Sunday 29th March - Lent Inspirations - of wind and waves and weather

Twice in the daily readings I am following in St Mark's gospel this week Jesus has done the 'calming the storm' thing.

The first time, he was asleep in the boat with the disciples, on a cushion - just imagine incuding that detail in the story - when a storm came up.

The second time, in Chapter 6, he had sent them on ahead in a boat, immediately after one of the Big  Spontaneous Picnics with No Preplanned Catering events. (spoiler alert; I've noticed that he's going to do another of these mass meals in a few pages' time).

Jesus was hanging back to give himself some prayer time, but spotted them struggling to row in heavy dangerous seas. We all know the stories - he walks over (how fast can he walk?), they all think he's a ghost, but he calms them down, allays their fears, and climbs into the boat with them, calming things down, both the weather and the panics.

Reading that passage brought immense comfort to me this week - it was the bit where he spotted their distress, hot-footed it across the waves, and climbed into the boat with them for the rest of the journey.

Well, we're all in the same boat together for the rest of this covid19 journey. I'm really, really glad to have Jesus aboard with us.

May the peace of Christ keep everything calm, allay our fears, and surround us with peace.

Saturday 28th March - The Letter Arrives

Oh well, I was expecting it, but it still feels a bit - surreal.

I had a letter this morning from the hospital informing me that I'm in the 'at-risk' category of people, and should stay away from all contact (except my Nearest Dearest) for the next 12 weeks. I reckong thats round about mid-June.

We've sort of been acting as this were the case for a week or so now, but it has all become a bit more Real.

Nearest-Dearest has been getting increasingly twitchy about his foraging expeditions, for fear of bringing uinvited guests home. We shall be fine for the next four or five weeks anyway, and there are friends and neighbours, and hopefully on-line delivery opportunities once things settle down. He's lso old enough to be included in the 'you really out to stay home' category.

At the moment my father seems to be ok for supplies, which is just as well, as if possible we would prefer not to get too close. The sheltered flats where he lives are putting things in place to try and reduce the risks, and he still gets lunch every day - delivered to his flat, rather than all eating together in the dinig room.

We saw each other briefly yesterday, when we handed over a few bits and pieces of shopping that he had requested. 

Meanwhile, life goes on as per the 'New Normal'. Maybe a little less knitting or crochet than yesterday, a little less gardening... At the beginning of the week I managed to extract a decent amount of earth from the base of the compost container, leaving it hollowed out. He's now stirred it all so that everything collapsed into the void, and there's room for more. It was perilously close to Full!

Some of my seeds have germinated;

I saw on twitter that some streets in another town had put bears in their windows - teddy, not live - to create a 'bear hunt' for the familes who go out for along the streets. Good plan, I thought. I suspect ours might be the only bear-in-a-window for miles around at the moment - I wonder if it will become a 'thing' here?

This is the bear I was given when I was about nine years old. It plays Brahms lullaby if you wind the winder, accompanied by a sort of grumbling noise which I think is the mechanism. My friend had a bear just like it, but with a growl instead of a music box. She swore to me that it used to talk to her at night, and I desperately wanted to believe her. 

The other excitement was I taught my first on-line piano lesson this afternoon. I contacted a family that I thought would be happy to be 'guinea pigs' for the experiment, and it went more or less ok - sound quality is rough, but good enough to teach a half-way decent lesson. 

So there we go. The New Normal...

Thursday 26th March - I had a title

I had a snappy title for today's post, but I've forgotten it.

Now, I have remembered to take a picture of the primula that I just managed to save in time;

There. It's fine now, which is a relief! Little happinesses like these make the days chug along.

The solar powered dinosaur has been completed,

and was taken out to strut its stuff in the sun. Leo (one of the cats) came to investigate; she was confised by the disnosaur's apparently random stop-start motion, not realizing that it coincided with her moving around and blocking the light onto the solar panel. But then she's a cat. What does she know about solar power? 

Himslef's unearthed the bigger chess set, not the little one I gave him all those years ago which didn't have instructions, but the bells and whistles and (I thought) better one. It takes half a dozen C batteries - that gives you an idea of its age, so first step was to find a charger that would fit and be the right everything electronical to make it work.

