Sunday 20th August - Lionesses, and Learning more about the moon

 Lionesses, football, National Football Fever...

I guess a lot of church-goers were conflicted this morning; go to church or watch the footie? I could have had the best of both world; put the football on TV while joining with the church live stream on the laptop. It was an easy choice for me - I'm not that interested in any kind of football, so I joined the church (and also did cross stitch). I did wonder about the propriety of the whole church congregation decamping to the local pub to watch the match, and following it with either a 'service of celebration' or a 'litany of lament'...

I was thinking about how I go about learning new things. About this moon going round the earth going round the sun. It is just too much to take in all at once, so yesterday I focused on just a few facts.

Now I am comfortable with the idea that the moon rises in the east or thereabouts and sets in the west or thereabouts.

And with the way the times of moonrise and moonset shift by about 50 minutes later each day. 

So, surely, there must be a period when the moonrise and its subsequent journey across the horizon must be during our day time... ah, that explains about the a new moon, I think, when the moon is on the other side of the Earth all night, and too close to the sun to be seen during the day. Aha! Today's new fact!    

What will I learn tomorrow?

Getting the hang of the moon's peregrinations is a similar process for me as learning to play a new piano piece. It is a pretty big task to learn the notes, fingering, rhythm, expression and articulation all in one go, so it has to be broken down into steps, making sure notes are known, which finger goes where, and when, and how, bit by bit, revising and remembering each element until they all combine into a complete understanding.

Friday 14th January - An adventure in time travel

I  rang my father this morning to ask how he got on at the bridge club yesterday afternoon. Halfway through the question I realised that I was a day out in my reckoning - he goes to play bridge on Friday afternoons... and today was - no, it still is, for a few more hours, Friday. I'll ask him again tomorrow...

It's felt like that off and on all day. I think it could be because this was my first week of piano teaching, and I've managed to arrange my schedule so that Friday is completely clear. So after the last lesson on Thursday it feels as though it should be the weekend.

It was a glorious sunny morning today, and I briefly considered suggested we drive to the coast and look at the sea - every so often I get this yearning to stand at the sea and just look - gaze - view - absorb... Then I thought, no, it's the weekend and the seafront is usually crowded with families and scooters and dogwalkers, making socially distanced walking a constant game of chess, steeping off the footpath and struggling through the shingle for a couple of yards, back on the path, back on the shingle. So I gave up on the idea. But of course, it was Friday, and we could have gone. Oh well. Maybe the good weather will hold for next week as well.

Meanwhile I did go for a short stroll up our road and back, not far, but far enough for fresh air, to listen to the birds, enjoy the sunshine, and discover How Cold It Is. 

A friend brought me some daffodils in tight bud earlier this week. They began to think about coming out within hours, and now, a few days later, they are brightening the kitchen windowsill.

I took the picture just now, this evening which is why the background is black. The moon is nearly full - and for some complicated scientific reason we can see it through the sitting room window in the afternoon, a 'chalk moon', I call it, because that's what it looks like. I haven't quite got my head around why sometimes we see it through the front windows in the afternoon, looking to the east, and at other times at the back of the house in the morning, facing west. It has been explained to me, and I have read the explanation, but the reasons are clearly something that my brain has decided is not of importance to my happiness or survival. So, please don't try explain it to me again!

The tin tray beside the daffodils is a tray of rocket seed which I started off a day or so ago. They are just coming through;

Following the instructions in the Huw Richards vegetable book I made myself a 'sprinkle bottle' by taking an empty fruit juice bottle and carefully poking holes in the lid with a kitchen skewer. I am glad to report that I achieved this without skewering myself, and it makes an excellent device for watering the seedlings without flooding the windowsill.

The mitten project is progressing well. The is the current state of the fourth attempt;

 It fits fairly well - the right width, but a little long - my hands are pretty much shovel-shaped with broad palms and short fingers. I now need to pick up the stitches, currently kept safe on a piece of blue wool, and knit up the thumb. It seemed a good point to stop for tea. 

