Tag: dailyprompt

Singing

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What are you passionate about?

When I was a child I would make up songs to send myself to sleep. I can remember lying under the covers and singing lullabies. I must have sung quietly as I shared bedroom with my sister!

As I got older I sang with the school choir, but my voice was untrained and would flip between higher and lower registers. I think they liked me in the school choir for the volume I could create.

As I got older I would go to parties and burst into song, usually something like “Swing Low” which has a lower tune that I could hit (I found out I’m a contralto I think). Finally I decided to try and control my voice because I went to a Christmas Carol concert and my voice was up high and down low, hitting notes an octave apart.

I started singing lessons and did the basic grade exam, I was learning once a fortnight because I couldn’t afford more frequent lessons. It was expensive and then my teacher decided to move away. Thankfully my best friend at the time had persuaded me to join a choir on the weeks I wasn’t at singing lessons. Now 20 years later I’m singing in that choir and another one, I’m confident enough to perform in public and I’ve realised how it helps my mental health. Singing relieves anxiety, it’s like art, it takes your mind off things for that brief time when you are creating musical sounds. It is a true passion of mine.

Spring

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What is your favorite season of year? Why?

When Aqualegia (grannies bonnets) and Daffodils and Tulips flower. When the winter rains and frosts abate. When insects start collecting nectar and pollen and the sun rises earlier and sets later. Spring is my favourite season.

Spring refreshes the world, a fizz of flowers shoot up and cover the ground. Leaves sprout and burst from buds, trees are clothed in green again. Not the dark green of summer leaves, but the pale lime greens of new growth.

Not everyone has seasons, towards the equator the day length stays around the same length. The growing season is continuous and forests and jungles can grow to huge sizes. Unfortunately that means that loggers and farmers destroy virgin jungles by removing the trees and replacing them with palm oil plants or growing other crops such as corn and maize. This is destructive and raises the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

So my answer is that I love Spring, it helps me keep track of time. It is enchanting and beautiful. I’m glad I live somewhere that changes, even if it is only for a short time.

The vote

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What’s the one luxury you can’t live without?

It’s only about a century since women were given the vote in the UK. You might query why I would choose it, but it’s so important. How can I, as a woman, have any influence on the people that rule us? By voting.

A million votes can sway big corporations to bring in holidays for their workers. Votes can decide the outcome of an environmental protest. Votes are not just used to choose politicians, but to decide on whether someone should get an important job, or if affordable housing is built or not.

Votes are democracy in action. Instead of top down politics it can change how people live from the ground up. It can support fair shares of food, water, housing, health support and other important decisions

Voting is not a perfect solution, but it has to be better than living under a dictatorship. It can reduce the oppression of men women and children. It is a luxury I would not be without and I vote at every election.

A Tagline?

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If humans had taglines, what would yours be?

I had to look this up:

Pattern afficionado?

“In entertainment, a tagline is a short text which serves to clarify a thought for, or is designed with a form of, dramatic effect. Many tagline slogans are reiterated phrases associated with an individual, social group, or product. Wikipedia”

I would say I’m a “pattern loving gal”? Does that work as a tagline for me? I add patterns to most of my art, and the older I get the more I seem to do it. The three words explain my feelings about art. My genuine enjoyment of entanglements and textures. My enjoyment of and involvement with pattern in my art and designs.

I cannot think of any better description.

Food, water, shelter, education

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What are the most important things needed to live a good life?

Obviously we all need the basics of life, food, water, shelter. Without them people would struggle. They are the basis of a good life. But on top of this I think education is important too.

The more you learn, the more you can do things. Simple biology is useful for growing crops, understanding how to maintain and feed them, how to breed them so you get better crops over the years.

Learning languages can help you to understand other countries, their communities, the ideas behind their beliefs. And also help prevent things like xenophobia. The more you understand the less anxious you should be.

What about mathematics? You would struggle to run a business without basic arithmetic and if you want to understand marketing or the reach of your products you probably need an understanding of statistics too….

Fishing? Ecology would be a good subject.

Designing cars? Either Art so you can draw a design and work out how it would fit together, or engineering if you want to get down to the nuts and bolts…

So many things to learn, and in some places that could cost a lot of money. So I think education should be free and paid for by the richest people in society.