(The meccano car and the jigsaw are lined up as possible next projects)

However it is apparently too clever;  on the easy levels it is extremely simple, and as soon as you choose more serious levels it becomes 'very obscure'. So the hunt is on to find the original 1980s version, all green and red LEDs. And then there will be batteries and chargers to look for...

Now this arrived in the post for me today - a comment from a fellow blogger nudged me into ordering at long last. Not Peter Wimsey detective fiction, but a selection of essays. I'm looking forward to reading it in due course.

Reading and books is getting a little out of hand. I really should get on and finish one of the books I am partway through before I start another, or indeed, buy any more. I'm 90% of the way through 'Tragedy at Law' by Cyril Hare, and the murder has only just happened - but I have no idea who dunnit. There is a butler of sorts in the plot...

 Other than that, everything carries on. The weather improves - colder this morning, but warmer this afternoon, and more has been done in the garden. We're all fine - my father, Himself and the offspring.

My biggest problem is not the fact that I can't go out anywhere, but that I am staying 24/7 in a household where There Be Biscuits. It would be soooo easy to spend my time grazing on biscuits, snacks, nuts, this that and the other. But I am determined to try and end this period weighing no more than when I started.

Wednesday 25th March - Yesterday - the greenhouse

We seem to be moving into a rhythm...

I have a long lazy morning in bed, surrounded by books, drawing materials, browsing twitter, facebook, kindle, bbc news and various blogs on my tablet, while Himself is busy, doing - I don't know, really... I hear the washing machine going, and the dishwasher, sometimes the bread machine bleeps, sometimes there is silence...

Yesterday he took the car to the garage for its MOT, luckily not due until towards the end of next month. Halfway there he had a phone call (handless, or whatever it is called, hands-free, that's it) to say the garage was closing. So he turned round and came home.

That was good news for me; friends have passed on a small plastic 'greenhouse' which their daughter had when she was in student digs. And here it is, apart from two metal grills which are not in shot.

You might notice that there are no instructions... This always reminds me of the time when I was chuffed to bits to have found an affordable but reasonably demanding electronic chess set to give him one Christmas nearly forty years ago. That didn't have its instructions either... he was kind enough to say that fathoming out how to work it was as much of a delight as eventually being able to play chess. So I was pleased to be able to give him another challenge today.

I left him to the task and went to make soup;

After a while the components had moved, and been combined.

I went off and finished the soup, portioning it into pots for the freezer. (Sweat chopped onion, sliced up tired celery, diced elderly carrots in a mix of butter and chilli oil, with garlic and bay leaves Add enough water to cover and leave on low heat until carrots soft. Process and leave very thick - takes less room in the freezer and stock can always be added later.)

(Chilli oil - put a couple of dried chillis in a bottle with decent olive oil and leave for a couple of weeks. It's potent stuff, don't use too much!)

We have several dozen of this little one-portion pots left over from when I used to take vegetable puree, apple sauce, and rice pudding to my godmother every time we visited. I label things for the freezer by writing date/contents etc on a piece of masking tape and sticking it on the lid.

By the end of the day it looked like this - the greenhouse, not the soup;

This picture was taken around 4pm - it will be in full sun soon. There are pots sown with lettuce seeds in there, but all my seeds are pretty ancient (sow before 2017, that sort of thing). We shall see, or not see, in due course.

This is the first of the mystery knit-a-long patterns I'm attempting from the Arne and Carlos blog. I was quite pleased with it; I'd be happier if I had read the instructions properly before I started. It is supposed to be 13 cm by 14 cm. I've managed to persuade it to reshape from 11 cm by 16 cm to nearly 13 cm by a bit bigger than 14 cm. I was going to redo with  better attempt at following the instructions, but then I discovered there are FIVE patterns to knit every week! It's a fiddly business - their patterns only use two colours, and so does mine, but I deliberately bought yarn that changes colour all the time - mustakes ar so much les eesi two spotte.