I'm tending to use my glass teapot now. A change that has been rather forced upon me; I couldn't understand why I appeared to be slopping tea onto my tray cloths quite so frequently until I discovered that the blue teapot had developed a crack from top to bottom on one side, and the tea was seeping out, when I was using it. I'm rather sad about that as it was a present from a piano student's mother. Ah well. I enjoyed using it while it lasted.

Tray cloths? I can't help myself. I am my mother's daughter - all trays always had to have cloths on them. I asked her about that, and she said it was because her mother insisted upon tray cloths... 

Saturday 23rd October - sequencing errors are creeping into everything

 I tried to make myself a cup of tea the other day - assembled a tray with cup and saucer, milk in the cup ready, boiled the kettle, filled the teapot. When poured the tea I discovered I had forgotten the tea leaves. 

So, I started again; tipped out the watery milk, boiled some more water, ADDED THE LEAVES TO THE TEA POT and carried it through the to sitting room. Fail. I had used the filtered water jug instead of the milk bottle to prepare the cup. At least all I had to do was take the cup back to the kitchen, chuck the water and replenish with milk.

Today, with great determination, I managed to get it right first time, but only by actually verbalizing every instruction to myself, rather like when I am teaching or learning something really tricky - a bit of Chopin, the top of the second page of every Bach fugue I have ever studied.

Kettle. Tea in pot. Cup. Saucer. Milk in Cup. Boiling water into tea pot. Oh, the sense of triumph!

I have been dealing with admin today - writing up lessons from last week and sending out the emails, checking to see which parents have paid me for last week's lessons (none of the ones who are doing 'pay as you go' as opposed to 'half-termly in advance! - I shall remind them when I send out the next half term's emails of dates and information!) 

Half term got off to a good start this morning; Radio 3 (Mendelssohn's Octet on Record Review), breakfast in bed, tie to sketch out some ideas for the Advent project and some company.  

I've been fiddling around with some sketches in the mornings over the past few days before I get up; I'm not sure yet what I am planning to do. Lino prints? One for each day? Or make up a commonplace book using the sketches? Something will occur to me.

Yesterday I forced myself to go for a walk after a couple of lazy days. The sun came out part way round, and I starting picking up Autumn leaves and putting them in my pocket. I realized that I was encouraging myself along rather in the way that you would find interesting things for a grumpy toddler to try and persuade them to cheer up. It worked! Have I discovered my true level of maturity? And does this mean I am wise, or childish? 

It doesn't take much effort to press the leaves flat on a piece of kitchen paper and take a rather fuzzy picture of them. They are so pretty by themselves that one doesn't even need to be artistic.

I was also delighted to spot this!  

It is owned by someone living further down our road. He had to stop 'because the fuel pump is giving a bit of trouble'. It didn't seem to take long to fix it - he opened the funny little side access to the bonnet, tweaked the something or other and was going again in seconds.

We reaped the reward of my efforts earlier in the week. Those round red silicone baking dishes fit nicely into the Air Fryer, and I filled the four of them plus the metal cooking pan with macaroni cheese, with added kale, onion, and bacon bits, all topped with breadcrumbs and grated cheese. 

We had the contents of metal dish for supper - it makes quite a light meal for 2 - and the rest went into the freezer. So, one supper meal for each week is sorted. (We eat our main meal at lunchtime these days)

I had tried other containers for freezing the extra portions but they weren't satisfactory, or at least not for reheating in the Air Fryer.

I don't know why it is called an Air Fryer - it is more of a very small, very efficient electric fan oven, coming to temperature in minutes and perfect for two or three people. 

