A bit of Mozart

Mark and I really enjoy the BBC "Discovering Music" programmes and so I was delighted to have my attention drawn to a similar programme from WNYC, a New York Public Radio, about Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. It's on their Soundcheck page, right at the bottom, and you can listen live or download an mp3.

Fascinating - well worth a listen, whether Mozart does it for you or not.

(Photo taken on a trip to Vienna in October 1999 - spot the deliberate mistake!)

Raku vessels

We've spent most of this afternoon setting up the LooseEnds blogring, something I thought would be a piece of cake...but which needed a modicum of technical support. (Thanks Mark!) It now appears to be working, and in my role as "ringmaster" (!) I approved Helen (Textile Goddess) as a member with no problem. Trouble is, I was unable to approve myself! I made one or two small changes and am now a member of my own group. Perhaps Groucho Marx would have a comment on that?

So, in testing the ring, I surfed to the Textile Goddess and saw her Raku vessels which were very interesting. Do you think that the two potters (assuming they were made by different people) may have used a similar reference for the shapes of their work?

In comparing Helen's blog entry with mine, note the total lack of photography skills in my case whilst standing back and admiring her professional approach!

Blogring set up and ready to roll now, all applications welcome!

Hardly ornithology, but...

We often see a green woodpecker around the garden, and he was there again yesterday afternoon, pecking at the lawn for insects.

By the time I got my camera, he'd moved to the telegraph pole over the wall, but I thought it such a classic woodpecker pose, I couldn't refuse to take his picture, could I?

A change in the weather

Yesterday's view from the garden room door

...and today's

Improving my mind

Browsing Waterstones, just after Christmas, I came across The Mind Gym: Give Me Time, a self help book about which I'd seen an article in The Times some days previously. I ordered it from Amazon, together with its mate, the original Mind Gym: Wake Up Your Mind

Each book has a code inside, which allows access to the accompanying website, where the exercises and quizzes can be completed online and the results stored.

Very impressive, rather interesting and, I hope, ultimately useful in enabling me to make more effective use of my time.

More at The Mind Gym