I've started playing the piano for pleasure again. The daily work of teaching, and also the worries about my godmother over the last year had made me so tired at the end of the day that I had no brain-space for playing the piano. But what to play? Nothing too difficult, nothing too emotional, nothing too easy, nothing too cerebral?

In the end I've chosen a straightforward waltz, Dvorak of 54 number 1, the first on this youtube. The other waltzes are a bit hectic for me at the moment!

I'm also considering Les Anes by Grovlez  which a friend of mine at school used to play - I bought the music but had never properly learned it myself.

Oh well. Today was good. And tomorrow will be as well. All will be well, and all will be well and all manner of things will be well.

Monday 23rd March - A Very Good Excuse

I now have the perfect excuse for staying at home all day; this covid-19 business has reached the point where that looks like being the best approach to take.

So, no more gallivanting and gadding about. I'm not that bothered at the moment; ask me again in 12 weeks time...

Himself goes out on infrequent foraging trips, hunting down a carton of  eggs, or some vegetables...

" Stealthily, the hunter approaches the target area, surveying the terrain. Can he slip in, acquire the swag, defeat the self-serve tills and make his getaway before he is forced to interract with any other person? 

Yet agan he returns victorious, lugging a box of cat food, a cabbage, an apple crumble and carton of cat food and even the eggs."

I have created a random samle list of things that I could do

 

from which I might make a selection for the day, and then add other things as they occur, and then colour them in if they get done. If they didn't get done - oh well, tomorrow is another day.
(I should reassure you by explaining that 'have a bath' only got written down for Saturday because I had just had a bath, and that way I could colour it in straight away. We have continued to maintain a high standard of personal hygiene.)

I'm a bit emabarrassed by the state of this plant - a friend gave it to me last week, and I forgot to water it yesterday. I left it in a tray of water all afternoon, and then planted it with some other primulas to keep it company. It has perked up quite a lot - I shall report on its progress tomorrow. Or whenever.

I was out in the garden, ostensibly to get some more earth out of the bottom of our compost bin. That didn't happen - I was distracted by trying to rearrange the various tubs and trivia which were unarranged all round the vegetable area. This entailed moving heavy earth filled tubs arround, and other tubs which had filled with water, and scooping up an accumulation of soil and weeds, and even sorting out the shed! It was one of those 'one thing leads to another' afternoon, and nothing seemed to lead to excavating the compost bin or planting any seeds.

Lovely lovely internet - I have ordered cress seeds to send to the isolating offspring, and some tomato seeds which apparently entails buying marigolds and basil to keep the pests away. And nasturtiums because - I forget why. I think I just liked the look of the packet.

As far as I know everyone is well at the moment. Long may that last...

Boris Johnson is just about to address the nation so I will watch and listen now for as long as I can stand. 

Oh my. That's about the most sensible and sane he has ever appeared on tv.

Sunday 22nd March - Lent Inspirations - (God)Mothering Sunday

For many people will be a peculiar day for all sorts of reasons;

Regular church goers will be missing their Sunday services - not just because for the religious and spiritual conent, but also meeting up with friends. I've not been a regular churchgoer this year - one of my Lent Resolutions was to go every Sunday. cue laughter all round.

Many will be feeling strange because they are not visiting their mothers, or having to just wave at them, hand over a card, and go without giving them a hug or a kiss. My own mother died four years ago, and my god mother died before Christmas. I miss them, but I'm also glad not to be worrying about them now. My children gave me my present and cards when they came last Sunday so I haven't gone without!

I'll be joining with the church fellowship countrywide in putting a candle in the window at 7pm. A battery candle. I don't think it will help matters if all the Christians set fire to their curtains this evening in an effort to promote a call to prayer.

This is the candle we bought my godmother for Christmas several years ago, because she loved candles, but at 90 years old she didn't trust herself with real ones any more. When I picked it up from the corner of her sideboard while clearing her house (she died last year), I was astonished to see how worn the remote control had become - a small gesture on our part had meant far more to her than I had thought. I was touched that such a small gift from us could hold so much meaning for her.