Today is Day 50 of the 'wear the Rowena Swing Dress for 100 days in a row' challenge. I had to wash the front of it on Thursday morning when I discovered some splatters of minestrone soup. Maybe washing the in the hand basin while I was wearing it wasn't efficient or practical or sensible, but I managed, also pressing the wet portion dry between two towels. The fabric dried remarkably quickly, but is a reminder to get on with sorting out an apron.

 

 

More Monday - I said there would be 'catch-up' posts - Drawing

 I've downloaded a book onto my Kindle called 'Learn to Draw in 30 Days'. After a break of several months I'm back in drawing mode, and just starting painting mode. 

This could possibly be due to the Summer holidays being on the horizon - as term draws to a close I find I have less and less energy and enthusiasm for anything more than endless games of Free cell as a form of mind-less mind-fullness after teaching and then writing up notes and then answering emails to do with teaching.

Anyway, this book;

absolutely seems to do what it says on the cover. I'm up to lesson 18 now. I just spend a few minutes in the morning doing whatever the day's lesson is.

Lesson 1,2 and 3 were  spheres.

The it moved on to cubes. 

As a treat we did a cuddly koala (and also texture) followed by bowls and a strange rose

Lesson 12; constructing houses

and more houses

today was contour lines, and 'Contour Kid'

I am so enjoying this! The author, Mark Kistler has the same idea about teaching as me; break things down into fool proof steps and just Do it!.

It's the hottest day of the year - don't I just know it. Clouds are building up on the horizon, the sort that suggest a thunderstorm, and torrential rain, but only if we water the garden first.

21st May - Definitely Friday

 I've managed to get Monday and Friday straight in my mind this week - not sure what happened to the days in between. I've falling steadily further behind in writing up and sending out the notes from the piano lessons, which is why I am writing a blog post instead of Wednesday's lessons, or Thursday's, if the truth were to be admitted to.

So, since I finally levered myself off the settee and away from knitting and television and surfing the net I have been procrastinating

Firstly, by making another bread pudding. I made one earlier this week, on Monday or Tuesday or Wednesday or Thursday - does it matter? Well, yes, slightly, because we have finished it, and if I made it yesterday that would have been serious gluttony. I think it may have been Monday. Last time, I could only find a handful of very dry bits of dried  fruit in the back of the cupboard, so added a couple of spoonfuls of home-made marmalade (not made by me!) dated 2019. This gave it a very agreeable lemony orange flavour, mild, but good.

Turns out there is/was another bag in the overflow food storage in the hall (memories of stocking up for Brexit and lockdowns, and yes, we are keeping ahead of the loo-roll situation 'just in case'). So today's bread pudding has plenty of fruit, and I have substituted maple syrup for sugar. I used about three tablespoons but this is meaningless if you don't know how much bread I used. Neither do I as it was all cut it up and put it in the bowl before it occurred to me to weigh it. I heated the maple syrup and milk and butter together and stirred it all up into a thick - slurry is a good descriptive word, if rather unappetizing. Then a couple of handfuls of fairly fresh-looking dried fruit and a beaten egg which still sinks when you drop it into a jug of cold water. (Do the dropping thing before you crack it open, I beg you).

It is in the air-fryer as I type;

      If it is done before I finish this post then I will be able to add an 'after' picture. Don't hold your breath - it takes 45 mins to cook.

Why the bread pudding phase? It is a sad fact that I have had to become accustomed to, but Himself can lose weight as easily as I can gain it. I am keeping my weight 'level' at several pound heavier than my summer trousers can comfortably encompass. But He is losing weight. I have dealt with this in the past by making vast quantities of bread pudding - He was working in a warehouse at the time and the weight was visibly dropping off him. Large slabs of bread pudding in his packer lunches provided easily consumed mega-helpings of calories, so that His weight stabilized at 'thin' rather than skeletal. He has been 'not putting on weight' over lockdown, unlike so many of our friends, so bread pudding is happening. I allow myself a cube slightly larger than a matchbox and he munches on a proper slab.  

