A Tag Cloud Dropped In Unexpectedly

One of the things about having fallen out of blogging for so long is that WordPress has changed a lot, and I don’t quite know how to use it any more! I’ve been slowly finding out. The last time I created a blog post, it made tag suggestions and gave me the opportunity to add them. It also invited me to choose from the ‘most used’ tags, and when I clicked on the link, this image came up…

It didn’t take me long to work out that this isn’t a list of common tags on the WordPress site… this is my OWN cloud of tags!

The word ‘trivialities’ is unsettlingly huge. On the other hand, ‘grumbles’ is surprisingly small. Perhaps I just forget to add it most of the time…

Sssnowing

I wrote the following post on Tuesday, then got icy feet.

Been snowing for a few days now. Gets thicker and thicker, but I’m not rushing out to photograph it! Looks kind of dull in the immediate vicinity. Me, I like bright colours and skies with visible clouds…

Funny how a whole load of unknown works by a certain artist has arrived in the news. I was scratching around for a good title for my ‘Not a Picasso’ wallpaper, but decided against it. Went for a more boring title instead, mostly because the only link between my wallpaper and the other title is that I put Paloma Picasso perfume on, and the wallpaper promptly went bad. That’s my private joke, anyway, and I couldn’t expect the rest of the world to understand it without knowing the story.

My keyboard is breaking down… the backspace key is particularly unresponsive! But I have a spare keyboard; I should attach it. I’ll probably do it the next time I have to hammer the backspace key into the desk…

July Notes

Found some of our recent ‘conversation notes’ which were waiting to go into the recycling bin:

Mum: A little baby tomato has been born!
Me: Tell the little baby tomatoes they don’t have much Summer left.
Mum: Better play some music to them.

Me: I saw someone in town carrying his SLR camera by the strap so that it dangled by his walking feet as he crossed the road. I can’t imagine being so casual with my cameras!

Me: I think the wallpaper site has a split personality — the ones who post pics and have fun (rather be kind than right) — and the ones who want more serious pictures with people saying “I would have cropped in closer and paid more attention to the rule of thirds.”
Mum: “What weird people.”
Me: “They’ve been to photography classes… they’ve been taught all that stuff.”
Mum: “Oh I see.”

Mum (looking misty): I played with Justin Rose once when he was a boy — perhaps 14.
Me: He still looks like a boy.

Me: I can’t stand cognitive behavioural therapy — and they’ve roped it into the Calorie Bible. “Are you really ready to do it? Have you thought about the implications of your decision?” Bleugh.
Mum: Serves you right for reading all the small print.

Living Dangerously

Today Mum asked, “what’s for supper?” and I said “there’s a little prawn cocktail in the fridge.”
“It’s too old.”
“Oh — I had some for lunch, and I’m not dead yet.”
“Lunch wasn’t long ago…. you might die later.”
“Oh, I suppose you’re right, I will die… but not for a few years yet.”

Still ticking away.

Prime Movers

Tuesday 15th June 2010

Dreamed I was sleeping in my old house. During the night Gordon Brown (our ex PM) came in and moved all of my things out, only leaving whatever I’d need over the next few days. Moving out was the plan all along and he’d been employed by my family to do the hard work. But I was peeved that he hadn’t left two or three books apart from the one I was currently reading, as I would have nothing to read when that was finished.

*** *** ***

Finally got around to ordering early birthday pressies from Amazon (Mum is paying). She gave the go-ahead to an anatomy drawing book, Vols Three and Four of the Moomin comic strip series, and two packs of blank DVDs. I meant to get one pack of 50, but it occurred to me it might make more sense to mix it up a bit and use different makes. It’s called ‘not putting all your eggs in one basket.’

*** *** ***

On the Mac I’ve got more than 14,000 files in one folder — all from the old scratched CDs. Still weeding out duplicates and damaged files.

File Reorganization screenshot

Screenshot of file reorganization…! If you like the desktop picture, it’s Color My World by Jswgpb.

Waiting for Deep Conversation

We often shuttle handwritten notes back and forth when the TV is blaring or I don’t have my hearing aids on. But it can be disappointing at times! After a bit of silence, Mum will reach for the nearest notepad and start writing, and I sit in anticipation, wondering what it’s going to be. For instance, we cut in on a bit of TV about the landscapes of Constable (the views he used can still be found). So, what was it that came to Mum’s mind? Did she have something to say about art? Perhaps she had a view on the way Constable painted trees?

When the note finally came across to me, it said:

“When R. and I went to Suffolk we went on a trip to see Flatford Mill but the bus driver got lost so we never got there.”

Oh…

A Quiet Room

My computers are gathering dust. I’m hardly ever in this room this month, and it’s in the same pristine condition it was just before Christmas. I know that will change later… I’ve just got new things on my mind to think about and work with. Nothing of blogworthy note. Well, OK…. Mum asked Santa Claus for a Nintendo. It’s usually parents having to get those for their children, but it worked the other way in this family! Yesterday I was watching her have a snowball fight without going outdoors, while I got on with a jigsaw puzzle. But I’ve had a good go on the Nintendo as well, so it was a Christmas present for both of us, really.

