Stress

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We all have it at some point in our lives. For me deadlines are the worst. I like to be early to appointments and meetings and feel terrible if I'm delayed by matters beyond my control. Before I had a car I was often on the edge of a bus seat if I thought I was going to miss a transport connection and I had an appointment at the other end. Interruption by time-wasting sales calls when I'm busy drives me pretty crazy and my family could probably tell many stories of my bad temper when I had a deadline and the computer or printer broke.

I find that concentrating on my breathing helps, just noticing the in and out breaths, even counting up to 10 breaths and starting again. A good joke will sometimes work, because it will make me laugh and then I can get a sense of proportion about the situation. My son gave me a stress ball once and it broke. It wasn't me really . . .

Bananas and Cream

Image by my_amii via Flickr

One of my fondest childhood memories is of Sunday lunch. After we had the main roast of the meal (usually lamb or chicken) we would often have bananas and cream. The cream was bought from a local farm and was delicious. When mixed together with bananas it was quite wonderful. Dad became the acknowledged expert on preparing this dish, which he did willingly when required. The taste was so good and memorable that I can taste it in my imagination now, many years later. In my memory, the taste is associated with the sense of safety and a happy family life.

Lighthouses

Image by stevec77 via Flickr

Unlike yesterday afternoon which was beautiful, today has been wet and foggy. Where we live we get a lot of fog and it's an interesting phenomenon caused, apparently, by cold air from the sea traveling over warm land (or something like that). From where we live you can hear two lighthouses if the fog bank is sufficiently wide with two different pitches. When we first came down hear I didn't realise what the deep sound was for a while, but later it clicked. Strangely, today, I can't hear either of them, but then perhaps the sound is muted by the fog!

Brambles

Image via Wikipedia

I think brambles are the natural survivors of the vegetable kingdom in the temperate zone. They spread like wildfire by runners as well as through blackberries and grow fast in the spring and summer. They also seem to get everywhere unless you take active steps to prevent them. I 'm commenting on this now as I've spent quite a bit of this afternoon having to deal with the little darlings and am scratched in more places than I care to mention. So I would suggest that like ants in the animal kingdom brambles are natural survivors in the vegetable kingdom.

Brits and the weather

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Yes, I know that I do it all the time. Talk about the weather, even on my blog. It's a useful conversation starter socially anway. And down here in Cornwall, it is so changeable that quite often you don't know what will happen next, anyway. Take the last two days for example. Yesterday was the embodiment of a British May day. Everybody was relaxed and doing their own thing, enjoying the weather, the warmth and the sun. Today is colder, windy and wet. You wouldn't have thought that you could get two such different days so close together. Yet this is pretty typical. It's all part of the rich variation we get living in this part of the world.

Gardening

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I have to admit that I'm not a great one for gardening. Too often if feels like a chore rather than a pleasure especially when I never really seem to get to the fun part of planting things. It always seems like I'm clearing stuff away, especially brambles. But today, for the first time in quite a while, I enjoyed gardening, despite my aching back. There seemed to be something quite magical about the sunshine, blue sky and listening to the birds singing around me. I felt really happy and content. Now I can understand what gardeners mean when they talk about enjoying their hobby!

Long Hot Summer

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I heard on Tuesday that we've been forcasted to have three months of hot weather this summer in the UK. Today, it was predicted that it would be warm in the south of the country over the bank holiday weekend. I'm not that keen, myself, on really hot weather but I would really like some nice warm sunshine anytime now.

Sunny May Tuesday

Image by etrusia_uk via Flickr

Although there's still quite a chill wind, the weather now is beautiful and sunny. Not that warm for May but at least more encouraging than much of the rain we have been receiving recently.

Nice Weekend

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My son came down late Friday night and spent Saturday and some of Sunday with us. We had a great time, played family football (soccer) and went to see the latest Star Trek movie which was pretty good. Then I had supper cooked for me in the evening. I felt really special. It was a great weekend.

Nature

Image via Wikipedia

There's nothing so enriching as a walk in some kind of beautiful environment. It can really take us out of ourselves and make us see something greater and more wonderful. Nature, particularly at this time of year, is so beautiful with the trees and flowers coming into bloom. I just wish that the weather was equally beautiful so that I could take advantage of all this beauty. Having said that, it does now look as though it might be getting better, after a lot of rain last night and this morning.

