Tuesday 23 January 2024
Devon Delights
Monday 22 January 2024
A girl who turns heads
Friday 19 January 2024
Blogiversary Joy 2024
Thursday 18 January 2024
Lost for Words
This is Casey Birks. I first met him when he was a couple of months old. It's lovely to have people in your life whose presence makes the world a better place. When he was young his mum Julie and I used to wonder how he would ever go out into the world. One of the joys of home education is that children can do such things at exactly their own pace. Nobody made him go out into the world before he was good and ready. And some children take longer than others. He started learning the piano, I think that was first. And it was as if he found his niche, and he blossomed. And last week he launched his album at the Carlton Club in Whalley Range. Over 100 people gathered, most of whom were his friends. It is called Lost For Words, available from Bandcamp. Also listenable on YouTube. And it was a delight to watch them play with so much joy together and to have watched him grow and develop as a musician. My heart bursts with pride to see the amazing young man he has become.
Tuesday 16 January 2024
Snow and other Delights
Friday 12 January 2024
Nonsense
Monkey Sensei will have a job in Japan for at least another 19 months, so I am definitely going to get to visit next year, consequently I have redownloaded Human Japanese and started again from chapter 1. I had hoped it would all come rushing back, having learned all the hiragana two years ago ... but no, it's more like starting from scratch. Learning a new script is quite a challenge but in other ways Japanese is not a complicated language to learn. I like the chatty style of the programme and when discussing the complex vowel pronunciation rules in English the author comments that Japanese has none of this nonsense, each of the 5 vowels makes one sound, and it is not changed by the presence of other vowels or consonants combinations, so at least, though I struggle to remember which hiragana I am looking at, it's not hard to pronounce.
After a very hectic December I am taking things easier now at work, taking time for the Japanese, going back to the gym, getting on with another crochet blanket and looking for some new interesting reading for 2024. As advised by many many mental wellbeing articles I am trying to focus more on the present moment as I go through my day so thought I would try taking photos of random stuff when I am out doing my delivery. Here, some lovely fungus on a fallen tree branch: