Tuesday 30th October - Oughts

Half term is a great time for letting go of 'ought' - except, of course, there are quite a few 'oughts' that I saved up for now half term.

Maybe not exactly 'saved up' so much as thinking that 'I'll have time to do x, y, and z, and maybe  even p, q and r as well.

I did manage to do a lot of little tasks that have been hanging over me;

• Write and post six overdue letters
• 
  
• Wrap and post two parcels - not overdue, but just getting round to it was the main cause of delay (Canada, watch out....there's a parcel about - not for Christmas, just 'stuff' getting transferred from our house to your house!)
• 
  
• Send endless emails - invoices for piano lessons, replies to enquiries from 'the office, corrections and queries about emails from 'the office', emails about dates and times for piano exams, and so on and son on
• 
  
• Setting up the folders that I take round to each school with updated registers, typed up lesson plans (one school only, I have a Lesson Observation next week so that school pack in particular has to be all 'tickety-boo')   
• 
  
• Deal with rough patches on the bathroom basin (he did that in no time - it was left-over grout)
• 
  
• Arrange for the piano tuner to come
• 
  
• Phone the gardener to see when he will come ('some evening next week?' that's what he said last time. The evening are rather dark now...) 

All these 'oughts' mean that I'm feeling a lot lighter than I was. (I have an idea for a short story based on a 'speak your weight machine' which doesn't deal in avoir dupois')

I've done other things I wanted to do, rather than I oughted to do as well;

There is a way of knitting 'in the round' - ie making a tube, using a circular knitting needle of greater length than the diameter of the knitting, called 'Magic Loop'. It's a very pretty piece of topology or some kind of mathematical process, and I watched the video and even made it happen. Hooray!

For my next trick, I want to investigate how you knit TWO tubes on ONE circular needle simultaneously...  one can also knit small tubes on long circular needles using two needles - whoever thought of that? Or even knit two socks ONE INSIDE THE OTHER - now that sounds as though it could go very wrong, very quickly.  That might have to wait until Christmas now.

What else - I planted up all the little kalanchoe cuttings. I think I might have mentioned that before.

There are twenty. I have delayed sorting out the aloe vera plants upstairs - there are endless little baby aloe veras, all crammed into a couple of pots. They came from a single plant daughter's friend (the one with the horse) gave me about twenty years ago.

Also on my list - go out and have coffee with friends - yes, that happened.

Do some writing - yes, that's been done too.

We didn't manage to go away for the weekend, neither did we go to London. Himself spent most of last weekend with - in sequence - a vile cold, tonsilitis, and possibly a chest infection as well. So we took it easy, and stayed in most of the time doing not very much. Once he was getting better we made occasional short trips out - lunch and potter round the town or a garden centre - and then back into the warm. That is, warm, once the boiler problems were resolved. The heating still sounds as though it has massive indigestion, but at least the radiators are HOT.

Tomorrow will feel weird, when I go off to work. I'll try and remember to put my watch on - one of my rebellions against work is to not wear a watch during the holidays.

I may have gained a few ounces over the past week, but I have certainly lost a lot of weight.

Sunday 28th October - The Monkey and The Peaches

By Cochas - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4425200

Twitter is often a great waste of time. 

Then you get a little gem like this;

Enjoy...

Beaded interior lights for a car

Here's the picture of the lamps inside the Fiat Multipla which I couldn't post yesterday. I think they must have added retro shades to some ordinary clip-on lights.




And here's our new car... I wish I could find a way to add a chandelier....

Tuesday 23rd October - The New Car

Yes, we have swapped out both the cars, the Vauxhall Corsa AND the Alfa something-or-other (I'm no good with numbers) for a wonderful little 4-wheel-drive Panda.

It is a cheerful little vehicle, with plenty if zip, and a neat turning circle. After picking it up, we thought 'where shall we go for lunch?'

