Tuesday 24th June - breaking the barrier at last...

 I check my weight most mornings and note it down in my diary. I couldn't do this while I was away, so I shouldn't have been surprised when I stood on the scales on Saturday morning... 'what!' I got off the scales, on again... 'I'm not writing that down!' Sunday,  Monday, same story. Today... not wonderful, but I was prepared to start writing my weight in my diary again. 

I'm only aiming for a very slow rate of weight loss; 100 grams, about three and a bit ounces a week is fine. I'm 'working' if it could be called that, on breaking through the 10 stone barrier, or 140 pounds, or 63kg. I had just done so before we we nt away (62.95kg , so by 50g, or 1.75 ounces). I'm not  sure that the scales can measure that accurately - it's all a bit of a game. 

Years ago I did weight watchers properly, with over 2 stones of 'baby weight' to lose. It took me over a year, following the scheme and aiming for 2 lbs a week (around 900g). I stuck with it, mainly because I was so embarrassed to be paying more per week to weight watchers to lose weight than many people in the world had to buy a week's food for their family. I've still got my tiny little golden key for reaching my target!

My current 'plan' includes some biscuits, some chocolate and some crisps. A little bit of each. So I can't expect rapid loss! But I have been on a very low downward trend for several years now so that will do me fine.

The advantage of writing the weight in my diary is that I can look back to previous years and give myself a pat on the back.

....

I've just slipped out to do some minimal watering. V, my lovely gardener friend, has come round and started to sort out my tatty patio pots, planting up all sorts of delights for me to enjoy. Two areas in particular needed urgent watering,  and there were two full cans in the garden... job done. 

My experience is if we do water the garden, it will rain hard overnight. If we don't, it won't. I'm hoping that I will have fixed it in my favour; I've done a bit of watering so might it rain a bit? Yes? Maybe?

.....

Now watching 'Bake-off, the Professionals'. Teams of professional chefs compete to make perfect French-style patisseries, ruthlessly judged by Benoit and Cherish. 

'Chefs, these are not identical', says Cherish, measuring the connections with her ruler... They make Prue Leith and Paul Hollywood look slapdash and laid-back.

You would think that this would very an odd choice of television viewing for someone who is vaguely trying to keep their weight under control. However I find that although I find the processes and end results impressive,  beautiful, amazing, the cakes themselves are so rich and complex, with so many layers and flavours that on the whole I have no desire to actually eat them!

.....

Music

Shostakovitch waltz from Wind Quintet, Carion Quintet.

This seems somehow familiar, and I love the staging. If I hadn't read the title I would never have thought of it being by Shostakovitch. 

Monday 23rd June - start the week!

I'm starting the week by posting what we had for supper on Saturday evening; this delicious minty pea and potato soup for 4 from the Good Food website;

As usual I just quickly skim read through the recipe, and then made a start, with only a vague idea of quantities. I don't think it can be crucial as our soup came out fine. I tweaked the seasoning with some lemon juice, and we ate some Tesco puff pastry parmesan twists left over from our holiday last week.

Onions and peas from the freezer, mint from the garden and one of the instructions potatoes from the bottom of the fridge.

I feel like Old Mother Hubbard at the moment; every time I go to the fridge to make lunch or supper, I open the door and find it almost bare... there's plenty of food in the freezer though. It's the fresh stuff I've used up. I put in an extra grocery order yesterday and it was delivered earlier this evening, which will meal naking much easier!

I'll make the soup again - especially as it is so quick and I've usually got the ingredients to hand. Meanwhile I'm looking wistfully at pictures of cordless stick blenders...

A few days ago there was a local news item that suggested a hosepipe ban was imminent. It hasn't materialised yet, but I'm sure it won't be long in coming. We've lined up the buckets, and started saving bath water. BB carried 4 buckets downstairs from his last bath.

 I remember from last time that just chucking it out of the window into a large tub below was a complete failure, as well as causing great alarm to an unsuspecting BB in the kitchen below, working with the kitchen door open. Carrying it down buckets is far more successful. But much less fun.

Music

Slow movement from Petite Suite by Gounod. I don't think I know any music by Gounod apart from the Ave Maria.

 This is scored for an interesting combination of 1 flute,  2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons and 2 horns

Monday 23rd June - Piano playalong Moonlight 4

 Shipwreck approaching...

This is the first bar of the third line. The 'rock' is the fourth beat, where people with large hands merely stretch the interval of a ninth, from the A with the thumb to the B with the fifth finger.

If you peer closely at the music you will see that A marked with the letters l. h. and fingered 2. The cunning dodge is to take that note with a slick, well- practised move of the lh, abandoning the minim bass note. The lh then nips back to play the E octave at the beginning of the next bar. Try it out a few times until it is inserted into your memory and you ard watching your hand, not the music. Don't panic. Sloth speed.

Practice the rh notes following the fingerings and just leaving a gap where the lh is going to come and help out. Ideally you want to be able to play that without being fixated on the page.

Now gently, carefully, combine the two hands. When it is happening without panic or tears, go back to the beginning of the bar a few times, then a whole bar further back.

