And though it started melting today I still have a picture from a couple days ago to enjoy.
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So busy trying to make the opposite sock to this one.
Per Linda:
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is โopposites.โ Use the word โoppositesโ or write about things that are opposites. Have fun!
The Beginners Method for Soprano and Alto Recorder, Book 1 by Sonja Burakoff
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I picked up the Kindle version of this book first. Later I ordered the paper version so I would have the book online or without electronic aid. I had a soprano recorder I was learning to play and decided to try the alto, too. I love how the book showed the fingering for both recorders and even combined to make duets that both recorders would play a part.
Every couple of pages, the book gives a new note or two. I am happy to say that I have played all the songs in the book, the soprano melody, and the alto melody. I am glad they were, for the most part, easily recognizable folk songs. That meant that this first go-round, I could concentrate on the fingering, which is far different from the piano that I’ve played all my life.
After a music hiatus, this book was the perfect way to get back in and enjoy music.
Though I have played the melodies, I plan to use this book the following way. I have an app or two that will help me. One will play the metronome, and then I will record each part of the duets presented. It seems like a fun way to get even more acquainted with the fingering I have mastered. I know I still need work on breath and tempo.
After this book, I have many more beginning recorder books to play with. Each has different approaches and ways to perfect what I know to get to the next level.
Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers by Mary Roach
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
The narrator, Shelly Frasier, made this book so exciting and fun. Well, despite this book being about cadavers and all.
The book was nonfiction, but the author’s stories keep a heavy and sad topic intriguing. Mary Roach includes a history of how humans have handled the dead. She also shows the research of what is working and what is actually causing harm to us and the planet.
I feel the blurb says it best, and with it, you may know if this is for you or not. I might have said no, but a friend told me about it, and she’s usually a bit more squeamish, but she loved it.
“A contagiously cheerful exploration of the cruel diligences executed on some of our bodies when, after death, we abandon them on the threshold of their graves, this book shows us cadavers turned into carcasses, and scientific experiments, the deceased who contribute to the progress of medicine with perforated genitals and extracted eyes, flesh flung from airplanes or shot with bullets to verify the efficiency of new weapons, and discards crucified like Jesus or devoured by maggots. Mary Roach has written a book that explores the great beyond in order to show us the more visible and deplorable side of the next life.”
Try it, you might like it, and possibly learn something. By the way, I got my audio copy from Libby. For those that don’t know it is a library lending service for Kindle or Audiobooks.
It never got above freezing today so the snow stayed and showed off.
Meanwhile, I listened to a bit more of the Libby audio of Les Miserables. I had to switch off Christmas carols to a Les Mis station on Pandora. All the while, I enjoyed diamond painting a sun(?).
Just to do this much, takes the back light, the daylight, the light behind me, the lights on in my glasses and a magnifying glass.
Bending at this angle hurts after a while. I hope to get better at it.
Tomorrow more snow โ๏ธ๐จ๏ธ! Someone’s been snow dancing!
I have to admit to getting the blues from Facebook and my cloud-sharing memories. Since we moved to Christmas Valley, we have enjoyed the snow.โ๏ธIt flurried on Halloween. We looked the Hallmark Thanksgiving with snow on the proper day. Then there had been my birthday snow. A kindness that didn’t show the birthday that my daughter and partner brought Kali to me. (Wow, four years ago.) And Christmas never disappointed. Hallmark wished they knew Christmas Valley!
Then last year, as if isolation wasn’t enough, the snow was stingy. This year it seemed almost as wrong. But on my birthday I got flurries. ๐
Yesterday, I decided to try my Diamond Painting. My friend sent me a Doctor Who. So I spent the day transferring the gems to the organizers. I had Pandora on the Bing Crosby Christmas music and Audible playing Les Miserables.
My brother heard the Christmas music playing, ‘Let It Snow’ ๐จ๏ธ and decided it was time to put up the trees. Knowing Rosey will be tearing it down as often as gravity demands, it is what it is today. Sorry. I’ll try to take a nighttime picture.
Notice outside? Yep! That is what gave us the energy.
SNOW!
It’s windy now, but another batch of snow is on its way!
Yay!
๐จ๏ธ
โ๏ธ
The Warrior’s Path by Catherine M. Wilson
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
(above the asterisk is my review from April 2012 of the Kindle version.)
In ancient days, when womyn* were warriors…
Why would womyn be warriors? Who but the life bringers would care? Who but womyn would be cautious about taking the life of a family member of another home.
Yes, there are men in the book. They have redeeming ways. But this story is about womyn. In particular, a young teen and her strange warrior.
Many subplot lines kept this book moving. There are questions to ponder, such as the difference between a secure upbringing and an orphaned life.
The most interesting thought is about anger and its purpose. Then there is jealousy and love versus friendship.
I can’t wait till payday so I can get the next book in the series. For those who don’t care for series, the first book does a nice stand-alone. Nice settling ending. But I love to watch the characters mature and learn as they do.
* my spelling, not the author’s.
***
I just finished listening to the audible version of this book. I stick with the above critic of the Kindle version. I think having Janis Ian’s narration made this a more enjoyable experience. Now I need to find the next in the series to listen to.
Per Linda:
Your Friday prompt for Stream of Consciousness Saturday is โtree.โ Use the word โtreeโ or write about a tree. Any kind of tree. Enjoy!
When I saw the prompt I planned a whole different stream. I thought it would be about putting our Christmas trees up, today. But it has been so cold and windy that all I could do was knit under the electric lap blanket.
The other topic was going to be about working on my diamond art projects. I did watch a bunch of YouTube videos about how to get started.
The only way this stream hits the word ‘tree’ can only show up is how our trees are bending towards the east from these horrible cold winds. We have been promised snow. But I beginning to feel deceived.
Once it snows it’ll be warmer. The humidity makes everything better.
Yay! Two more socks done! Done on the His looms of the KB His and Hers sock looms. Kitchener cast-on toe, flat-knit stitch through out. German short-rows for heels. Knit/Purl ribbed cuff.
Darswords 
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