Sheffield Park seemed a good idea, fairly close, Autumn colour.... and some kind of festival going ob, as we discovered after we had joined a queue of cars bumping cautiously over a rutted way leading to the overflow car park. It would have been a nightmare in the Alfa, first pausing and gentling the car over the speed bumps, and then rolling over the ruts and tussocks of grass, wincing every time the sump guard graunched on the ground - but no - we were in the Panda, and just serenely motored along. We eyed up how far we were from the exit, how many cars were already in the overflow car park, and just headed straight for the exit. With some many other people already there, lunch wasn't going to be easy.

Never mind. We picked up the fast road from Lewes to Brighton, and discovered the Panda really is as good as we had hoped for this kind of driving, and then headed up and past Devil's Dyke to a favourite tea room/cafe we haven't visited for over a year. Why not, if it is a favourite?

The car park area for Sedlescombe Farm was Unsuitable For Alfas because of the uneven surface, potholes, and the necessity for good ground clearance. But, we were in the Panda! So we swung into the lay-by bouncing a little over the potholes and un-phased by the loose chalky surface. We were able to sit in the sun, enjoy a pleasant lunch, and read enough of the manual to work out why that little switch had it's orange light 'on', and why we would want to keep it that way (Neither of us are keen on the idea of the car switching its engine off by itself at traffic lights).

I haven't got a picture of our car - just google White Fiat Panda and that's what it looks like.

I was very amused by the Fiat Multipla parked next to us; it has the most absurd handles on the insides of the doors. This is the best angle I could find on google; you can make out the strange grey handles.



The owners of this one had found battery operated clip on lamps with beaded shades which were just perfect. But for some reason blogger is not letting me post a picture here.

I'll put one up next time.



Home then, to replace some of the piles of stuff removed from the old cars. We seem to have several of everything - first-aid kits, scrapers, yellow hi-viz jackets, car cloths....

We're still recovering from the dentist yesterday, although we were all lucky enough to just have check-ups and clean-and-polish. Even so, the anticipation, and the relief, makes for a tiring day. He has got a Proper Cold; something for me to look forward to in a few days? I hope not! 

 

Sunday 21st October - Half Term

Delicious, delightful, delovely half term.

It sort of started on Friday morning - apart from the drumming workshop at 6pm that evening, and an emergency music lesson on the Saturday morning (exam on 31st October), and a heap of admin to complete and email to various people before the weekend.

So, perhaps I should say it started on Saturday afternoon? Yes, that's probably nearer the reality.

We went to Wakehurst place for a light lunch - that's me, the son and the husband. The men roamed the grounds, enjoying the afternoon sunshine, and I roamed the gift shop, enjoying the displays of delectable goodies. I managed to to a little Christmas shopping, and then sat down with a cup of tea and my laptop to have a go at drawing the view across from the cafe

 
 using one of the drawing packages (the simpler one). I'm pretty chuffed with the way it came out.
The cafe was close to a 'poke-stop', so from time to time I was able to go on pokemon and do the twiddly-thing on my phone to collect more poke-balls and presents. Yeah. I know. Do not mock.

Today I did gardening. It's a fairly exhausting process, as 'bend and stretch', and 'dig and delve' are very aerobic activities so I rapidly run out of breath. I have found the best method is to sit down on the path, or in the flowerbed if necessary (on a kneeler, because the ground was wet) and rummage around in the earth with a hand trowel and hand fork. Surprisingly effective. I was working in the 'dark and damp' border which gets mostly shade. 

Over the course of an hour I removed a tub of weeds, planted out an ivy and some primroses I have been saving for this part of the garden, and generally made a bit of a difference.

It was very pleasant; I was joined by a robin sitting on a nearby gate for a while, and observed by a seagull perched imperiously on the TV aerial. An odd assortment of birds, until you remember that the landfill site is only a couple of miles away 'as the crow flies'.

I found this;

It was a bit scrumpled but I managed to unfold it. So delicate.

I have a list of things I would like to get done over half term. Like,
dealing with the admin (there is more to be done)
getting the roughness off the surface of the bathroom basin (he did that yesterday)
hoovering the bedroom
planting the little cuttings I have been taking of our kalanchoe house plants (done yesterday, all 16 of them)
sorting out the skandi-wreath kits for daughter and friends (done this evening)
letters to write

and so forth...
 