The pedal is your friend! It will hold the notes that you have to let go.

This type of rock appears a number of times. I mark them in my music, every single one. If it's the original copy I use pencil so I can erase it later. I like using a photocopy to learn from too, so I can go crazy with coloured pencils and highlighters.

Sunday 22nd June - Praying with the breath

 While we were visiting Launde Abbey on Friday, the last day of our holiday, I bought a little book which I thought might be interesting and helpful;

I had bought the teenager version of this book I was involved with Junior Church and looking for ideas. It was certainly full of interesting ideas, all tested by her son!

I thought I'd share some over the next few Sundays and I encourage you to give them a go.

Praying with the Breath is a golden oldie, and features in many world religions. In the Christian context (says Mranda Threlfall-Holmes) you are not so much trying to empty your mind as to fill it with the presence of God.

You take a short prayer, or line of scripture, or phrase, and repeat it in time to your breathing. The most famous is 'the Jesus Prayer'

As you breathe in    Lord Jesus Christ

As you breathe out   Son of God

As you breathe in   have mercy on me,

As you breathe out   a sinner.

Sometimes I will use Psalm 23; the Lord is my shepherd / I shall not want (meaning 'be in need')

Sometimes I'll just repeat the name of someone who has asked for prayer or is going through a difficult time.

Today I put myself in the situation of becoming very badly out of breath (dashing up the stairs to go to the loo, and not realising that the door had blown shut on my very long trailing oxygen cannula!)  I don't get this breathless very often, but it is scary until I recover, as I know I will within about 5 minutes. As I sat there praying for peace and calm I repeated "this too / will pass". No mention of God, but it was definitely a prayer! Thank heavens God is with me even in the bathroom (slightly embarrassing thought). Oh, and we've fixed things so that door won't slam shut again!

Music

The flute seems a suitable instrument for a blog post on breathing; Spring by Debussy, played by Emmanuel Pahud

Saturday 21st June - hot

 We got a lot done in the garden together this morning but this afternoon... it's just too hot.

I might write more tomorrow morning, before the temperature rises.

Music

Jeu d'eau. Ravel. 

I'm off to get an ice cream out of the freezer.

Too hot.

Saturday 21st June - Piano playalong - Beethoven Moonlight 3

 Here's a very specific way of dealing with the little 'bell - like' motif that starts in the second line.

I've copied the bit, marked up to show the three steps to make it really easy to play; 

Firstly, get the nitty-gritty of the rhythm sorted. At the speed of a sloth, play the octave G sharps, then the 2nd finger C#, then the 3rd finger E, slip in a cheeky little top G# and replay the octave again. Don't worry about exact timing to start with; this is to sort the coordination. My hands are too small to use a 4th finger on the top G# without PAIN! and TENSION! Both of these are no- no words, so I use my 5th finger both times.

Once you've got the order in which your fingers play the notes clear in your mind and muscles, we can think about the rhythm. The quavers are triplets, three notes to each count. Think of a clock face; if you divided it into thirds, the markers would be at 4, 8 and 12.

The 'bell' is a dotted quaver followed by a semiquaver. Looking at our clock, if we divided it into three quarters followed by one quarter, the marker would be at 9.

So at 12, we play an octave, at 4 the C#, at 8 the E and at 9 the top G#. Finally when we're back at 12 we're playing the octave again at the beginning of the next beat.

That's just a visualisation! Don't go crazy watching a clock!

The point is that the triplets carry on in their unhurried way, and the top G# slips in just after the E without causing any fuss. Don't drop it in like chucking a rock into a lake, more like a little bubble rising to the surface. 'Was that a fish rising over there?' as opposed to 'who is throwing stones at us?!'

This is massively quicker to do than explain. I just talk too much.

Now revise the triplets that begin the next bar;

Nearly there;

The burning question is 'can you do the purple bit (first extract) followed by the green bit (second extract) without any fuss and botheration?' Start at sloth speed, right hand only, and work up to playing tempo, keeping it all very casual.

Set up the lh chord, fingers all ready, and just, ever so gently, push them down at the right moment. Red bit below.

You might want to stop now, come back to it over a day or two. You can carry on when you are ready, because it's the same idea for the next section. 

Here's the thing to make it SO MUCH MORE BEAUTIFUL; the triplets need to be soft, soft, soft. Make sure your thumb understands this. If you are rowing across the lake, slip the oars in without splashing. Somehow you need to weight the sound so that the bell - 5th finger - gently rings out over the water. 

Start by totally exaggerating the fifth finger - sloth speed, remember - it's tricky because the thumb WILL try to interfere. Think, then play the octave, balancing the sound, before continuing the triplet. Add a few more notes, but only a little at a time. Constantly monitor the sound, monitor for tension, monitor for impatience or getting cross.

Be gentle with yourself, celebrate the successes. If you are  not in the mood go and clean the oven or read a book. Come back later.

This can take intense concentration if it is a new technique. Honestly, digging a ditch is easier physical work. But once you have learned it you will have it forever.

It's real hare and tortoise stuff, and we know who won in that story.