches. The snowier the better, but hey, I'll take any robins I can get at this stage. Ideally, such footage should be reasonably close up, and is better in unmanicured gardens if at a possible.
• Song two, Yellow Eyes, is less robin-y, and probably more tricky to get footage for. I'm after dog-cam footage, through trees and in the woods, should any of you own a dog who has his own camera and takes it for walks, etc. This is for one of the songs going onto the charity collection, so it would be great to be able to promote it visually as well.

Can you help - using your camera, your phone, whatever you have to hand. Are you willing to part with your footage for a thank you in the video credits (and I can probably stretch to an exclusive copy of said songs...)? If so, then get in touch - and thank you!

A happy new year to all my readers! Made any resolutions? Broken them yet?

A new year always seems a good time to start afresh, and 2016 appears to have been the friend of very few. So we make haste to change. This year, I will make it better. This year, I will do it all differently. This year, I will be a New Improved Person. We make our resolutions, and then we immediately break them all. Because we are, after all, the same person that we were before the bell tolled midnight on new year's eve. And then we tell ourselves that we are failures, and we give up all attempts at doing something different.

Personally, I wonder if we are too quick to throw away that old year - all those old years - and launch into something new. And yes, maybe there are things that we might want to do differently, but that doesn't mean discarding the past. If anything, it means learning from it.

Too often we only see our failings, our faults, the sad times, the bad times. We look at what we have not achieved, and not at what we have. If we take a moment to stop and genuinely reflect on what we have done with our lives, I think many of us will come to realise that we are not such failures after all. I hope that such reflections - looking at what we've achieved, and what we have survived, what has made us stronger or wiser - can spur us all on to do whatever it is we want to do. Because at the last, it is ourselves that we must satisfy in order to be content.

I hope that we all find contentment in the coming year.

A mini post-hexmas blog for you this week, and only to bring you seasons greetings and some whimsical taxidermy discovered earlier today at Lickey Hills Country Park visitor centre.

Wishing you all the very best for this season and for the new year.

​This week I have mostly been contracting plague. Not contracting to clean my windows, you understand, in more of a *I am dying of dis-ease* kind of way.

In other words I have a cold.

To commemorate the timing of this auspicious occasion, I have today composed an ode in its honour. Please read on for my Ode to the UnCommon Cold.
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Another flipping cold, I've got,
And now my lungs are full of snot.
I've used my hankies, tissues and more;
Even emptied out my knicker drawer
I'm coughing, sneezing, making noise,
Spreading germs to girls and boys.
Santa will get such a fright,
When he arrives on Xmas night,
To see the moaning, snotty dears,
With dripping noses and snotty cheers.
And that's why Rudolph's nose is glowing,
From all the time he's spent nose-blowing.
So walk by me, and hold your breath,
Lest you inhale my germs of death...

(well, they feel pretty deathly, anyway).

Happy hexmas, all. Stay germ-free!

A short but photo heavy blog this week, following a recent break to the Brecon Beacons in South Wales. Wales in December is always likely to be damp, and on this occasion it did not disappoint. Precipitation aside, the village of Talybont on Usk has a canal, two rivers, and if that wasn't enough, it boasts the largest still water reservoir in the Brecons. The area surrounding is a classic glaciated 'hanging valley', into which a large number of waterfalls cascade.

The abundant bracken lent some autumn colour to the grey day. The surrounding hills lay wreathed in mist and cloud, and everywhere, the water ran. A mysterious carved stone sits near the largest of the falls. Who placed it there, and why?

Later in the day the canals, man-made transport links, beckoned. They were flat and still and disturbed only by the steady patter of the falling rain, a stark contrast to the natural falls. Water, above, beside and beneath, yet not a drop to drink.

Fortunately the local pub had cider. Cheers! ​  

You  may or may not be aware that the GASP radio show on Midlands Metalheads had a special event on Saturday last. A walking themed show, where we played songs about walking (ahem), and occasionally about running. They were very good songs but that wasn't the only reason we played them. It was also to raise awareness of the charity Narcolepsy UK, and a charity event they are holding in January.

Narcolepsy affects the brain's ability to properly regulate sleeping and waking. Sufferers can experience disturbed night time sleep, excessive sleepiness in the daytime, and cataplexy - sudden muscular weakness. There are an estimated 30,000 people with narcolepsy in the UK, though it is believed that many of those are undiagnosed.
Narcolepsy UK aims to support people with Narcolepsy and their families. In January, the charity is holding an event to raise funds and awareness - 30 Walks in 30 days (you get New Year's Day off!). To find out how to take part, visit the events page on the charity's website.

