Tag Archive: recorders


Finishing Friday


Here is where I keep myself accountable to me for progress on projects of my passions. But yesterday I got behind and then ahead on this episode.

Sometimes I feel I make other people feel inferior through my checklist. Please don’t. I feel inferior to everyone else in that I’m sure they’re getting other stuff done that they don’t even need to report because they are so good at getting their adulting jobs done that I feel guilty not getting done or just overlook, like dishes and shampooing. The same 24 hours is all we get and we make choices of what we can do. What we need to do. And what we can’t wait to do, leaving other necessities hanging with futile hopes.

And since this blog is attached to ‘Warts and All’ I’ll start with what hasn’t gotten done. My husband asked me today why I haven’t been playing the uke, recorder, or violin. Well, I thank Mrs. Skinner for this sidetrack path straightener.

When I got sick of practicing piano and ready to quit lessons, she came up with this  bait and switch. Forced practice came from Mom. But I adore my teacher. She sent me home with her ukulele. It helped so much in bringing me back to the piano.

So in hopes of keeping my music alive I tried the recorders and strings. And sure enough it worked.

When my dad was in the rest home over a decade ago, the lady in the room next to his played her piano all the time. I decided I wanted to grow up to be her, or Huge Lauri of House fame. He would sit down and just play, no sheet music just music.

I’ve been stuck with eye music since I was 5 years old. My goal this time is to learn to improvise and play. Still, there is so much to learn to get to that stage of free-playing. The other instruments help with learning chords and meandering melodies. And a change of positions. So I need to get back to them sometimes.

Shiloh sleeps waiting for me.
Shiloh makes it hard to skip piano. So I’ll need to plug in other musical play elsewhere in my day.
Scrap socks 1 Milo refuses to look.
Scrap socks 2
Watermelon socks
Blue boho socks. Not much progress for research booklets.

Duo still rides my stationary bike managing a few lessons for the half-hour 4-5 miles on #3 grade. So… There’s that.


YAY! My brother likes his socks!

He likes the arch ribbing like I do.

Just for review: these were Turkish cast-on. Chiaogoo needles Two at a Time socks. Then arch ribbing. Fleegle Heel, my favorite.

I thought I was finished at a 2″ cuff, but my brother needed a longer one for his boots. Otherwise, I would have been finished on his birthday.

Towards the end I had to rely on Advil and Aspercreme. But now my hands can rest a bit.

I found a bunch of unfinished WIPs. Here are a couple calling me:

Maybe I make me watermelon socks?
Or, should I make another pair from these?
Now I can finish the larger size basket weave hat.

I’m nearly finished with Smiling Turtle!

Just got the top little bit. I like this so much it may go on my bathroom wall. I think the blues will blend or compliment the vague color palette. Besides, that smile will make me happy.

I think next week I’ll record my favorite songs. I’m loving Going Home, God Bless The Child, Just the Way You Are, and a few more. With my new enthusiasm for improv or composition I now have a keyboard within reach of my every perch. (Recliner, bed, Dabbling Den)

I didn’t get ‘Dar’s Dabbling Den’ rearranged yet. I want to make more room for my Yamaha keyboard near my piano. Maybe this weekend?

I’d like to make it easier to switch gears, bring in violin, ukulele, recorders, art challenges, podcast or book narrations.

Since COVID months ago, I’ve not been able to get faster than 5 miles in 35. But I’m still trying. And now that spring may have arrived I need to find walking time. Still a work in progress!

Oh, and I am three book reviews behind.

Duolingo still plugs along. I seem more focused on Italian. It’s easier.  I still visit the other languages when the spirit moves me.😉


Nothing is finished. The weather has made my favorite things uncomfortable if not downright pain. But progress goes slow. One second spent on projects you feel passionate about is still progress! So here are some things still moving forward.

So little left to do.
Another pair of slippers on the comfy arch.
Trying to make stress balls. But I think I need to frog and start over.
A uke Kindle book I’m playing with.
My family thinks I’m overdoing it. I need a place to put the taped together pieces. Maybe a scroll library? I don’t want to fold or roll these as they become even more cumbersome. Ideas?
Recorder fun
More Christmas fun for the recorders.
Christmas for the violin. Bow tightening and rosin amounts still in flux.