A Poem

Image by etrusia_uk (away) via Flickr

Watching the grey sky of a May evening
Feeling the chill in the air
Hearing the song of a blackbird
Brings comfort and warmth to my heart.

Functioning Memory

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What a funny transient thing memory is. Sometimes it seems razor sharp and you can remember anything that you want or need to. At other times it's like a pale, grey fog, undefined and nebulous with no definition at all. These are the harder days when organisation is quite difficult and it's easy to leave everyday objects like keys and spectacles all over the place and spend a great deal of time looking for them! I wonder why there is this dimension of difference in the way that memory works. How is this related to our general physiological functioning I wonder? Scientists are researching memory all the time so perhaps they will come up with something which will help redefine the manner in which we all use our memory so that it can be more consistent and reliable.

Astrology

Image via Wikipedia

I've studied and worked with Astrology for several years now. There are periods when it seems more relevent than others and I'm currently going through one of those now. By Astrology I mean more than the basic sunsign stuff - I'm talking much more about drawing up charts and studying planet and house postions as well as predictions and chart comparison. I am coming to understand that working with astrology takes time (but then I am a Sun Capricorn) to really get the feel of it, to let the intuition kick in - to be able to go beyond the basic textbook interpretation. At its best it can be truly illuminating in a deep spiritual sense. At its worst it can be merely words on a page.

May

Image by Per Ola Wiberg (Powi) via Flickr

I love the month of May, when the days are growing longer, the flowers are out and the trees are in leaf. It just feels such a positive time of the year. Also it is not too hot for any activities like walking. Today is a case in point - dry and sunny with a breeze to stop it from becoming too hot. The bluebells are out, the swallows are flying around and it's just great to be alive.

Humour

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It's wonderful how humour can lift the mood if it is down. I sometimes wonder how we would manage at all if we didn't have the ability to laugh, both at ourselves on occasions and with others. Of course some kinds of humour are quite hurtful whilst others are just innocent fun.

Driving

Image by gari.baldi via Flickr

I really love driving. Living where I do, in a beautiful rural area, driving is often a pleasure especially outside of the peak tourist season. Even if it's only a quick drive to town or to an appointment, we are blessed with a beautiful environment and ususally not too much traffic. The only problem can be getting stuck behind a tractor on a narrow windy land when it's not possible to overtake.

Hope

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It occurred to me today what a frail but wonderful emotion hope was. It can always be there in the background - the hope that something in your life will improve, an important door open. Without it everything would be so flat, so despondent. With some hope in your life it's possible to keep going, to allow positive changes to occur in the future.

Painting

Image by y-its-mom via Flickr

I have phases of various activities. A few years ago I did a lot of painting and found that it was simultaneously wonderful and frustrating. Wonderful when I could paint a picture that I wanted to do in the manner I wished to express myself but frustrating when I could look at an object and not manage to transfer its likeness to paper (I never made it to canvas and stuck to watercolour and pastels). What impressed itself on my mind most in that time is the need to acquire the skill of really looking at something before attempting to sketch it. It really is not as easy as it seems and often takes several attempts to really look at what is in front of you. I also think that a good writer has the ability to paint with words the textures of landscapes and characters in a manner that gives them all depth.

Music, I find is similar. To make it work you have to be able to really listen to understand its harmony and depth.

Perception of Time

Image via Wikipedia

I've just read an article that posits the opinion that time might not exist. Simultaneously I both agree and disagree with it. Our perception of time could be very much linked with our psychological apparatus and the linear processing that it requires to perceive, think and act on our environment. This lapse in the processing could be very much what we perceive as 'time'. But equally change occurs regularly in our natural environment as plants and ourselves age and grow. There is a logical sequence which all life follows even if it is at different rates according the to species. How is that to be defined other than by the concept of time?

Time Off

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Yesterday, because of a combinations of circumstances I decided to take the day off. No instrument practice and no computers. It was strangely relaxing. Am trying to get back into the flow again today.