Before I started on the bread pudding I made myself a pot of tea from the selection I ordered in our grocery shop;

I opted for 'feel new' as I am feeling rather ancient. All this cold grey rainy windy weather.  I have the tray beside me

   as you can see I haven't made a summer teacosy (yes, I know that is symptomatic of some very confused thinking) but bearing in mind the weather and the way the heating has just decided to click to 'on' I think the teapot is probably grateful for its winter coat. What am I thinking? As if a teapot has any idea or views on teacosies? 

The tea is still warm, however, even though I had to delay starting on it until I had made space on my side of the dining room table for the laptop.

His side is completely clear apart from his own laptop, and the part of my tray which is encroaching over the divide. I was thinking of trying to develop a 'clear desk' policy, but soon abandoned the idea. I find that by the time I have finished teaching in the evening both the table/desk and the piano and the extra stools either side of the piano are completely littered with papers, books, whatever.

All I want to do is walk away. So that's what I do. 

Once I have finished rattling out these words I will tidy the piano area, pupil by pupil; three on Wednesday, two yesterday - find their books, decipher and type up the notes, end out the emails and file everything away. 

I'm 'getting things done' at the moment by convincing myself how happy I will feel when I have done them. Plus the reward of bread pudding to come... 

   

Wednesday 21st April 2021 - Family, friends, and cream teas

 We did have a cream tea on Monday with the family after all. 

 I made plain scones and cheese'n'onion scones and melting moments biscuits, and daughter brought 'pink cake' and Kinder Eggs (which strictly speaking, don't feature in the usual Sunday Tea but provided plenty of amusement).

The cream? A friend who lives 'round the corner'  read my Saturday blog post and turned up on Sunday morning with two tubs of proper Cornish Clotted Cream, as sold by our wonderful local shop. Oh me oh my, I had forgotten how close to Paradise you can be when having clotted cream and jam scones and tea with family all together on a sunny day.

We finished up the second pot with more scones and jam and cream on Tuesday afternoon with the lovely friends who brought the cream on Sunday. 

To visit Paradise twice in one week is a bit special.

Tuesday afternoon's piano teaching became a bit chaotic as I discovered that my perfectly organised new timetable wasn't. Perfectly organised, that is. Thankfully everyone is very accommodating, and so with three phone calls and a couple of texts I was able to un-double-book the first lesson, and reschedule Thursdays to make everything work again. It is a bit of a win, because although we will miss 'Richard Osmans House of Games' on Thursday' - boo - we will be able to watch it on Tuesdays - hurray.

I came down to start typing up the notes that I needed to send out after yesterday's lessons, to find the cat asleep on my chair hidden under the table.

So, rather than cause any disturbance, I pulled over the 'sacrificial stool' and balanced my books and lap top at the end of the table

Of course the cat had relocated herself somewhere else. That is just how things go. 'Sacrificial Stool'? I hear you ask? It is a very cheap IKEA stool; the one item of furniture that the cats were allowed to sharpen their claws upon. It now has an extremely textured finish to the legs 

  

but still has a function as it is a good height for smaller pupils when they were having lessons here (with a cushion to hide the scratches). The crossbars meant that they had somewhere to put their feet, which helped them to sit up in a balanced posture at the piano.

Right - I'm clock-watching - eight minutes until I start teaching - time to go. 

Easter Holidays

so, nearly a fortnight since my last post - had you given up on me?

We're still here;

or, without the music;

The Disney Winnie the Pooh cartoons came out when the children were young - they were on the tv non-stop. Can't say I liked them much

So, what kind of nothing have we been doing?

The 'lawn' is covered in tiny violets - also dandelions which Himself declared war upon; years ago we bought a special dandelion-dealer-wither-sort-of-thing and it still works. The front 'lawn' has bare patches of not-dandelions-any-more interspersed among the moss. (A whole new crop appeared a day or so later - this seems to support the warnings against using anti-bacterial products which kill most of the bacteria leaving room for even more bacteria to colonise the cleared space). 

