southern42

' morning all from red dragon land. Sun shining, bit of a breeze. 2.1C. I have not been on for a few days due to the advancing season. It seems I have become PA to Li'l Sis to do her online shopping for *C* presies, and more of that will be fitted in, today, with my bit of shopping - I spotted a woolly jumper I fancy which can be picked up in store - and the annual family Calendar I am making online. I have not even thought about doing the *C* cards, yet. Well, ...I have now, I suppose! I have already had one mugadecaf but I shall settle for another before getting stuck into things. Take care. Be good. Watch out for the unexpected! Polly

That should carry a PG / Adult Only cert. as our very young fairies family members would be most upset. ... don't know about @Ian Abel but I sure did. Long, long ago before many memories were formed, I worked in a bookshop. I was due to finish at 5 o'clock. Mr Suvvern rushed in 5 minutes before the bus was due out - at 1 o'clock! It had just started snowing and the bus company decided to call it a day! The boss was none too pleased - he was from Scotland "where the roads never close." More recently, we were helping out with an exhibit at Ally Pally and went down with nationwide white stuff falling, the A55 expressway already closed, and the A5 being closed, a section at a time, just as we were driving through! There was a sprinkling of very slippy snow outside the exhibition hall so great care needed to be taken getting from the van to the entrance but no falls from me, for a change! The layout? Covered in deep frost! For real! The hills are alive...

🤣

' morning all from red dragon land. Woke to rain drumming down on the windows. Eased off a bit now. Not warm, 6.3C. Meeting a friend for lunch to set the world straight. So best get moving. Things to do first. Take care. Be good. Enjoy your day. Polly

When life was fun playing tr***ns at West Shore (before the C word, not been there much since), we had jackdaws that lay in wait until you approached, then jump on the track and fly off justintime, a couple of times only when I almost came to a standstill to let it do its quickgetaway. When I joined the Conwy Museum, there were only a few jackdaws but they had clearly learnt the game. With larger driving vehicles, especially steam (much, much longer to stop than the lawnmower engine), you have to keep vigilant. Rabbits will run right across in front of you rather than run out of the way and, once, I had to stop completely to let a squirrel "wake up", get up off the rails and run off. Even bigger is one of the local cats that takes a nap between the rails - like when you already have the brake on, going downhill, approaching a steep enough tight curve. Fun and games.

Conwy Valley Railway Museum July 2022 before the buffet car cafe was closed for refurbishment. Taken on my iPhone a couple of feet away. This one would quite happily fly down onto one of the outdoor tables further along off to the left while people were eating. Cake crumbs seemed to be the most popular menu item. Obviously a budding ERs member ;)

I do both, depending on my mood <<rant>> or <<despair>> 🤣

' morning all from red dragon land. Cold -0.1C at 2am, a bit warmer now at 3.5C. The odd bit of blue sky visible behind light cloud. A bright shiny round thing lit my exit out to the recycle bin last night. It seems my 'phone's eyesight is worse than mine. At least I could see the object's craters through the hole in the cloud! Main jobbie, today, is dragging Henry around the place. I started yesterday, not that you can tell, so it will be a rerun in some areas. That will, no doubt trigger, other little jobbies. There will be time cast aside for mugadecafs and a toot on the flute or two. Thinking of those at Warley, only sorry I will not be there, too. Hope all goes well. Take care. Be good. Be a star. ⭐ Polly

' morning all from red dragon land. Wow! Dry. A bit of blue sky. Double figures, too, all of 10.0C. Nice and warm indoors, that is the main thing. Trying to find some mojo to do a few of those get-rid-of-stuff jobbies but woke far too early this morning and feeling a bit bleary eyed 🥱 so it may have to wait a bit. A mugadecaf ☕* sounds a good idea so I think I will go along with that - for now. * <<that might not be large enough...try this for size ☕ >> Take care. Be good. Keep going. Polly

' evening all from red dragon land. Another cold misty moisty day but nice and warm indoors. Notalot achieved today but I did get out the full list of exercises for my toot on the flute - I usually just play the "important" ones I decided to stick with ages ago. It was quite revealing, after two years of playing, how "important" the other ones are too! So I shall have to endeavour to master these as well. They should help my fingers work better - on the tricky bits, hopefully! One thing I do notice, these days, is if my hands just get a little cold it is much harder to play. Nothing like nice warm hands to make them feel supple. Less stiff, anyway! Getting dinner ready time but no bread pudding left for afters. 😪 Take care. Be good. Keep warm / cool (select as appropriate). Polly

And you say : "...and they think I’m going to sit and show them again and again." As a university library assistant for many a year, it was amazing how much some of the students relied on us for obtaining information etc etc but there were several outstanding moments ranging From: Beginner's Plea Having helped her get access to the information she required, I then got asked if I would write the essay itself... Knowing the feeling of being out of your depth, I did hope she got on alright, in the end, by herself. To: End of course Boast Coming in with a group of friends, he proudly came out with, "I have been here for three years and never used the library..." Shame - all the resources he could probably have benefitted from gone to waste.

