Time

Time washes through the landscape, light transforms the colours, shatters water, creates cold and hot spots. Thinking about atmosphere, time ticks across my mind. Change and stillness held face to face in a slow embrace. Taste and smell senses change. No more daisy chains, just dry grasses, emerging from gravel. Birds flit across the planet, like a time lapse film. Here and gone, gone and back again. Generations. How to define time? A single vertical plane of paper, sliding over bumps and humps, a thin slot that holds open but does not exist in more than two dimensions. Behind and in front no longer exists or has never existed. Time flies forward at a walking pace….

Get the jetpack app?

I have a problem. Notifications are closing on 8 March on WordPress and I keep getting a message to get the Jetpack app. But my phone is over 90% full. I don’t want to delete any of my other apps and I don’t think I have room. Also why separate one section of WordPress from another? Or is the whole shebang changing? Why don’t users have a choice, why are we always imposed on? Not everyone can afford to upgrade!

Out on a limb

Growing out and up… A long limb of a tree scrambles to escape the shade of its companions. Thinks, I’m not going to be hidden by all your leaves. Give me light and I will grow into a tree in my own right. I don’t need holding up, I will sway in the wind with the best of them! What’s a bit of tension and torsion to a limb like me? I’m only slightly cracked, that split in my bark will soon heal over, I’m not weeping sap. Oi! Don’t you bring that chainsaw near me! I will survive!

February’s steps

After several months of little or no activity my brain kicked in and I’ve started walking again. I went from virtually zero to around five thousand steps a day. I think I am finally better after illness and sad times. My health is by no means perfect, I’m having lots of problems with pain, but if I don’t make the effort things will only get worse. Sitting watching daytime TV is not the best use of my time, and I’m hoping more activity will also get my creativity going again.

Singing for mental health

I went to another choir practice last night and we sang some old songs from our repetoir including ‘La Para Deiu’ (I think that’s how it’s spelt). We haven’t sung it for at least five or six years, and if you had asked me what the tune was I would not have been able to sing it. But as we started to sing it flooded back. Soon we were singing in three part harmony and I was getting goosebumps down my spine. We sounded very good, better than we used to I think, and this was with new choir members joining in. I can’t explain how it lifted my mood. People were grinning and laughing. We sang a couple of other older songs, one we hadn’t done for maybe twelve or more years, from when we moved from our old venue. I hope the choir keeps going, it truly is good for mental health, raising our spirits and exercising our memories.

Watching videos

I’ve fallen into a bad habit, I’ve started to watch a lot of Facebook videos, one after the other. My phone keeps showing me hairdressing videos, five minute crafts, films about Agate, car crashes, American politics, police stopping cars. The trouble is its easier to watch one after the other rather than whole TV shows. Part of it is because hubby likes watching train and war films. I get bored by whether the train is running on narrow or standard gauge or even broad gauge. I don’t want to know the difference between tanks and armoured cars. I don’t want to know which general won what battle. So the phone videos have increased, which I think might be impacting on my arm problems. I don’t think I’m addicted, but it’s keeping my mind off things….

Old Nokia

I just found this under a cupboard! It’s my old phone. Goodness knows how old it is, I don’t know if the battery will have corroded it inside. I’m thinking of finding out if it can be refurbished as my hubby doesn’t like smart phones and just wants something basic to ring home if he needs to. I will try and find out if it can somehow be upgraded to work on the right sort of signal. It must be several years old? Are they worth anything? So it’s not smart, but is it fixable?

Stepping out

Only a few steps today, but more than I have been doing. I will try and keep this up now. If I can do around five thousand a day, or at least regularly, then it’s got to be better for me. Only problem is that my foot is hurting today, my shoe is rubbing on the outer side of my foot and I don’t know if it’s a temporary thing or if I’ve hurt myself. We will see tomorrow.

Went for a walk

We went for a short walk today, just round the local streets, back past an avenue of trees. It was only about a mile but I came back aching, cold and a bit breathless so it was far enough. After months of illnesses and problems I was pleased to drag my hubby out into the cold air. No rain today, no chance of slipping, just the chance to stretch my legs and think I can start again. I hope we can extend our steps a little bit each day. I didn’t measure them because I forgot to take my phone. Now I’m just trying to relax the aches out of my leg and back. But it’s good to feel able to exercise again.

Performance

The choir I was in performed in the play Beautiful Thing in 2018?. We all really enjoyed singing and basically backing the drama that we were immersed in. The story is about a young man and his growing relationship with his boyfriend. It is thoughtful, life affirming, and optimistic. We had to sing songs like Teen Spirit which was fun for a group of older performers. This came into my mind as I delivered my two paintings to the New Victoria Theatre this morning. There are probably thirty pieces of work on show from tonight.