Scandi Wreath

Back in September, I went on a 'course' with a friend to make a scandi-wreath. I'm posting the picture of the page in the book that we followed as I am issuing daughter and a friend with the wherewithal to make their own;

from this book;

My kits consist of

nearly 100 pieces of fabric, each 6 inches by 1 inch, cut from four different fat quarters (I managed to get enough for three wreaths in all, cutting 72 strips from each fat quarter.)

some glitzy yarn in reddish shiny shades

three lengths of string, each 2m long.

some jingly bells - I've a whole cluster of them saved from Lindt chocolate rabbits. Knew they would come in useful one day. Here's the kit;

Here are the instructions;

Tie the three pieces of string together in a basic overhand knot so that they combine to make the string that forms the wreath

Tie the strips of fabric onto the three strands on the string. Tie them on in any order, and add any other Christmassy tinsel or whatever you like. When you have finished added bits and pieces, tie the end of the string into another knot.

Push the strips of fabric up to each other to cover the string, but not tight. The final length of the wreath will be roughly one and half meters. (Is that about five feet?)

Add the bells.

I've also added battery lights to mine...

14th October - Here goes another week

I've been rattling away on this keyboard all afternoon, apart from the occasional pause for a cup of tea - and I think it's time for one now. We've had to be a little careful with water all morning as somehow an 18" water main (imperial measurements?) burst over towards the next village, and the water pressure slowed to a trickle. It is back now.

I got up just in time - another half hour and I might not have been able to move. As it was, I felt definitely creaky until I made it into the kitchen.

What was I doing all afternoon?

I'm a bit behind on my on-line creative writing course, so had to catch up with a couple of writing exercises. We are supposed to be setting ourselves up to write a short story in week 8 (this is week 6) of 750 to 1000 words. After five and a half weeks of how to create characters, we are now ready to plan The Story.

I'm keeping track of the various characters I've created so far on a new blog;

www.writeanotherstory.blogspot.com

so if you are curious, now's your chance. I set it up because a friend who is a wonderful sounding board for all these ramblings said I should combine all the snippets into a magazine style format. Done.

What did I do yesterday?

Went with Daddy to a Masterclass on The Four Last Songs by Richard Strauss, given by Dame Felicity Lott at Champs Hill. It was most impressive. I'm not a Strauss/Wagner heavy on the Grand Emotion music lover, as a general idea, but as a friend who was also there said, it makes a difference 'when you get your ear in', as it were. It was definitely a handkerchief moment for the very final phrase;

Wie sind wir wandermüde--            How weary we are of wandering--
Ist dies etwa der Tod?                     Is this perhaps death?


Perhaps not so surprising, when I had been to a funeral the day before. Although the funeral was for someone I didn't feel any close connection to; more a case of supporting the family.

Much of the time this afternoon has been spent trawling through photographs to illustrate the various characters. I needed a scruffy dog, and had a couple of goes at drawing one.

I rejected

plenty scruffy enough, but too gormless, in favour of this one.

  
And I have been salvaging cuttings from a couple of flowering succulent house plants which are in their death throes from lack of water. I've no idea what colour flowers these will have when they grow up. They are from the plant in the back bedroom;

So far they seem to be doing all right. There are two more little vases on the bathroom windowsill of cuttings growing their roots. Guess what everyone will be getting for Christmas?

Sunday 7th October - Never do today what can be left until tomorrow...

Coped and pasted from

http://www.completelynovel.com/articles/10-procrastination-busting-quotations

I find Number 10 is especially true...

Number 4 is a bit scary...

Number 8; No, that's not entirely true
Years ago I worked in a computer department where the plans always had to be done 'urgently, at once', and then, having stirred a hornet's nest into action, the word would come down from on high 'no, everything has changed'. So then I would have to call round everyone and say 'stop - it has all changed...'. After one such incident, and I was yet again talking to some Extremely Patient (major computer supplier's name deleted here) Engineer/Sales Manager, I was taken aback, but not entirely surprised, when he told me that they always waited several days before initiating anything from my department. "We've learned (he didn't say 'through bitter experience' but I seemed to hear those words) that everything will have to be altered as soon as we've  made the arrangements." I learned a lot from these engineers.

