Wednesday 4th January - Back on track (datewise)

It has been Wednesday all day in my mind. 

This may be because a regular Wednesday morning term-time piano teaching zoom has restarted. By prior agreement we didn't do much in the way of piano, but just had a lovely long chat. This zoom is alway an unequal mix of chat and piano lesson as we spend about an hour setting ourselves and the rest of the world to rights before getting round to the piano bit; no wonder lessons have always taken up most of a morning ever since we started!

I'm trying to restart a sketchbook habit. It went quite well a few years ago, but fell by the wayside last year. I've bought a Special New Notebook for the purpose (I don’t need much excuse to buy another notebook). This is the front page:

The top is a watercolor version of the inky pictures I did a few days ago, to which I added some black fountain pen lines. Then I drew some simplified ideas for trees fir me to think about, inspired by a blog post on stitchinglife.uk about a Paul Klee-inspired embroidered sketchbook cover.

Starting a New Sketchbook is always a little intimidating...

Ang and I have resumed our correspondence regarding the sequel to the Postcard Project. We are approaching the end; just a month or so to go, and we both want to continue. 

Tuesday 3rd January 2023 - the Real Tuesday, all day

It is a properly dismal day out there. However I am warm, and have a mug of tea by my side, and I've already had a 2nd cup of coffee (we drink teeny tiny teeny cups of Nespresso coffee, and we DO recycle the pods) with the last of a Stollen. I cut out the marzipan and hand it over to Himself; it is rather wasted on me.

Christmas Goodies Sit-rep;

• Three boxes of chocolates consumed; two more and a bar of chocolate in waiting.
• One Stollen and half a Christmas cake consumed - another Stollen, the other half of the cake and a Panetonne stacked up ready.
• One packet of Lebkuchen finished; another packet, and two packets of Speculaas not started.
• One selection box of shortbread biscuits unopened.

I think we will be able to 'cope' with all these over the next few days, weeks, months!

We'll chomp our way through the Christmas cake next - we tend to have Christmas goodies with our 'second cups' of coffee. It's quite  routine-ish sort of ritual; a Nespresso with breakfast, another mid morning, and the third after lunch.

Very Occasionally we have what we term 'A Four Coffee Day' when we feel that it's all been a bit Too Much.

I'm overwintering my geraniums (I can't get used to the idea that they are now called pelargonuims) on a windowsill on the landing, with mixed results. I took cuttings from the couple that I had, and brought them indoors when the weather got colder. I was a bit saddened to see that three of them seem to be giving up the ghost;

which leaves me with seven, from the original four plants. Then I saw this;

One is going to have two red flowers, and it's friend has a couple of buds. 

Monday's to-do list is waiting for me... I've finished my tea... and I think I've finished today's blog post... so I am running out of reasons not to get on with it...  

 

        

Monday 2nd January - not Tuesday

 I've spent most of today thinking it was Tuesday. It's kind of what happens between Christmas and the start of the school term.

 Although, come to think of it, I don't work in school any more. I do roughly follow the term dates for piano teaching, but usually aim to start a week later and finish a week earlier than the official term dates. It gives me longer holidays and also avoids the usual beginning/end of term chaos as everyone gets their revised timetables, moves to a different day for sports other clubs and so on.

I had quite a 'to do' list to get through. Having written it out I set it aside and played with black fountain pen ink

I have tried this idea with other fountain pen ink but black is recommended and you can see why; there seem to be more colours in the liquid to separate out as the pigments travel through the water.

I painted an upper rectangle with clear water, and dropped some paint in two of the corners,  then painted a lower rectangle very closely underneath the first and dropped paint into that. The gap between the rectangles was only a few millimetres. 

Finally I bridged the gap with an inky brush, and pushed ink around a bit or added water as seemed good or tilted the page this way and that.

You can't say it was planned. But I am loving how they have turned out. (There were some less successful ones as well!)

The 'to do' list is pretty much as it was. But I can have a re-run of 'Tuesday' tomorrow. 

