DRAWING birds for all ages – take your pick of links – and try not to fall down the rabbit hole that is You Tube and focus on the lesson plan – ha ha ha ha. One fine day I will modernise and make short YouTube videos on my phone but for now I will just ‘make do’ cos that is what I am used to doing for so long (insert favourite emoji here).
- This 1st link to how to draw a bird doesn’t automatically embed on my site and I’m not arsed to figure that out today. That is probably how I will start learning to draw my weaver bird.
St. Patrick’s Day 2020 in our Post Truth Era
I listened to Leo last night. And I have made a few decisions about how I plan to work and manage myself for the next while to keep myself afloat. First, music. I stumbled across a lovely tune yesterday called Little Weaver Bird and that is the inspiration for today’s lesson which is above. I have also decided to post on @ActTheMaggot on Twitter only. I am personally trying to avoid FB and Insta as I’m so fecking hooked on my phone.
What a different day it was. But that was yesterday and today is today. I often listen to music to help calm myself down but when I am quite stressed I like to listen to music with no lyrics at all so my mind is free to hear the notes and the melodies. But I also know how to Press Pause or to turn down the volume on our inbuilt biases towards others and that is what we have to try to do. Let us see this fecking Virus as a golden opportunity instead of running scared or having knee jerk reactions to matters that are in the grand scheme of things, rather inconsequential.
I self isolated, with my friend. So I guess you could say I bio-isolated. One of my bug bears is when the media latches on to a new phrase but sure I will return to that, I always do. Anyways, we walked, talked, stayed local. When she heard the song The Weaver Bird, she actually knew what the weaver bird looked like and told me and described it – take a peek here – they are so cute and bright and cheery – they come from Africa. I love birdsong, I love nature. We chatted briefly to a couple of neighbours. We chatted briefly with my neighbour Mairead and later we watched the news in her living room. After the news we all decided to go home to our beds. I also messaged with my family spoke to some of them. I spoke to my older sister who lives abroad. It was great to hear her voice. One friend in particular I am thinking about today is in hospital. May the force be with her. Another dear friend is living with M.E. and has been for over 20 years so I hope he is safe and being minded well or is minding himself well.
So many of us now have to change the usual way we do things. We will do our best. We will lie of the couch or the floor and weep and laugh and escape into our favourite activities but we will dust ourselves off and buck up! We are horses. Time to put my music back on as ye old neighbours’ dog behind me is barking again, how bad? Stuff like that used to bother me ALOT but it’s amazing what a little perspective can do. Speaking of perspective, I might do a little drawing this afternoon. My old teacher, when I was a kid used to say that becoming good at something was 99% hard work and 1% talent.
My friend and I cut up the rug in my tiny living room doing a couple of dance moves. We listened to the Gotan Project on Spotify (cos that’s how I roll – insert emoji of your choice here) – I love Tango music, here are links to The Gotan Project and a favourite Tango musician of mine Astor Piazolla
Choose Your Own Recipes
In fact, we actually danced for only about 5 minutes as we needed to stop to eat the beautiful food. A saag paneer which I made myself but I sometimes order locally and a sweet potato curry which I also made myself using the very cool easy book I bought in India (Tasty Dishes by Naushad (#ISBN 978-81-264-6427-2). Then I was telling my friend about my new friend Lynn and lo and behold there was the zap ringing – her ears must have been burning. It was great to hear her voice. I find cooking also relaxes me instead of being online and watching ALL the news on ALL the channels, now that’s a total pain in the ass and requires a milliion miles of toilet paper and gallons of coffee – whose gut can take that abominable consumer-driven crap? Some other people I guess but not me. I don’t buy online when I don’t need to. I support local businesses if and when I can afford to. I weigh things up, I decide. Enough of the damn tango music now! Time to get out my pencil and attempt to draw a Weaver Bird. Sure amn’t I full of great ideas. Clap on back. Time to have lunch and then meditate my own way for 30 mins. Today, I’ll chat to a sister and go for a cycle in my ferocious attempt to not kill my neighbour’s dog. (Insert favourite emoji here). God, I’m bloody starving now!!! 14.20 is far too late for me to have lunch but guess what, I just remembered that I forgot to have breakfast today. Oops. Maybe I will do better tomorrow.
Listen to The Weaver Bird
Read The Weaver Bird
TAKE YOUR PICK OF HASHTAGS #wearestrong #wehavethevirus #ourimmunesystemsarefightingit #wegotthis #protectchildren #protecttheelderly #protectthesick #meditatemyownway #ImStillHere #awarenessiskey #takeabreaktakeaquickcrap #hopefullyourstoolswillberegularsoon #eatwell #drinkenough #read #library #librarysonline #borrowbox #supportindependentbookstores #write #hum #move #walk #run #bike #seaswim #slowadventure #beaware #beawareofrabbitholes #bewareoftoomuch #alittleofwhatyoufancy #iamlove #iamgod #nolitemere #wearewarriors #weareleefeckingmarvin #litslunchtime #latelunchisbetterthannone #desklunchisforwimps
The i in ILLNESS is ISOLATION and the crucial letters in WELLNESS are WE