1.“We are so scared of being judged that we look for every excuse to procrastinate.”
Erica Jong

2.“Procrastination is the thief of time, collar him.”
Charles Dickens, David Copperfield

3.“Don’t wait. The time will never be just right.”
Napoleon Hill

4. “Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone.”
Pablo Picasso

5.“You can’t just turn on creativity like a faucet. You have to be in the right mood. What mood is that? Last-minute panic.”
Bill Watterson

6. “The scholar’s greatest weakness: calling procrastination research.”
Stephen King

7. “If you take too long in deciding what to do with your life, you’ll find you’ve done it.”
George Bernard Shaw

8.“What is deferred is not avoided.”
Thomas More

9. “Imagination only comes when you privilege the subconscious, when you make delay and procrastination work for you.”
Hilary Mantel

10.“Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.”
William James

Friday 5th October - Connections

The book club choice for last month was 'A Time of Gifts' by Patrick Leigh Fermor'. I had already read it several years ago, and enjoyed it then.

I think it may be one of the first books that Mummy read after her stroke; I have one of those penguin '40s' books of just the first few chapters (my brother gave me 40 of them for my fortieth birthday, rather clever, I thought). She loved the descriptions of the Netherlands, especially Rotterdam, before the war.

I spotted this book by Robert MacFarlane and downloaded it because it was only £1.99 and I liked the cover picture;

Then I discovered it is all about Robert MacFarlane's reaction to having been given a copy of 'A Time of Gifts' by a friend.... and the effect gifts of books have on the giver and the recipient.

My father, a couple of weeks ago, insisted on buying me a copy of 'The Hare With Amber Eyes' by Edmund De Waal.

At the book club meeting, one of the members commented that there is a link between 'A Time of Gifts' and 'The Hare', in that a descendant of someone that PLF stayed with on his travels appears in 'The Hare'. I will have to finish the 'Gifts' i order to make the connection.

I've just started 'The Hare', but stalled in the first paragraph of the preface (I nearly always read the preface - it can be the best part of the book!) where De Waal recounts going to a language school in Shibuyah, Japan.

I teach an extremely popular chant in my music classes, which goes;

Shibuyah! Shibuyah! Ha! Ha! Shibuyah! Hoh!

You then go on to add individual statements before repeating the chant.

I'd always thought 'Shibuyah' was a made-up word; it has a lovely sound and feel. And then the word leapt at me when I was least expecting it!


The chapter names in 'The Hare With Amber Eyes' are so enticing that I can't wait to find out more;

I ought to get up. It is nearly lunchtime. Himself has been busy fixing the gates back to the driveway; a job which has been 'on the list' for a few years. Every time he goes to the tool cupboard in the next room, I hear 'hohoho Merry Christmas' from the Toy Father Christmas that was in a stocking so many years ago. Its battery is lasting well.

Thursday 4th October - the jay

It was misty this morning, for the first time since last Thursday.

Then, I had great wrestlings with the demister controls in the Corsa while trying to work the wiper controls and also rub the condensation off the inside of the windscreen. It was all rather hectic for a few minutes after I thought I'd got the windows clear enough to set off. 

This time, the mist turned out to be very fine rain, not wet enough for real precipitation, but too substantial for fog. Not wet enough for the wipers to be left alone to get on with their job without great groaning complaints, but I managed!

On the way back down the hill after a couple of hours of teaching, I saw a jay. Just a glimpse as the car was bucking along and most of my concentration was on the driving of it (the hill is steep and twisty with a lumpy road surface).

The jay was picking at something at the side of the road; I had just enough time to catch the lapis lazuli blue glow of the bars on its folded wings, and the glorious autumnal creamy red-russet-brown of the body.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eurasian_jay

It was a sudden vision of joy and pleasure.