Sunday 1st January 2023 - New, yes, seriously...

The Bible opens with the creation of the world at the beginning of Genesis, and end (after pages and pages of apocalyptic imagery of death and destruction) with the creation of a New Earth and a New Heaven. I have to admit that I rather switched off as David Suchet read through the first 20 chapters of Revelations through December - 'enough,' I thought to myself, 'I get the idea...' 

Today doesn't look particularly 'new' - the garden is damp and soggy, the sky, after suggesting it might brighten up first thing, is grey and uninviting.

But it is a New Year! I have a New Diary! 

This is the one I write in every evening - notes of what happened, maybe observations or even some 'thoughts' about the day just passed.

I always write in these 'handholds'; it's a small chunk out of the Bible divided into seven statements to 'hold on to' through the day, especially helpful if I'm having a trying time.

  

I've actually got two paper diaries - this is the paper appointments diary. With the handholds, of course!

New adventures lie ahead, to be scribbled into the next pages of the sketchbook journal;

And here is the last week - warning - there is a scribble of McCavity, the cat for Christmas Eve. We are still missing her, mainly at breakfast and bedtime, and when a shadow in the garden or in a corner of the room catches our eye. The vets sent us a beautifully handwritten condolence card - what a lovely, lovely kind thought. That has never happened before - we weren't even registered at their practice before the fateful day. 

When I weigh up the sorrows and the joys of 2022 the scales tip over mightily towards joy. 

I wish you all a 2023 with plenty of joys through the year. 

Friday 30th December - Getting into training...

Just two days left to set myself up for the New Year - oh, now that it is heading to the end of today there's even less time left...

I'm making a clear difference between New Year Resolutions and Good Ideas

The resolutions that I chose more than five years ago have served me well and I have no intention of changing them. I've managed to keep them without too much difficulty, and so enjoy the nice warm glow this gives me that I'm not going to risk upsetting that. They are;

Eat chocolate several times a week.

Deliver, otherwise put by, two bags of stuff for the charity shop every month (size of bag and quantity of contents not important).

Keep on with writing a page in the diary at the end of every day. My bright yellow 2023 Moleskine page-day diary is all ready for Sunday evening.

Now Good Ideas are an entirely different matter. If one, or several don't happen in any day, or in any week - well, that's life. It's just an idea.

It is a good idea to eat more fruit, and having a fruit smoothie every day would be one way.

It is a good idea to eat more vegetables, so how about a side salad with lunch (main meal) or supper?

It is a good idea to be more active, so trying to do the 5 minute balletbasedmovement videos everyday is a way to achieve this. Also aiming for a daily total step count of more than 1500, even more if possible, would go a long way to maintaining a minimum level.

I've been practising the Good Ideas all this week to be ready for Sunday. So far so good...

Thursday 29th December - getting through the lists

There are so many half finished things on my list that I'm having difficulty doing anything...

So I am trying to get one thing done and dusted each day.

Today I will almost certainly finish The Second Sock. I'm whittling down the number of stitches as I get closer to the toe. Then i need to have a close look at The First Sock; I'm fairly sure I  need to redo it from the heel onwards. It's a good job that I'm more of a 'process' person than a 'product' person. 

Them, I really must finish the December Postcard Project.

And finish making and sending New Year cards. I was given a Hobby craft online course as a birthday present, and I chose 'Brush lettering for left-handers'. It was an excellent course, and writing the cards is giving me plenty of practice, I've had a few lapses of concentration from time to time;

I said I would send detailed notes on the recordings a pupil sent me before Chrismas. Each set of notes takes me heading for half an hour. I've done the Debussy Arabesque and the Chopin Nocturne, just a Schubert Impromptu and Scarlatti Sonata to go. I should get on with this.

I've nearly finished the January 'print and post' newsletter. One section to write, and pictures to source.

An hour's concentration would see off most of these tasks.... what's stopping me?

Ah, but it's still Christmas;

We are lighting the candles on this tree 3very day at lunchtime.