And prayers for the safety of my adult kids driving over the river and through the woods, or some such. Weather will be rain/snow, etc. I’m worried but can’t wait to see everyone!

Thus Thursday


I have no idea what to write about and really I’d prefer playing around with uke, vi, and toot. I’ve discovered Christmas carols for all my instruments. Piano is the most fun right now. But the others are fun and challenging. I try to keep them all fun so I don’t give up.

Poor, Sammie. His favorite spider toy got stepped on and broke. Funkle Chris has already ordered a replacement. Random Sammie pics:

He helps even a struggling writer feel better.
He still loves his tree though he’s almost too big for the boxes.

That’s the toy that broke.😥

Okay, time for strings and toots!


I just learned that I might get to travel to Washington for a friend’s birthday. Oops! No money what to do for a present? Heck, I have yarn! Slipper socks! But, hopefully, these will be big enough. The sizer/blocker doesn’t go far enough for the recipient’s great understanding. Winging it!
My watermelon socks are coming along.
Another pair of no-show sneaker socks are nearing the heel.
Here are all the pieces I’m playing with. Embarrassingly, that Music of Today book, I think I learned in 5th or 6th grade. So many good! But my husband says he heard a lot of improvement. Just when I thought no one was listening. 😥.  By the way, at the far left is Succession. I didn’t like the show so much. I watched it for the music. But I’ll have to work up to it.
I’m having a lot of fun with this book.
This is one of the easiest songs. Can’t wait to learn guitar! But first I’m conquering the uke. I’m planning on giving my $11 Memorex to my son when I upgrade to an Enya. By the way, the Memorex regardless of price, holds tune very well and despite my ineptitude still sounds nice.
In this book with my recorders, I’m teaching myself to do harmonies so I can record me playing with myself. Keep it clean! You know what I mean!
For example, see how at the bottom of the page is the alto playing melody. Above is both soprano playing melody and alto playing harmony. I’ve worked through most of the book and can finally do both recorders’ melodies. Now learning the harmony.
Just because I think they’re pretty.
The dock is coming along. Though I’m working on it upside down to make it easier on my arms and back, it’s fun to see the picture right side up.
Ah, but here’s the problem. These “hard” ones in this EASY Sudoku book aren’t fun. I need lots of penciled hints. Even then I have to cheat and look up a few. Do I keep it up and finish regardless of difficulty or move on to another book where it starts very easy. Oh, the dilemma!
Happy Weekend Everyone!

I finished these ages ago but never did the sealing or chaining them to the hooks and beads. So tonight I sealed side one. I think by Sunday I’ll have them ready to hang up.
I was able to last longer this time finishing the strip on the left side. This has a lot of color in it. Even the water is varied in its blues and greens.
I finally have a I, IV, and a V. Okay, I needed to do a quick note to myself as to how to do the G7 (V). But as I sing as I strum, I’m teaching myself to work with chords instead of each individual note (how I was taught all my life).
Here is the next batch of chords I’m working on. Yes, I cheated by adding my own I and IV chords.
On the recorder I’m playing with the G major scale and arpeggio, and that minuet. On piano both are easy but trying to be smooth with breath and fingers is the challenge.
This song has memories. I was learning it in voice class when my grandmother was dying. I hadn’t memorized the lyrics but by her hospital bed as she was nearing the end, my cousin asked me to sing a song. Here I floundered, all I could hear was The Ash Grove. But I couldn’t. I didn’t know the words. It’s quite beautiful and fitting for the situation. So I sang nothing. I did get to sing In The Garden at her funeral.            My work on this is to get smooth enough to record them to sing to.
I can play all the melody songs on my soprano recorder. But now I want to learn the harmonies and all the alto recorder parts. Again I hope to record and do duets with myself.
I found this pair of socks I’d started and somehow forgot. So I’m farther along in my family gift than I thought.
I’ve made a little progress here probably 3 more inches then start the heel.
One more inch and the arch gets made. I’m really enjoying these sneaker no-show socks. I nearly have the pattern memorized.
Rock on, Friday Night!

I’m loving the sunset part of this lighthouse picture. This one is confetti so I work it like this:
I gather little bits of each color represented in the block I’m working. So far it works for me.

Sometimes I pop them on in a row, or by one color at a time. But I love to pop the drills on in checkerboard.

