Arty and musical diversions

I've been so busy in the last couple of days that I have barely watched the news, which I think is probably good for me. I seem to have set off into my own little world. I rise early. This is the second morning I've been up around 5.30am because the light wakes me. I come down for my first mug of tea and my son's pet rats are climbing up the cages for their treat of the morning. They are most often waiting for me! I chat to them - I'll talk to anything - flowers, trees, myself, and then, if it is not my morning for jogging, I read before coming on to my laptop. Maybe I will do my poem of the day or work on my novella before stopping for breakfast around 8-8.30am. After that I usually get dressed. If it's a shopping morning I go out into the crazy world of social distancing and shop where I can. Yesterday, I finally got into Waitrose and stocked up on my regular washing power (cruelty free) and such like. I also got into Wilco. It really was my day.

A slight diversion coming here. It has been difficult to keep up my pledges to ditch plastics since lockdown. Nearly everything comes covered in plastic and I've had to revert to using fabric softener because I have difficulty getting the large white vinegar bottles I've been using. Still, I have managed to stick to cruelty free versions at least, but I have ordered online for my washing up liquid from Natural Collection. I found they stock quite a range of food and since stocks at Holland & Barratt are dwindling I've ordered soya chunks and tins of braised Tofu. My son tried ordering from H&B's online store but both times only received part orders. It has been very disappointing. For us veggies and almost vegans it has been hard to source everything we need. The smaller local shops have little choice even in everyday stuff sometimes. So, I have had to make some compromises, but cruelty free products I will  not compromise on.

I have been binge watching art programmes including Grayson Perry's Art Club which is great fun. Last week he was talking about portraits and I did this one of Boris Johnson. I think drawing faces is the hardest thing, and it must be decades since I've attempted one. There was one tip that artist Maggie Hamblin offered about art in last night's programme - draw every day. Sounds like writer's advice. There are great similarities between art and writing, I feel.

Pencil and charcoal

Another project I have become involved with is a music one. An ex-musical director of the choir I sing with is forming a virtual choir for a mental health charity and was asking people to record themselves singing the song he posted up via YouTube and email it to him. He will then stitch all the parts together and the finished video will be posted on YouTube around the 18th May. So, a lot of Sunday afternoon I was upstairs in the bedroom learning the song (it only has four lines) and getting used to using the camera on my laptop (yes, I had to ask one of my kids to help me with that...oh the shame!). It took rather a lot of takes to get it right, but it is now with Ben and he is happy with it. When it appears on YouTube I will share it with you.

Still, on the subject of music, I have started an online course with FutureLearn about songwriting. Several years ago I took one with Coursera, but this one feels a lot different and I am enjoying it. I got so caught up in it that I completed the first week in one day. The theme this week is home/place. There are playlists, videos and advice. My first set of lyrics weren't that great, though I was pleased with the chorus. I decided to have a second attempt. I'd hoped to save the chorus but I ended up with something different. I'm more pleased with these as they offer a better nostalgic feel. I began my writing adventures as a young teen writing lyrics, so I am going back to my roots here.

And still more about music, watching Ben working with mixers and loops on his YouTube channel is making me itch to have a go, though I have no idea where to start. I've been looking at tutorials for Audacity, which I had on my old laptop for the Coursera course. Back in my day..oh eons ago...I devised my own way of recording two tracks by using my brother's cassette recorder for a first voice and guitar. Then I'd play the track through my stereo and harmonise with myself and sometimes add a basic rhythm using the body of my guitar (though I also had some drum tracks on cassette I would also use at times).  When I bought Dan Morgan's book on guitar it was this method he suggested. In those days mixing decks weren't widely available unless you worked in a studio and the internet and music software was a thing of the future.

You may be able to tell that I am a little excited by all this, but then I've always been fascinated by musical things. I enjoy watching musicians warm up, I want to know where the leads go and why, what they do. The equipment looks daunting but I would love to know how it all works. I know that if I'd been born later I'd have been into all this big time by now. Now, if I could just overcome my fear of Zoom!

Ollie

Rizzo