Anyway, Lent Inspirations;

I'm offering the Collect for the seventeenth Sunday after Trinity as my 'Inspiration' for this week;

LORD, we pray thee that thy grace may always prevent and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

When I first encountered this prayer, I thought it absurd that we should ask God to prevent, or thwart, everything we try and do. It was much later that I discovered the older meaning of 'prevent', as explained by Dr Peter Toon

Here we use a verb Prevent whose meaning in this context is the old one to anticipate, to forestall, to be beforehand with. 

(taken from The Prayer Book Society website.)

So this is a prayer that we may be surrounded by God's Grace, and that this will which will make us continually given to all good works.

I think we shall all have cause to be thankful for the good works of people around us, and I hope that I am able to offer 'good works' in my turn. 

Prayers for all of us, everywhere, however we have been touched by these peculiar times. ('Peculiar' also had a slightly different meaning in the past... I leave that as an internet rabbit hole for you to disappear into sometime.)

Saturday 21st March - Just checking the calendar...

Yes, I've got the date correct.

It is weird how quickly I have lost the sense of what day of the week it is. Without the regular round of schools and students to keep me on track, I'm constantly having to doublecheck.

I'm tempted to buy, or make, some kind of perpetual day date calendar...

         

The one on the right might be possible - I'll get Himself on the task...

Where did this week go?

Monday; clearing the decks for finishing teaching
Tuesday; clearing my godmother's house, sending emails to schools and pupils
Wednesday; completing the sale of my godmother's house, starting my tax return 
Thursday; notifying gas, electric, insurance etc re completion of sale, setting up www.themusicjungle.co.uk for my pupils,
Friday; Himself went shopping in the morning, I refunded music lesson payments for lessons wthat won't happen.
Saturday; Oh, that's today! delivering letters and books to a few friends, sowing sunflowers, knitting, thinking

Last night I was wondering how best to approach this sea of time. It's not like the holidays, when the dozen 'days off' are carefully hoarded and any events such as the dentist, or a day out, or even a few days holiday are all meticulously planned. At the moment my diary is almost completely clear, and the few remaining events are going to be cancelled or postponed.

I've had a pattern all week of a slow morning (breakfast-in-bed!) doing social media and reading and drawing

and going through the chunk of Mr Mark for the day, and then getting up and doing fairly hefty and tricksy paperwork. Now that all the administration is done, I need to find some other focus to the days.

 Today some yarn that I ordered arrived and I've started knitting patterned squares - a 'quarantine mystery knit-along from the Arne and Carlos site. My first three attempts were thwarted and I had to rip them out. Then I looked more closely at the pattern (perhaps reading the instructions earlier in the process might have saved me some aggro) and discovered that the chart is 29 stitches across, not 30. Aha! And I've stitched a project bag to hold the needles, wool and chart.

I also sat down and wrote a list of things to try and get done; On the left is is a selection of ideas, on the right are yesterday and today's lists. It helps me see what needs to be done, and what I actually did.

I put the sweet pea seedings outside to harden them off, and remembered to fetch them back in again, and also sown some sunflowers. We shall see what comes up!

I've a number of larger and smaller knitting projects on the go; the little mitred squares are being added to this blanket every so often.

The package from the wool shop included the yarn to connect the crochet squares I was making all through last year, and also to make some more slippers for the daughter who is now working from home.

Today's culinary surprise was discovering that the pack of Thai chicken currey with coconut rice  contained two packets of rice and none of chicken. Has somebody really gone through the packs, swapping their rice for someone else's curry? Pretty poor show, sez I, if that were the case.

Himself concocted a 'fusion' meal - Thai coconut rice, with chicken leftovers from the freezer and some Indian dhansak curry sauce..

We're well, my father's well. Take care...

Friday 20th March - Unreal Times

In the past 8 days,

I've visited my godmother's house for the last time, saying goodbye to things which I can't keep but hated parting with;

The cabinet came from my childhood home and I'm pleased that my brother took it. The wall hanging(it's huge) and pictures were all made by her, but there's a limit to how much I can fit into my own house.