The camellia appears to be loving its new place n the garden and was covered in flowers until;

the weather forecast became ominous, and I even wrapped up my strawberries and vegetables in bubble wrap as a protection against sub-zero temperatures 

This weird little bird is supposed to predict the weather, and all those fern-like crystalline growths in the solution indicate snow...

We have had snow, and hail, and more snow this week. Everything in the garden seems to have survived. I watched it from inside, much warmer, with a proper cup of tea out of a proper teapot with a proper tea cosy on a proper tray with a proper traycloth. 

In one of the sunny but freezing cold spells we managed a 'hello there' when some of the family swung by after visiting my father for a picnic lunch, all well wrapped up in blankets and no need to chill the prosecco. 

And in another sunny but freezing cold spell we managed a birthday presents and Easter Eggs exchange with the offspring down at the seaside. It was cold enough that turning round and going straight back home again seemed like a good idea, but, fortified by a slice of chocolate cake, we managed a short walk towards the sea and along the front in the sunshine, and then what seemed like a never-ending trek back the way we came after the sun had gone behind clouds and the wind fiercely in our faces.

This morning I had the pleasure of sitting out in the garden with a friend having tea (on a proper tray with a proper cloth, but using mugs as we were in the garden). In the sun, and out of the wind, it was perfect; I didn't even need to wrap up (mainly because I was already wearing a thermal vest, winter shirt and thick guernsey jumper!). She has carried away another two bags of music teaching resources - I am sorry to see some of them go... 

'You sound like you are missing the class teaching,' she said - well, yes, and no. I'm not sure I am up to singing 'John Kanakanaka over and over, three lessons a day, with the children facing their partners in two concentric circles and doing dosy-dos moving to their right twice in each verse; vastly entertaining for the teachers to watch the chaos, and I'm sure there was an educational element to the activity...   

I'm sorting out the piano lessons for when term starts - I have never had so many relatively advanced students at the same time and now have to actually Learn a stack of music ready for Monday. Starting with the slow movement of Beethoven's Pathetique sonata, Bach Prelude and Fugues, a Mozart sonata or two... my days of 'blagging' my way through the pieces are over. 

 

Sunday 26th April - Nearly another week

And how time does fly...

It seems that my extended 'holiday' is over; and I'm getting a real taste of 'working from home', which is what other members of my family have been doing all along. Did they get a long weekend over Easter, or just keep going, through the Bank Holidays, I wonder? As I have been freelance piano teaching for so long, I find it impossible to separate out 'work time' and 'non-work' time. There has always been 'teaching time', 'travelling between schools time' and then hours of admin as a consequence of teaching, all done 'as and when'.

Last week I taught zoom piano lessons on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. That part of my decision-making about which days I would work and which I would not, went well. Then came 'how many lessons a day?. In 'normal times', this could be anything up to 12, starting around 9 or 9.30, and finishing around 6 or 6.30, with longer or shorter gaps between schools and home.

Zoom lessons are another kettle of fish - for a start a 30 minute lesson uses up 45 minutes of time, geting the connection sorted out, finding music, arranging the tablets or computers or phones, and the actual lesson is very distracted; glitches in the conversations and piano playing require more concentration, and it is harder to get things across. I decided on a maximum of four lessons per day, so I am quite pleased to have kept it down to five a day so far.

Each lesson then generates another load of activity - emails to set up the next lesson (I know you can schedule repeat 'meetings' but the parents are still finding their way through the home school schedules), and detailed 'lesson notes', as the students haven't yet mastered the art of making their own notes - that will definitely be a teaching point in the near future - and then checking that the payments have come through. Then I need to write up my own notes and keep a tally for income tax purposes next April. Finally, I need to tidy up! After a day of teaching there is music everywhere! Three days of zoom piano teaching is plenty at the moment.