See the sun area? After checkerboarding I fill in the missing bits and find I don’t need to straighten the lines as much.

Now if only I could see the real thing. Diamond Painting does bring a bit of that peace.

A quick summary of everything else. I only skipped Morning Pages one day last week.

My memoir, Moving, is moving along but behind.

Two pairs of socks are growing row by row, much more slowly lately.

My hands found their way to play recorders this week.

My eyes actually made progress in reading real paper books. I do get tired still so I’m looking into ways to train my visual tracking.

Two books are waiting for reviews.

How was your week? Oh, and Have a great weekend!


My day-to-day life in pictures. 😋

With the backlight, you can see how my poor eyesight and eye/hand coordination wrought. When I get done I’ll straighten it all up. My purpose for sharing, though, is those white squares have symbols to let the Diamond Artist know what color tile to pop in. Maybe you can see why I get cross-eyed by the end of a session. And yet, I LOVE IT!
Nearly finished.
New socks started. A bit of yarn-chicken as I wonder if I’ll have enough of this white for a whole pair of socks.
Yeah, I’m back to playing my recorders. I thought I had German recorders. But the sound was off sometimes sharp or flat. I figured with practice my breath and fingers would get better. Nope. Now I find out I have Baroque recorders. Different fingering to learn. From the bottom double hole go up to one above the first single hole. That next hole up is smaller. That is the key that shows the type of recorder you have. So back to the drawing board so to speak.
Just so you see there is still editing progress. I’m feeling positive I’ll hit my goal before the end of the month.
Quick weather report. We got a dusting of snow. And it’s cold!

To-Dos Tuesday


I decided I had better get over here and try and see if I have anything at all to report. Sadly, I feel I have much more to-do on everything than any Ta-Da could handle. So let’s see if I can figure out What Day of the Week Is It Anyway? Tuesday means somehow Monday happened and I missed my writers’ group again. I think it is the timing. Sometimes it is after my only meal and I feel I need to wash dishes or nap, sometimes both. My phone isn’t near when I am not at the recliner or the bed or the desk. So hearing an alarm is always elsewhere and I missed it.

And I feel badly in that though I seem to get writing done, it is seldom their prompts that I’ve been writing, and I can’t read aloud right now. The news that I may not even get my surgery until after the beginning of the year is so discouraging. I usually have yWriter read back to me what I’ve been writing. If I am in editing mode I have Word read my work to me. I can’t wait until my eyes can read again! I miss stories coming into my eyes! I often miss things that are read to me. But I’m doing the best I can.

So, I have nearly made the daily quota for NaNo for the day. It is supposed to be 15,003 I’m at 14,861 so before I go to bed I will probably hit that. But with the two medical procedures coming up that will take up whole days I wanted to be a couple days ahead. Not that the procedures will take that long but each time we go to town it is four hours of driving and wearing on body and soul. Who knows how much energy I will have to write those days?

Four socks and a hat are in the early stages so I can’t even feel anything more than happy to be making them. The hands feel good doing what they can, you know?

cat yarn

And maybe because I’m supposed to be writing, I have found my recorders fun again. AND I just found the music book with Moonlight Sonata to play again! Yay! Me! I think I can blame the Pandora station called Classical Study Music Radio. They seem to tease me with that song every other piece! Guess who needs to dust her piano keys? Yep! This gal!

Though I can read music since my eyes are so bad, maybe I should work on this one (I used to have memorized) with just ears so I will try this guy out tomorrow:

Someday maybe I’ll share my musics with you. Right now I wish I could find a quiet spot in the woods where no one can hear me and just mess around with notes and sounds. After all, I share my blunders and mistakes with art, knitting, and all. Yeh, a lot of psychology is involved in the music of my life. It’s a work in progress.

A Hard Decision


With NaNoWriMo coming up fast, I’ve decided to forgo the rest of #Inktober. The story the first ones of the month prompted will be rewritten possibly as the main NaNo 50K or as part of a threesome I need to finish from before. I will use the prompts in the story and make drawings or sketches.

There is only one week to prepare for the three projects.

What made me decide this? I haven’t played my recorders for days. Having too much to do only makes me feel guilt. Guilt makes me unproductive. So I need to figure out my time better to keep it free and fun.

Back to making music.

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