I decided to stop teaching after last weekend. I felt that I was a bit of a 'typhoid Mary', collecting the germs from one school and taking them along to the next. That took endless phone calls and emails, and I've had to organise refunds or credits for a dozen pupils. As part of this exercise I ended up working out the self-employed part of my income for the tax year ending April 2020; everything was a complete tangle as so many lessons were cancelled or rescheduled over the year while my god-mother was ill. Still - that is a huge achievement - this could be the first time ever that I get my tax return in within weeks of close of year!

I've restarted my music blog, www.themusicjungle.co.uk, which has lain dormant for over a year. I'm posting up various music bits and pieces to keep the pupils going in the meantime.

On Tuesday I went to Nymans Gardens with some friends. Bitterly cold, but the place is full of flowers;

I was wishing that I had added my nose to the fingerprint sensor so that I could unlock the phone without taking my gloves off.

I've been having lovely slow mornings and breakfast in bed! Oh what luxury!

Lent is still happening; I'm reading St Mark's Gospel along with Ryce's commentary, roughly the same vintage as my great-grandfather might have used. How Biblical interpretation has changed over the years... I'm using a Bible with space for you to add your notes and drawings

The font is minute and the pages paper-thin, but I like having them all crinkled up where I paint pictures as I go along. (Maybe painting watercolours in bed is living dangerously, but so far, so good.) Any book looks more cheerful with lots of coloured pictures along the way.

Himself has had a birthday. The off-spring came a-visiting, bearing lunch and presents and cards. We had planned to meet in a cafe halfway, but these days....

Leo the cat thoroughly approves. She pins me down so that I can't move

Today we tried out the exploding chocolate snowman Himself received for Christmas. The idea is that you heat a mug of mild, drop in the unfortunate snowman, stir him about and drink him.

Himself pronounced it 'very good',  the snowman didn't get a chance to express an opinion. It will be the turn of my white chocolate one soon. I wonder if I should drop him into a cup of coffee so that he shows up properly?

Friday 20th March - About Selling my godmother's house

I started a post a few days ago, but abandoned it - why? I can't exactly remember. Maybe there was too much going on to get a clear run at the typing, maybe it was coming out all fed up and whingy? Who knows.

As you know, my godmother died just before Christmas, we had the task of dealing with her affairs, including selling her home.

We've had a stupidly busy week.

Last Thursday, that would be the 12th, the estate agent told us the person buying my godmother's house wanted to on Monday 16th and had we cleared the house yet? The completion estimate we had been given, originally was 'before Easter', so, no, we hadn't cleared the house yet. By a herculean effort, Himself  arranged for the clearance people to book us in for he morning of Tuesday 17th. That same afternoon, the buyer attempted to pay us with a series of 14 - I kid you not - bank transfers, and could we check that they had gone in so they could have they keys that afternoon.

We did make an effort, going straightaway to our bank to see, but by close of day only 2 had gone through, so they had to just possess themselves in  patience for another day.

On Wednesday morning, the ATM showed that the balance seemed ok, but when we requested a printed statement the sht hit the fn. I don't usually use Language, but it seemed that we had been over payed and then had our account cleared out to the tune over several thousand pounds overdrawn. (I regret to say that I used Language, in my outside voice, again, in the bank.) The manager wondered if the unusual way of sending the payment had triggered a money-laundering or scam alert.

We came home, spent some time on the telephone with the scams and frauds department of the bank, and got everything sorted out. Turned out there was no scam or money-trickery, it just took the payments some time to go through, and there was a glitch in the computer system for preparing a printed statement.

'Give them the keys and let that be an end!' we didn't quite shout down the line to the estate agent. 

The buyer then rang the estate agent to complain that we hadn't cleaned the house properly!!!!!

Deep breath.

When exactly, with this timetable, were we going to arrange for the housecleaning people?

We've spent Wednesday and Thursday ringing all the insurances and gas and electric and so on to cancel all the direct debits, and now, as of this morning, I think there's a possibility that we can shove all the files and papers into a box and Put Them Away.

We were planning to book another river cruise as our just reward as soon as everything was done. Think we'll hold off for a few months yet...

While all of this was going on, I had decided over the weekend that I would stop teaching on Monday 16th March. So I was also rattling out emails to schools and pupils - but that's another story.