TBH I would even find it difficult to keep up with this lot... Or with these Though marching may be easier than sitting - A fairy godmother may help. pics from https://clipart-library.com

' morning all from red dragon land. Early misty moisty morning is more moisty than misty now. Whatever, it is cold and wet outside, warm but dark inside. Just about to have another toot on the flute with the beat box. Mojo was all over the place yesterday giving me problems with coordination, concentration and patience so, hopefully, I will do a bit better in those compartments this morning. Best get it all set up and give it a go. Take care. Be good. Stay with it. Polly

' night all and nos da

That has just reminded me...I made bread pudding, yesterday, and have forgotten all about it. Double helpings, tomorrow, then. 😋 Wetnwindy all day in these parts and not very warm 8C. Slow off the mark, today, but I did get a few toots on the flute though it was pretty rough going <<or was that the weavva?>> First off was a couple of exercises to 27 beats per minute (allowing 4 notes per beat) on my beat box and 8 beats to a line. After finding it difficult to match a couple of the exercises to this I abandoned the project and returned to the song using 27 then 30 bpm. Song: first line fine. Second line too stretched out. After what seemed an age, I eventually worked out there were a few notes that I had not shortened when using the faster speeds. Once that was settled, and the reworked notes fitted the beat, I started on Lines 3 and 4 and noted similar timing issues and managed to fix them as well. There was also some training of fingers to make some of the twiddly bits more consistent while trying to overcome some of the symptoms of ageing. I put it this way - I managed to train my left hand fingers to form some very awkward shapes when playing guitar, so I can make those fingers perform some tricky bits on the wee flute. The whole of my going Indian has been built on this "philosophy." A whole new world - different form of notation, different musical forms, scales and instruments, with different language, etc etc... but hey, when I started at the age of nine - I knew NOTHING about music - I just got on with what was put in front of me - and without the bright colours, large alphabet letters, or pictures kids get given, today - just plain music and you picked it all up up as you went along. OK I google a lot of information now, but then I want to run before I can crawl. <<Don't we all?>>.

Beat box set up to 30bpm and I (wisely, it turns out) tried it out with a couple of exercises, first. It took awhile to adjust to the basic 8 beat backdrop but long enough to have a go at the first line of the song. After a few feeble attempts, I played the tune several times without its twiddly bits to get the feel of it and establish a regular beat. Eventually, I was able to play Line 1 with the twiddly bits 7 times without stopping which is reassuring as I have 6 lines to work on. Keeping going is not one of those things I find easy, certainly not from memory. Line 2, shall we say, needs a bit of work - without the beat box, in the first instance. There is obviously a few places which I need to sort out where the rhythm/timing may not be quite right or I where I may be trying to rush it. Probably both! Will try again... Chuckinitdarn makinadin on the windows. It suddenly went very dark at 4pm!

' night all and nos da if you are still up that is!

With the beat box set to 36 beats per minute,* it was "Woah! Slow Down!" So, I did, to a more controllable 30bpm - and that is still faster than I normally play. Without the ornamental notes the speed is fine, but keeping up with quick speed fingering is a bit of a struggle in quite a few places. And I only tackled the first two lines. At least I know what I will be doing in the morning! * The tutor's set speed on one of the videos.

' evening all from red dragon land. Jobs done, toot on the flute done. Dinner to do. The most painful is keeping an eye on the magma situation in Iceland. Having enjoyed the opportunity to see and better understand volcanic activity for the past three years, albeit only via online videos, I can now only think about those who have had to evacuate their homes and places of work, and all those on emergency standby or assessing the situation. Nowt on TV that I want to watch, tonight, so I might have another toot on the flute and maybe get my beat box out gain. I would like to get that going with the current song before going onto the second half. Up until now, I have occasionally used online videos but I have more control over the speed on the beat box. So, that is a must, then! Time to geronwivit. Take care. Be good. Help your wishes come true. Polly

And the music not mimed, either!

In our day (back in the good ole days), they did not pay much for their players, unlike today: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/66613444 I doubt things like insurance was as much either, or everything else that goes with the game at the top these days.

Apologies, if any typos appear but that brought some wet stuff to the eyes. Do enjoy your GWR surprise. It is so good to hear of the kindness and dedication that bears fruit among us. Polly

The music was cool, too. Interesting to see it combined with the dance.

' morning all from red dragon land. A tad warmer today, 10.3C, and some blue sky and notalota wind. Yesterday was one of those afternoons spent on the phone trying to sort out a problem that has transpired involving several agencies so, after the bins had been sorted, I only had time to do the chicken pie. However, I did make a pastry top instead of mashed potato and stuck jacket potatoes in the oven instead. The advantage of adding pastry is we get a second helping tonight.* 😋 Some more mags were sorted into wanted, or not wanted and put aside for sale in the museum shop. The wanted ones remain to have the required articles removed and the rest put in the recycle bin. Hopefully, I will have time to do that today. Other than that, there are just the routine jobbies and some toot on the flute with the concentration going into getting the first part of the new song into some sort of respectability before tackling the next part. This may take some time as I keep finding bits for improvement - reminds me of the school report: "she needs to improve..." How things come back and haunt us....! Time for a mugadecaf before I die of thirst. Take care. Be good. * Be clever. Polly

' afternoon all from red dragon land. Ooohh! The sun has popped its head out and the terrace has dried out. Strong winds first thing this morning, and dark, so I had a (little) bit of a lie in. Toot on the flute this morning to tidy up a new twiddly bit. Seems to be working - fingering played in reverse progression is interesting. Getting it smooth is not as easy as it looks, though. <<I'll get there.>> Some more sorting of stuff in the pipeline ahead of bin collection day, tomorrow, though I want to get a fruit crumble made as well, then I can do a chicken pie as well - Trying to keep oven (electricity) use down - so it is two for one, these days. Clear up the lunch things and a mugadecaf to begin with. Take care. Be good. Hope the weather is not too bad. Polly