Of course not everyone is educated to a reasonable standard. But it’s generally understood that the better educated you are, the better off you will be. You might not have a rich life, but hopefully a good life, a life of knowledge, discovery and understanding. And an improved wellbeing.

Him indoors

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Who do you spend the most time with?

We have been together so long.

The hours turn into days

Then months and years

Two people glued together

Joined at the hip

You won’t see him

He is hubby, partner

He is anonymous here

But we are together.

One the shadow of the other

I know when he’s coming home

I can understand him

We will always be together…

Samantha

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If you had to change your name, what would your new name be?

I was going to be Samantha, it was one of the names that my parents had considered for me. I suppose that might be the name I would choose? But why would I need to change my name? I hope I never have to.

To change your identity must be a drastic thing to do. I know you can change your name just by telling people, but to be legally accepted don’t you have to do it by deed poll?

Then, there are documents you need to have to identify yourself. Driving licences, energy suppliers, proof of address, background checks for some jobs. Even mortgages or tenancy agreements, or getting married or using the health service.

If you change your name do you tell friends and colleagues? What will they think? Maybe you are trying to get away from someone or somewhere. Life is complicated enough without a change of name. So no I’m not going to change.

I do know people who have changed their names for whatever reason. They were happy to change, but it just felt strange to me. I have accepted the new names but I still think of them as their original names.

Aztec bars were lovely

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Describe your dream chocolate bar.

“Aztec was a chocolate bar produced by Cadbury’s from 1967. It was made of nougat and caramel covered with milk chocolate and was sold in a deep purple wrapper. The Aztec was created by Cadbury’s to compete with the Mars Bar, but it was discontinued in 1978. Wikipedia“

Yes I remember them well..

I bought many of them withy pocket money. They were tasty and different. I was really disappointed when they were discontinued. Perhaps they were too expensive to make? I remember there was a strange TV programme on in the early 1970’s about Aztecs, it was a children’s adventure series. I only remember it because I associated it with Aztec Bars.

I can’t say much more about them, it was just a strange mix of textures and tastes, but they were really nice. Like so many things though they either end or the recipie is changed, leaving disgruntled customers…

Old Yeller

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Do you remember your favorite book from childhood?

I was about ten when I read Old Yeller written in 1956 by Fred Gipson.

I only have a memory that it was set in the southern area of America, maybe texas. There’s a boy who is helping run a farm and he takes in a stray dog which he calls old Yeller because it’s yellow coloured. I think they had adventures, a bit like Lassie. But eventually the dog was bitten by something that had rabies and was infected. The boy had to decide what to do and I can see in my mind that the dog has to be tied to a tree so it can’t bite anyone. Eventually it has to be shot. I can’t remember what happened next, but I do know it really upset me. I guess that’s why it’s stuck in my memory. I think Disney made a film of it, but I don’t remember seeing it. I do think the book cover had a yellow dog, like a labrador on it.

I enjoyed other books, Nancy Drew, The Hardy boys, and books on myths and legends, but Old Yeller really stuck.

Three books

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List three books that have had an impact on you. Why?

Cosmos by Carl Sagan

Surely you’re joking Mr Feynman by Richard Feynman

Chaos by James Gleick

I’m surprised the books I have chosen are all about various science subjects, are all by male writers and all white American writers.

I don’t have a preference for science books or something written by men, but these stuck in my mind because they pushed the boundaries of science fact books.

Cosmos was written in the 1970’s I think, and is a glorious look at the universe and how it is made up. It might not be the most up to date book about astronomy, and obviously we have learnt a lot since it was written, but it got me hooked when I was young and I have two copies of it in the house.

The Richard Feynman book is an autobiography/humourous book. Feynman was a physicist, but the book is much more than a historical retelling of his scientific work. It ranges from his penchant for safe cracking to his interest in art, teaching, and questioning authority. Along the way he talks about nuclear physics. I have another of his books, which is about QED. Quantum Electro Dynamics… No I can’t explain it!

Finally I have chosen Chaos by James Gleick. Chaos is about Chaos theory, it introduced me to fractals and the Mandelbrot set, an infinite pattern of twirling and dizzying shapes that can be created by using a small set of coordinates that make the pattern repeat. I tried drawing patterns using some of the ideas in the book

All three books are 30 or 40 years old but I think they would still hold the interest of someone coming at them from a new interest in science. They helped me navigate some concepts I would never have come across without them. If you feel like expanding your knowledge have a look.