Lent Inspirations 3 - Prayer and Peace

Textile design I created using an interactive display at the V and A museum in February 

How different it all was only a few weeks ago, when Covid-19 was still Corona virus and still 'over there'!

Now it's all over here, and we're all having to make decisions and ponder next actions. For me it's the indecisiveness that uses up the most energy and causes the most anxiety.

I'm following the Lent reflections created by Rev Andrew Dotchin, which you can find at his blog on www.suffolkvicar.wordpress.com. He is using the Society of Friends 'Notes and Advice' book as his starting point this year (other years have been the Narnia books, the TV series 'Call the Midwife' and all kinds of surprising sources!).

For Monday 9th March, this was the prayer;

To Pray:  

Circle me, Lord.
Keep protection near 
And danger afar.

Circle me, Lord.
Keep hope within. 
Keep doubt without.

Circle me, Lord.
Keep light near 
And darkness afar.

Circle me, Lord. 
Keep peace within.
Keep evil out.

(Irish Blessing)

Family outing a couple of years ago

and this was the 'task' for the day;

 Set an alarm, perhaps even on your mobile phone, and spend five extra minutes in attentive silent prayer today using today’s prayer to lead you into the silence and to end it.

So I spent five minutes (more, actually - time flies when you are usefully occupied), using this prayer, changing 'me' to reflect concerns for family, freinds, the govenrment, neighbours, the country, Europe, the decision-makers... where ever my thoughts took me.

Then I felt a lot better about everything.

I still don't know the answers, or what to do for the best, but I'm less 'twizzled up' about the whole situation, and in a better frame of mind to work out what to do next.

This kind of meditative prayer will prove a mainstay for me in the weeks to come.

Angela Almond is hosting 'Lent Insirations' on her blog at
www.angalmond@blogspot.com
You will find the other contributers there.

Sunday 8th March - Weekly Round-up

Now, can I remember all that happened this week?

about the cats;

Leo hs become increasingly talkative. She's 17 years old now, and has suddenly found her voice. She makes her wishes clear through a mixture of miaows, squeaks, grumbles and purrs when she finally gets what she wants (usually Himself's lap). She is liable to come in, soaking wet from the rain, and tell him all about it. Wetly. Leaving footprints every where.

McCavity has been getting thinner and thinner recently. We were beginning to worry, but the other day she managed to deposit a hair ball the size of a medium sized mouse on the back door step. Outside the back door, I'm glad to say. Since then she seems to be putting a bit of flesh on her bones.

I shall have to cut their claws again - both cats make clicking noises as they walk across the wood floors.

I met up with my friends mid-week for our usual drink-tea-eat-cake-and-natter evening. We crocheted another dozen sisal bookmarks for the World Day of Prayer service later in the week (see below!) and I also had another go at painting 'carrot people';

I'm astonished that the method actually produces effective results!

It's a bit ridiculous when I roll up to a school wondering if any pupils will be absent... but at the minute all moments of rest are gratefully appreciated... this week there were five absent for various reasons, plus one school asked me to finish their class sessions half an hour early. Reasons for absence? Rain (he cycles to his lesson, and doesn't come if he would get totally drenched), lurgies, exams, and the school was having a class assembly. On the down side, a different school had a World Book Day Assembly - 'we'll only be 20 minutes' - which over-ran, so I will have to go back some other time to make up the lessons I missed. Oh Well.

It was the World Day of Prayer on Friday; I went to the morning service in a small village church nearby, and took copious notes or the evening service that we were hosting at our church later on.

Afterwards I managed to borrow the candles, and a Zimbabwean flag, and gather all the spare note cards and pencils left over from writing promises during the service to take them back to our church for the evening service. We had a much simpler affair, but still well-attended. In a fit of grumpiness back in September when I agreed to take on the service, I changed the start time from 7.30 to7pm. Why? I don't know. I suspect I might just have been making some kind of point.

I've been 'on the committee' for too many years now - I only joined as a temporary measure until I could find someone 'more suitable' when the previous church rep had to stand down. I find the whole thing extraordinarily draining, even when our church isn't hosting the service. It all hangs over me like a bit of a cloud throughout November, December, January, February and the beginning of March, when I am prone to bouts of chest infections, and, this year, dealing with my God-mother's affairs as well! Every year I say 'no more'...  and 'never again'...