Went to the supermarket today and got a bottle of Beet-It juice. It’s wonderful. I used to love carrot juice but they changed the brand and the new one is a let-down. I used to dislike beetroot; I tried it several times from the jar, but could never get used to it. Then one of Mum’s friends gave us homemade creamed beet… and that converted me. I’m pleased, as I always had a feeling I might like beet if I just had it in the right format!

A neighbour’s husband and son went off to sledge down the hill behind our houses. Unfortunately the husband shot straight into the burn at the bottom (lots of rocks and trees) and wound up with blood trickling down his face. The ambulance men wanted to know what a 55-year-old man was doing sledging. I don’t know… the same urge that drives a snipe into a suburban garden, perhaps? Snow changes everything.

Today it’s 1 C, but it’s been colder than that — there were days when you opened the door in broad sunny daylight, and the cold was outside like a hard wall. You put one hand out and it froze. I opened the back door one perishing night because Delilah was standing pensively besides it. She looked at the ice stretching away into darkness, and then looked pitifully at me, as though to say “you’re not throwing me out in that, are you?” Today the ice has mostly melted away, but it was ‘snailing’ yesterday when Mum went to town. We got some strange bobbly ice in buckets and things, where hailstones had frozen fast.

I finally snapped a shot of one of the cats drinking from the water fountain…. this one is Delilah. I had to turn the camera to get all of her in!

Going back to the jigsaw and the Nintendo now….

No Thaw Yet

It’s hard to concentrate when one is cold. We saw a snipe standing on our lawn in the snow today. It was just standing there, its long thin beak pointed towards the kitchen window. Mum telephoned the neighbours, who rushed to their windows and gawked at it, and eventually it went away. We lead an exciting life around here.

Latest crop of shredded notes:

Figured out I’m getting less per month than I got from the office ten years ago. Except when the tenants have their beaks open… then it’s a good bit less.

I wonder if the tenants hear judderings in the night. But pink bedroom cold unless they have heater in there.

Mum: How much do you remember of African landscapes?
Me: Funny stunted trees, dusty roads, banana plantations, sand and grass mixed at beach. Sword grass in towns.
Mum: Acacia. Do you remember a poinsettia tree outside the Fort Hall house?
Me: No — I remember a sandpit.

Me: Sun’s out — it might thaw a bit.
Mum: There was a car skidding about outside.

Me (while we watched Merlin): Arthur is always out cold at the interesting bits. Dragon mustn’t attack Camelot, but may go and harry Ealdor etc?

Christmas… I’ve never known it to be so slow in coming.

General Rabbiting

Thanks for the comments on the child-safe bathroom lock (see my blog post Small Worries). I have written saying the lock can be raised if preferred, but maybe it can be changed to a slide bolt (raised on the door, with lock removed). That’s three stiff locks we’ve had on that door… I don’t fancy my chances of a fourth one bucking the trend!

Was in Borders today… 30% to 40% off most things. We didn’t stay long, but I got myself two DVDs: Around the World in 80 Days (starring Jackie Chan… I particularly like the artistic intermissions) and 10,000 BC (I kept looking at it, so decided I might as well get it… though I haven’t a clue what it’s like!)

Got goose pimples just now… pulled everything out of my three-tier letter tray and was going through it… then noticed a dark shape curled up in the bottom tray. It was a dead bee. (See my dream of a couple of months ago: Light Relief). This one wasn’t a monster bee…. it was rather small and lost.

Found another note (from last Christmas) which I’d written to Mum. It said: “I made a faux pas in [a posh and expensive shop]. You tried one of the perfumes, so I moved to a bottle on the next table, put it on, then looked at the side. It said parfum d’ambience.“

Notes Around the House

Going through a pile of paper… many of them scribbled notes from Mum to me or me to Mum. I’m chucking them out now, but here’s a selection:

There is a fancy moth on my car that came from Morrisons with me. I don’t know how it hung on.

The door bell rang at 2 am this morning. I didn’t quite realise what had wakened me till later.

Me: I know both those songs very well (Lonesome Cowboy and Southern Nights) and they’re not making sense to my ears on the CDs through there. I can only hear his voice if I strain — some CDs are like that.
Mum: Maybe the musical accompaniment is too loud.

The Samsara is a creamy, musky version of J Lo Live.

Me: He said it suddenly got dark.
Mum: I heard him.

The Duke of Edinburgh said one of the world’s major problems was the explosion of human population. It has reached plague proportions.

Does Samson [cat] feel he has to be somewhere at this time?

My hyacinth has gone like this: [doodle of a horizontal hyacinth].

The buildings look squint. The sky is ridiculous.

You are in the doghouse for not writing a Birthday Claus letter. Confucius he say “Who not write letter get rubbish.”

Me: Blender has whirly blades on it. (Handing over money).
Mum (gift-giver of above dangerous item): 30p Rec.

King Louie… is in the shop.

I’m reading this book on a big storm in Galveston, 1900; quite good. Saw a programme about hurricanes and stormchasers… and they chased Hurricane Ike to Galveston and filmed it there! Even mentioned the 1900 storm, and showed a photo of the aftermath. Made me understand why, in the book, they were talking about the sea hitting the house-stilts before the storm even got there. The houses are still on stilts!

There are plenty more where those came from…