Lost in music with Bonnie Raitt, Bruce & the E-Street Band and Neil Young

I was lucky enough to get hold of tickets to see three of my favourite music heroes, all in a 10 day period, which has really brought me back to an appreciation of the power of music.

Bonnie Raitt is less well-known in the UK but is a megastar in her native USA, and her concert at the Hammersmith Odeon (or the Eventim Apollo in new money) on 1st June was fabulous. Aside from her soulful and strong voice and her expressive slide guitar playing at the front of her great band, she built a strong rapport with the audience and an electric atmosphere. It was a great night.

I saw Bonnie with my oldest friend; we met 50 years ago, when we were 11 and became close friends in our teenage years. She came down to London from her home in the north west and we spent a couple of days catching up on all our news and treating ourselves. I had booked a hostel 5 minutes away from the Eventim Apollo which was only £30 each for a twin room, so I was a bit worried that it might be a bit on the rough side. However, we needn't have worried as it turned out to be spotlessly clean, warm, comfortable and with good en suite and self-catering facilities. The Abercorn House Hostel was excellent value for money, and I would recommend it to anyone who doesn't want to have to leave a concert at Hammersmith before the end to catch their train.

Bruce Springsteen and E-Street Band's River tour at Wembley Stadium on 5 June, a Sunday, promised to be my concert of the year. I've been lucky enough to see them in concert 8 or 9 times, and they are the best live act I've seen, bar none. They give their all at every show, performing at full pelt for 3 and a half to 4 hours, working round a setlist, but taking requests via written signs from the crowd, often for more obscure numbers they haven't played for years. At this show they performed a track from the Magic album called "I'll work for your love'" which I really like, and which I've never heard them do live. In fact, Bruce made a comment that he hadn't been asked for that one before and he had to run through it quickly beforehand and had one false start before he got it right and led the band through it. We were seated in tier 5, high up in the stand, and the view, although far away, was pretty good. Sadly, the sound was not clear for us, and we experienced a lot of distortion and missed a lot of the banter and intros to the songs. This did affect our enjoyment somewhat, but even with that, it was great to see the band again and my good friend of many years and lots of concerts and my youngest sister and I had a great day out. We did manage to get back to the station in time to catch the last train at 11.25, which turned out to be delayed for 2 hours! So I got home at about 2.45am, while the other two were significantly later. Luckily for my friend and I, we are both retired so didn't have to get up for work, however, sadly for my sister, she did have work and managed to be at her desk on time on Monday morning.

The final concert was Neil Young at the O2 on 11th June. I went with my husband this time, as Neil is  one performer we do agree on (not the case with Bruce and the E-Street Band!). The O2 isn't my favourite venue, but the sound quality was very good and the view from our seat was excellent. On the other hand there was hardly any leg room and it was red hot, but for Neil, we were happy to put up with that. It opened magically with a partially lit stage with some people in odd clothes miming the parts of eco goodies and baddies. Then we heard from a piano the intro to "After the gold rush," one of my favourite Neil Young slow numbers, before the stage lit up to reveal him in an oversized cowboy hat, standing at the piano. He performed another 3 quieter numbers before calling on his band, and from then on it was loud, stirring rock and roll all the way! And no rail delays after this one.

I usually try to space out treats like this but when musicians of this calibre visit the UK, given that they are all in their 60's (Neil Young, unbelievably, is 70) you just have to take your chance and see them while they are still performing and crossing the pond. Fortunately, most rock stars seem in less of a hurry to retire than I was!

Walking in Paradise

I've already been back in the UK about 10 days from the lovely walking holiday in Mallorca with my sister. We flew out separately, as we live 350 miles apart, and met at Palma Airport, but we flew back together so I could go back home with her for a few days and visit my Mum again, following her hip operation, and I've been back home just a week from there. The original plan had been to bring Mum back with me on the train but she isn't ready for that yet so I will drive up and bring her down in a few weeks' time.

The holiday was amazing. We booked a hostel in Soller, which my sister had spotted on a previous visit, and which turned out to be perfect - clean, comfortable, friendly, well located and incredibly cheap.