After the peace and quiet of the previous few weeks it felt as I had gone from this;

http://photoeverywhere.co.uk/tropical_escape/slides/tropical_sandy_beach.htm

to something more like this!

https://guidetoiceland.is/travel-info/river-rafting-in-iceland

That's work... but also I have been on three outings since Tuesday.

Our house backs on to a network of cycle tracks and footpaths through woodland and a golf course. Well, we've been waking up ridiculously early these past few days. I suspect it's because quite a few neighbours are on shift work. On Friday we looked at each other at 5.30 am, made the decision and were out on a walk by 6am! Unheard of!

But it was a really good idea. We managed to force our way through the 'shrubbery' - ie laurels gone wild - that conceals our back gate and emerge into the early sunlight. There were very few people around, so keeping 2m away from people was not a problem, even at 'pinch points' like the bridges over the stream. We didn't go far, just 'there and back' and home for breakfast.

I don't know how many times you have to go out to make it a habit. Saturday morning dawned dull and uninviting, but brightened up into 'Summer' by the afternoon. Himself usually route marches round to the post box every day with a card for a housebound friend, but this I time went too. It was the usual intricate game of gently swerving to avoid other people out enjoying the sunshine - like one of those milder computer games where you try not to crash into obstacles. I was delighted to see this  just near the corner shop;

Morning constitutionals were not possible this morning, as there was zoom church and I was playing one of the songs so couldn't be late for church today (How Deep the Father's Love). After lunch however, instead of posting the card, I printed off a free Johanna Basford colouring book which you can get from her website here  Just click on the picture (on HER page, not mine!)

We then walked round to the address where I send the cards; she's a good friend in her 80s, but not a computer using so it is phone, text or letter to contact her. But she only lives a mile away - further thanI like to walk when it is cold and dreary, but today was great - warm, sunny... So, with Himself scouting the way ahead to warn of obstancles on the form of walkers, joggers and cyclists so that I could give everyone a wide berth, we enjoyed a very pleasant afternoon.

The Johanna Basford drawings are all rather whimsical, but I find them useful for ideas. I took these photographs of a tree ready to be copied and embellished

and this pattern of leaves, maybe for the embellishments - who knows.

That's three times in a row we have gone out for a walk...

And it has made me Very Hungry for my supper!

Wednesday 4th September - Inset Days

Today is the last of a series of inset (In-Service Training) Days which is how the Autumn Term usually begins.

I find them... varied... in usefulness, interest and content. But I also get paid...

It is also the only time of year I get to meet my colleagues. Being a peri teacher is an oddly un-social job - I meet loads of different people at the schools I visit - mainly the front office staff -  but very few of my fellow peri teachers. When our paths do cross, it tends to be in a 'hot-desking' situation - rushing off to another school, or rushing in to start teaching.

I guess that is one of the pleasures of teaching in a Music Centre on Saturday mornings - several other teachers that I used to co-teach with for years (two of us working together in the same class room) also work at the Music Centre and we might get a chance to chat for a few moments in between pupils.

The weather has changed for the start of term. I am wearing socks for the first time since about June. It is drear and raining at the moment, making it hard to believe the forecast of sunshine and warm weather by lunchtime. Will I regret wearing boots? Should I change to trainers? Can I be bothered?

I'm not going to comment on the political situation this country has got itself into beyond saying it is utterly depressing to listen to grown up people in positions of huge responsibility blustering on, saying whatever they feel will suit the moment. Do you remember the board game called 'Risk'?



Or an even more savage version called 'Diplomacy'?



We used to play 'Risk' when I was a child. Friends used to come and 'play' 'Diplomacy' at our house when I was a teenager, and the rows and heated arguments that went on as pacts were made and broken were something to behold.


I reckon that some of our members of parliament have never grown beyond 'game-playing' - that's fine in la-la land, but when it is real people, real lives, real consequences, it is unpardonable. 

 

La-la-land versions of Risk?