And if you want music to walk to - the GASP radio walking special is now available for you to listen to as a podcast on the Midlands Metalheads website. That's right - three whole hours of walking inspired songs, plus info about the charity event as well! Happy feet? I should coco!

Today I went to find a robin.
The low, late autumn sun shone bright and the sky was blue. The breeze was light, and the few remaining dry, crisp leaves rustled loudly as they fell to the floor like autumn snow. In just a few days it will be December.

Today I went to find a robin.
The teazles grew tall and fierce in the harsh sun at the lakeside. In the shelter of the riverbed, the light was softer, diffused by the trees. A broken willow attempted to bar passage, but its heart wasn't in it and I slipped by.

I will have to find my robin on another day.

Oh yes indeed, it has been a musical weekend...
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LM Cooke Music has been a little quiet in public since the release of first solo choon, 'Poor Jenny' (still available for free download on Bandcamp - just name your price as Zero). But that doesn't mean it hasn't been quite noisy behind closed doors. Especially this weekend, where against a backdrop of lashing rain I've been putting together the first edits of another three (that's three!) tunes.
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Recording has paused on at least one because it appears I need a horn. Not just any old horn either, a big, pointy Viking style horn. And not just for drinking from - It's actually a blow-y type horn that I need. Similar to this, seen at Glastonbury last month. Maybe a bit smaller. A bit (no, that man doesn't have one very long fang).

What manner of music could require a Viking horn, you ask? Well, actually, this isn't for a Viking type song at all (ha, fooled you!). To be honest, I'm not entirely sure what genre it would fall into, but what's a genre between friends? You're savvy enough to choose your music based on whether you like how it sounds, rather than whether it falls into one particular box or another, I'm sure.

And what of the other things in progress this weekend? Well, there is a reworking of a traditional nursery rhyme on the cards, and also a song about a wolf. There *may* be more wolf songs coming up soon. Maybe even a whole wolf cycle. But not a wolf on a cycle. That would be weird.

Excitingly, LM Cooke music has been asked to be part of a forthcoming musical project in the new year, so what with all the new music in progress, 2017 is looking bright, despite today's rain. Don't forget to like the Facebook page to keep in touch with the latest info. And if that's not enough:

• Mediaeval Biaetches are in secret discussions to bring your more biaetch for your buck (or at least, more biaetch). Shhh!
• The late Crimson Clocks have 2 tracks included on Steampunk Records Volume 4, along with a host of other steampunk artists. It's available now from Steampunk Records - it's limited edition so get it before it's gone... 

Today is a full moon. Not only that, apparently it is going to be the biggest full moon that we've seen in the UK since 1948, and it won't be this close again until 2034. Tonight's moon is a supermoon. That doesn't mean a moon with a big 'S' on its chest. It means it's big.

It's cloudy here at the moment, so I don't know whether I'll get to see the great, big moon. It will be rising here at 16:48 GMT, so I shall do my best.

It's interesting the effect the moon has on people. I remember a customer at a place I used to work who would always appear with ruffled hair when the moon was full. His behaviour at those times would match his hair; fractious and disturbed. It was an interesting coincidence, if coincidence it was. Of course, the word 'lunatic' comes from the root 'lunar'. Today's Telegraph newspaper carries an article that states that in 2011, over 40% of medical staff believed the moon had an impact on human behaviour, while in 2007, Sussex police placed extra staff on duty when the moon was full following research that showed a correlation between full moon and violent incidents.

Of course, there are other explanations. A full moon provides more light in the evening - the very reason Birmingham's 'Lunar Society' - great men such as Matthew Boulton, Erasmus Darwin and others - chose to meet on a full moon, so that there was sufficient light for them to make their ways homeward in the days before streetlights. Perhaps it's also easier to commit crime if you can see what you're doing. And if you already have some mental health problems, perhaps the presence of huge, bright eye in the sky, preventing you from sleeping, could temporarily make those worse.

I like the moon. I find her reassuring. No matter what happens during the day, the moon endures. Even when you can't see her for clouds. One of my new musical compositions, Moon Song, is all about her (there might be a clue in the title). And the list of other musicians, writers, poets and more that she has inspired goes on and on. May she never crash, or be devoured from within by space fungus. And most especially, may she never be privatized. Sing for the moon!