Hostal Nadal, Soller

My last and indeed, only, previous visit to the island was back in 1981, when I was teaching in Scotland and as part of a group of 4 staff and 30 teenagers  passed a very pleasant 10 days in a small resort on the east coast, so it had been a long time!

I had heard that the north coast was very beautiful, which it absolutely is, and an ex-colleague had told me about her regular walking holidays, based in Soller, giving easy access to the Tramuntana mountains, a network of signposted mule tracks through hills and olive groves, the coastal paths and beautiful villages like Deia and Fornalux.

We walked every day apart from Saturday, which we designated as a rest day to free up time to visit the lively Soller market in the morning and catch the tram down to Port de Soller to spend the afternoon and evening in some beach and bar time.

Port de Soller

On Sunday morning we undertook a modest walk to the Rotunda on the cliffs above Port de Soller before retiring for lunch at a harbourside restaurant and paying another visit to the beach. My sister assured me the sea was freezing when she ventured in for a dip. I whipped my toes in and back out and took her word for it!

The walking highlight of the trip for me was the Barranc de Binaraix, which is a walk taking a pathway built into a river gorge through the San Torrella mountain range. We decided to walk down, rather than up, and seeing how long and steep a climb up it, we didn't regret that decision at all! We took a local bus (we were very lucky to get on it as there are only a couple of buses a day and there was a huge scramble to board) which did all the climbing for us, up a corkscrew road through the mountains to the Cuber reservoir.

It was very cloudy when we arrived there, although it was blue and beautiful down below us, but this made the landscape even more dramatic.

The start of the walk

We could hear the sound of the bells around the sheets' necks and the bleating of goats. We even came across a herd of mules grazing by the reservoir.

The views were fantastic as we wended our way down the path, and although it was certainly easier on the lungs than climbing up would have been, the long descent took its toll on our calves, and mine ached for 4 or 5 days afterwards.

Of course, all this beauty and splendour would have been so much less enjoyable without the gorgeous sunshine, blue skies and seas and warmth, and this feels light years away given the cool, dull weather we are currently experiencing in the south east of England! Beam me back to Mallorca, Scottie!

One other little episode I wanted to share was our accidental discovery of a most beautiful Finca (a rural estate which has been converted into a hotel), which we stumbled over as we were walking along an old mule track. We came across a blackboard at the side of a gateway advertising freshly squeezed orange juice, coffee and cake for 7 euros, and we decided it would be rude not to take up the offer.

What we found was an absolute oasis of calm in a most beautiful setting, and we fell in love with it, so much so that we made sure that our walk the following day took us past there again. My new dream is to win a big prize on the premium bonds, book out the whole place for a week and take my family and friends. We did enquire about the price of a room and were told they come at between 300 and 500 euros each per night, so a biggish win will be required!

Mallorca is an island I hope to return to; there is so much to see and enjoy, particularly if you enjoy getting out onto the backroads among the olives, the lemon and oranges!

I have been so lucky in having been able to travel for 6 weeks this year so far, and I don't take for granted that this is one of the real perks of retirement. I'm also enjoying having the freedom to spend more time with my family in the north without having to measure out the days to fit in with annual leave considerations.

Foxy encounters with cats

On a totally different subject to my last blog, the "cat situation" has taken a new turn. Look who visited us earlier this week!

A visitor to our garden at 10am

Fudge pretending not to notice

My youngest son spotted him (or maybe, her) through the window and shouted me to look out. When Foxy realised we'd spotted him and we were taking these photos, he walked away towards the garden of our next door neighbour. Let's just say that gardening isn't this neighbour's strong point; his garden resembles a jungle, so it's quite possible that the fox (and maybe a family) have a den somewhere in there. I happened to look out of the window again a half hour or so later, and Foxy was back, looking quite comfortable in the sun, until he realised once again that he'd been spotted and strolled off.

We haven't seen or heard the fox again since, but are keeping our eyes and ears open; our own Springwatch.