New paintings and regular art updates.
Does anyone else mutter extra words after they have finished a phone call? I just caught myself doing it, adding a little comment when my caller had ended the call. It wasn’t rude, just something along the lines of ” oh leave me alone”, but it could have been multiple phases. I think it must be something to do with being tired. It was just that I realised I might not have hung up properly. But no it was OK. I wonder how often this habit occurs? I shall have to be careful!
Tawny owl https://g.co/kgs/tciyaEu
Just heard owls hooting in Penkhull, Stoke-on-Trent. They were going too whit, too woo. That means there are a pair because they share the call. The male hoots one part and the female responds (or it might be the other way round) I think they must be tawny owls but it’s years since I’ve heard any. I can remember hearing a pair regularly 10 or 15 years ago. Perhaps they have migrated in? Good to hear them. Odd I’m wearing an owl patterned top today!
Do you sing for pleasure, to earn money, to learn something new? Or for mental or physical health?
Singing is good for lung health. It can strengthen both your lungs, chest muscles and help improve your voice. It helps with breathing and can help control your worries. I’ve found it helpful with controlling anxiety. It doesn’t cure it, but it calms it. Yes you could get stage fright, but singing with a choir helps because you are singing with others and that supports all the participants. You learn together and grow together. After about 20 years of singing with the group we sound pretty good. New people join and the group changes, but we all enjoy going or we wouldn’t be there
Some songs are earworms, rolling round and round in your head. Others are hard to pick up. We sometimes drop a tone or sing flat. It’s hard as a low singer to hit the high notes. Some songs are really annoying, but others in the group love them. But as we are all different then we all like a variety of music. Participating is good for you. I’d recommend it to anyone.
If you had to change your name, what would your new name be?
Change my name, change my face…
Change my world.
Why Eloise? I just like the sound. I’m not even sure if I’ve spelt it correctly? If you add a U it becomes Elouise, which just sounds like you’ve misspelled Louise?
I also think it could be written e-loise… An electronic version of the name. Better than e-louse (an AI version of a woodlouse?).
I was going to be Samantha, but I really don’t feel like I’m one of those. I think its too cuddly and feels like a princess name?
Eloise does sound rather proud and exotic? We all have our own ideas of how words work. Your favourite word might be something I hate. We mentally add connotations onto a word or a phrase. And I no no one called Eloise, I just like the sound… Am I strange?
The rain came down in a torrent this evening, it was drumming on the roof so hard it drowned out the radio in the kitchen. I was just about to go out and I stood and waited for it to blow over.
I had watched a short video on my phone earlier. It was supposed to show a cloud burst over a desert, but it looked wrong, something like a waterfall but with waves and eddys and tiers a bit like a chandelier. People’s reactions were incredulous.
I then saw the caption at the bottom “generated with AI”. The rain I experienced was real, not AI. I don’t mind that people are creating images, I do it a lot myself, and it’s good watching a film where someone has used CGI to create spaceships, or add landscapes, or alter how people look. But AI seems alien, creepy, like it knows the rules but does not know how to follow them? It sometimes adds extra fingers or distorts faces.
In the end I prefer reality.
Are there any activities or hobbies you’ve outgrown or lost interest in over time?
I lost interest in learning the trumpet because of lock down. I had to stop because I wasn’t allowed to visit the teacher for months. Then I got involved in other things. So my trumpet is in it’s case, with papers piled on top. I wonder if I will be able to take it up again? The trouble aswell is that I can’t really afford to do it anymore. I think I am fit enough and I can manage the breathing for it, but I need to find a cheaper tutor and work out if this fits in with my current finances.
I still enjoy choir practice and music making. I will have to see what happens. I might even try and join a brass band.
What skill would you like to learn?
I started learning pre covid, but I couldn’t afford frequent lessons. Then the pandemic happened and I stopped learning. I thought I would pick it up again, but I’d got out of touch with people.
I don’t know whether I will try again, I need to make a decision because if I don’t I will never know if I could have done it.
So I’m going to have to get my trumpet out when I’m well and see if I can make the right noises. It’s not just my mouth, but my arms need to be in better condition to be able to hold the trumpet and manipulate the valves. If I can’t I won’t be able to play it.
If like other skills it takes 10,000 hours to become an expert at something, it means it’s highly unlikely that I will ever be much good. But I can try.
The sun rise is later every day
The birds still wake and sing
At the same time
Their day stretches
From wing tip to wing tip
Music soaring before the sun
Even when night is darkest
Before the dawn
They know to sing…
The liquid notes of the robin
Pierce the night.
Interview someone — a friend, another blogger, your mother, the mailman — and write a post based on their responses.
I talked to my hubby about being deaf.
What’s it like being deaf?
I have gradually lost my hearing over several years. It can make me feel grumpy, angry and lonely.
When did you first notice it?
I first noticed it when I was working in heavy industry for several years, but I was the child of a mill worker and the children had a creche at the mill, so I was always in a noisy environment. I really noticed it while working at my final job in a warehouse. There were conveyor belts everywhere and trucks, with loud music blaring out.
What can you hear?
I can hear very loud noises but without my hearing aids speech is just a wah wah wah noise.
How do you cope?
I have to try and lip read sometimes unless someone has a really loud or low voice. I can’t hear the higher registers of singers and music is distorted. It frustrates me when people have to repeat themselves and I know my hearing is diminishing. My mind retreats into childhood memories, it’s very isolating and now I’ve retired every day flows one into the next.
What about entertainment?
Subtitles on the TV help but I have to turn up the volume sometimes. I can use a hearing loop with my hearing aids but we don’t go out much anymore to the theatre or cinema.
What other things bother you?
Sometimes I get tinnitus or burbling noises like rushing water. I think that’s the blood pulsing in my ears. It’s hard to sleep when that happens. Also I think my brain fills in the gaps in the silence, I sometimes hear my name being called, or loud noises when there are none, it can be very disturbing.
We hadn’t really talked about it much so I’m glad I answered this prompt. It’s given me a bit more insight into how things are for him. I get frustrated that he can’t hear me, but it must be so much worse for him.
What brings you peace?
Folk music, lyrical music, gentle music.
I like light classical music, piano sonatas, even film scores.
I don’t always know the name of the musical piece, or the composer, one of my worst skills is answering music quiz questions. But it doesn’t matter what it is as long as it gives me a feeing of gentle calmness.
Singing with a choir has the same effect. Especially when we are practicing and not performing. I hear the other parts, soprano and alto, and try and meld my voice in with the others. It gives me a real sense of peace and quiet. Gentle Maori lullabies effect me, and sweet folk aires from ancient history. They are all really meditations. That and the breathing required to do it help make me feel at peace.
Mallaband-Brown