Sunday 16th March - halfway through March

Today I have spent almost the whole day on art. When did that last happen?

Zoom Church

I did talk myself into joining the zoom church I attend. That was well worth doing, for the familiar community, I really have no excuse for skipping church when it is in my very own living room. I always feel better afterwards; it grounds me, settles me after the previous week and sets me up ready for the coming week.

I wasn't entirely in agreement with the first hymn, at least not the first two lines, and most of the following two verses;

Father, hear the prayer we offer:
Not for ease that prayer shall be,
But for strength that we may ever
Live our lives courageously.

Not forever in green pastures
Do we ask our way to be;
But the steep and rugged pathway
May we tread rejoicingly.

Not forever by still waters
Would we idly rest and stay;
But would smite the living fountains
From the rocks along our way.

Be our strength in hours of weakness,
In our wanderings be our guide;
Through endeavour, failure, danger,
Father, be thou at our side.

But I pulled myself together for the last verse; now that was closer to my mood! Oddly enough it was this hymn that kept me going while I was doing my step ups and triceps rows and bicep curls and everything else through the pulmonary rehab course last Summer.

'How do you plan to keep going with the exercise programme?' they asked at the end of the course. I'm so glad they didn't ask during this Lent; in the first day of my Lent course we were challenged to (tactful ly) tell the truth. 

I confess, I stopped doing 'their' exercises the next day, and resumed my previous regime with relief. 

Sewing 

Ah. Another confession coming up... the advantage of zoom church is that you can knit or sew something straightforward... especially while listening to the reflection. So I managed to get a good deal done to the current patch during the reflection.

Daffodils 

I went outside briefly this morning but didn't stay long. The sun was warm but the air was still sharp on my face. My spring tubs are looking lovely, with daffodils blooming now and tulips to come. My attention was caught by the way the daffodil bulbs deveop into flowers; 

Week to a View

I'm trying to summarise each week of the year in (scruffy) little sketches, I'm way behind, but in my defence I did start about several weeks late, and then I gad (still have, but not so much now) that miserably painful stiff neck.

The last week of January was stupidly busy, and then over the weekend I had to top- and-tail and address about 80 letters to people in my father’s address book. (the pencil erasers are hiding people's names)

This was the week before the cremation; the letters, and also notebook  swaps and Collaboration stitching were all posted on Monday morning.

I spent a lot of time on the telephone (yakka, yakka, yakka) doing 'sadmin', and also working with my brother on the cremation service details (yakka yakka yakka). 

We got there; the deadlines came and we met them all!

Two intensely busy weeks.

Music

It has to be l'Abeille, the Bee (no, not that one) by Franz Schubert (not that one either; did you know there were two composers called Franz Schubert?) 

This is Anna-Sophie Mutter; she shaves several seconds off the usual performance time.

My daughter learned this; it was frantic work keeping up with her on the piano! I'm not sure I could have coped with the blistering tempo set by A-SM. Do you suppose she and her accompanist were sharing a secret joke?