Actually it was a good evening. Only two ladies came at the old time of 7.30, halfway through, and we were cleared up and away and back in our own homes by 9pm. The services have become more elaborate over the years; when I was first involved we just had the words and the songs. Now there are 'interactive' bits, reflecting the custome of the country that put the service together - Zimbabwe this year. Offering cups of water on arrive, haing a display of traditional Zimbabwean food and flowers and musical instruments, writing committments to serve the community, and giving everyone a sisal bookmark as they leave. I've now got a couple of bags of spare service sheets, and half a dozen sisal bookmarks, and all the left-over pencils and note cards to rehome and recycle and a flag to return to its rightful owner. I've managed to pass the candles back already.

.

I had Another Duvet Day on Sunday - what joy! I spent the time reading, and watching more drawing tutorials on youtube. Mainly the Johanna Basford 'Inky Art' series; how to doodle fish

and how to create a fishy scene. From other sites I followed 'how to create a daisy border in your bullet journal (I don't do bullet journals) and also followed up something on 'Zentangles', on the right hand page.

Ah well. My first pupil tomorrow can't come, so I will have a more lesiurely start to the day - maybe clear the dining room table before I start teaching? Bed time now, anyway. 

Sunday 8th March - Lent Inspirations 2

Angela Almond, who hosts 'Pause in Advent', is hosting 'Lent Inspirations' over at her blog, 'Tracing Rainbows'.

Here's my contribution;



My trouble with doing any kind of 'Daily Readings' of any kind, for any purpose, is that unless I've got plenty of time to keep revisiting what I've read, and thinking about it properly. the words just go straight out of my head.

I was trying to remember one thing from each day's reading and reflection (they are here if you are interested) but in the end I've cut down to working on just one idea from last week;

to try become less grumpy and more gracious and generous.

I've become a bit grumpy these days, and it really doesn't improve daily life!

Thinking about how I was going to accomplish this change, it occurred to me that praying for a grateful, gracious and generous mindset, first thing in the morning before I even opened my mouth and said anything to anyone might be a way to begin. On the days when I have remembered to do this, I have found everything went more pleasantly.

When I'm teaching the piano, I lay great stress on trying to learn things correctly the first time, adn then reinforcing the right notes/fingers/articulation/dynamics/phrasing/balance of tone etc by accurate and thoughtful repetition until it becomes automatic - a habit. 

Like learning good manners, or a new language. You just have to pay attention to what you are doing in the early stages in order to inculcate the 'right' way of doing things, and free up your mind from the necessity of remembering things.

Simples.

Oh I wish it wasre that easy!

(By the way, the daffodils haven't changed that much in a week - the earlier photograph was taken some weeks ago!) 

Monday 2nd March - Today dawned bright and sunny

Actually, I'm talking about me, not the weather.

The weather was cold and grey. But I felt bright and chirpy having rested on Saturday afternoon and all of Sunday. (Saturday morning is one of my more intense teaching times - eight pupils more or less back to back in 4 hours, with any breaks usually taken up in chatting with parents.)

By the time I had finished the morning's lessons, the sun was up and outside was as sunny as my mood. I spent the rest of the morning being extravagant in town - banking a cheque, buying a magazine and some coloured brush pens, having coffee in Waterstones and decorating the envelopes of letters ready to be posted

 and buying stamps and reduced-in-the-clearance-outlet-pillowcases and cat treats and bird seed in Wilcos...  a goodly haul by the time we got back.

This is what I spent some time doing yesterday - I wanted to include them in the previous post but it was taking too long for the photographs to arrive on the computer, if you see what I mean.

Anenome - happy ever crafter tutorial

Johanna Basford Inky Art Course Day 4

Bobblast video on youtube - he says
 'Use a Big Brush - Biiiiig Brush, start by making a carrot';
so that's what I did ,but I only had a small brush pen with me! 

Right. That's all from me... one more lesson to teach, and then an evening of rest and recuperation and crochet...