The topic for this week's Wordpress photo prompt is 'State of Mind'. I have a cold. This is my state of mind. Soft, beige and crumpled.
It is actually a photo of used tissues in my waste paper basket. You are allowed to say 'yuck'.The app was PhotoToaster.
The Human Seasons. John Keats
Four Seasons fill the measure of the year;
There are four seasons in the mind of man:
He has his lusty Spring, when fancy clear
Takes in all beauty with an easy span:
He has his Summer, when luxuriously
Spring's honied cud of youthful thought he loves
To ruminate, and by such dreaming high
Is nearest unto heaven: quiet coves
His soul has in its Autumn, when his wings
He furleth close; contented so to look
On mists in idleness—to let fair things
Pass by unheeded as a threshold brook.
He has his Winter too of pale misfeature,
Or else he would forego his mortal nature.
Or maybe not. I'm not sure I've got this Wordpress challenge right, but if not, I had fun doing it.
I think Giorgio Morandi is one of those artists you either love, or just don't get. I'm in the former group. I don't know why, given that I don't usually like representational art or still life, but his images really speak to me. I love the colours and shapes, and the way they are all so similar and yet so different - a community meeting often in different combinations and having similar but different conversations every time.
So here is my effort: some of my favourite objects having a chat. The apps were IColorama and Phototoaster.
Why is is 'Cheese Snaps' called Cheese Snaps? Simple, really. When I first started my other blog mumble-mumble years ago, I wanted a name that would be fairly anonymous, but personal as well. Difficult. I chose 'Cheshire Cheese' because I come from Cheshire, although I haven't lived there for several decades, and I like cheese. It turned out to be quite a good choice, allowing me to invent blog names for my family - Wensleydale, who comes from Yorkshire, my sons Cheeses Major and Minor, and my granddaugher Babybel - although when my grandson arrived his mum called him a very hungry caterpillar and he's been the VHC ever since, albeit one who loves cheese.
When I subsequently wanted to start a photography blog, 'Cheese Snaps' seems the obvious choice - although the focus of this blog varies quite regularly, as you can see.
Talking about learning styles seems to have gone out of fashion since I was teaching, but I found it very useful to think about how I learn best, which is the subject of this Wordpress prompt. ( Why am I writing about Wordpress prompts on a Blogger blog? Well, it's a neglected little blog, and I felt it needed a bit of attention. Also I don't think anyone reads it, so I can waffle as much as I like without boring anyone to tears.)
But I digress. If you had asked me about my learning style before I did the test, I'd have said I was a verbal leaner - I love to read and I talk a lot. But I'm not a good listener: I switch off too easily. According to learning styles tests (and I've taken several different versions) I'm a visual-kinaesthetic learner - that is, I like to be shown, and then I like to do it for myself.
However, I'm not completely convinced by this. The kinaesthetic bit is definitely true, I need to try things for myself. And, dead give away, if I do have to listen to a speaker or read a text book, I have to make notes. I may never look at them again, but if I've made notes I have a much better understanding of what I'm being told, and more chance of remembering it too.
But the visual? I've found, since I've started taking on-line courses, that I much prefer those that provide pdf's, to those which just have videos- even if I make notes. Videos help, but they are not permanent - watching them again Is a bore. And for me they are no substitute for the written word. I think my visual learning is limited to still pictures and diagrams.
For me, the best way to plan, or learn, or explore ideas, is the mind map. It's kinaesthetic, because I have to draw it. It's visual, because it's a diagram. But it's also verbal, because it uses words. Perfect.
She was late getting to the bus station, after gossiping with friends over coffee. Now she was on the last bus, a small, battered single decker, trundling out of Ipswich, heading for home. It was winter and already dark. She sat on the back seat, muffled in her coat and scarf, looking sleepily out of the window at the streets of the town. As the bus moved out into the countryside the streetlights disappeared, a mist fell, and the only illumination came from the distant lights of the scattered cottages.
She lived in the depths of the country, at the end of the bus route. The bus had been quite full when she got on, but in ones and twos the other passengers got off as they reached their stops, until she was the only one left. The bus trundled on through the mist, which seemed to be getting thicker, making the road unrecognisable in the dark: she wasn't quite sure where they were. She peered through the window, looking out for the lights of the pub at the end of her road, but could see nothing. She glanced at her watch: the mist had probably delayed them, but even so, she should have been home by now.
Anxiously, she made her way down the bus, to speak to the driver, hidden in his little cabin at the the front.
'Are we running late?', she asked. No reply. She peered into the cabin.
There was no-one there. The bus trundled on.
What is my relationship with my phone? The first question is landline or mobile?
With the landline, fear and loathing. It interrupts my peace and quiet, it's rarely good news, it's often someone trying to sell me something or con me. I have it set up so it is very difficult to get an answer unless I actually know you: if I don't, I'll let the answering machine pick it up. If you don't tell me who you are I won't ring you back, and if you persist in pestering me I will block you. So be warned.
With my mobile, my relationship is marginally better, if only because I can take photos, play games and sent texts on it - although I prefer doing all of those on my tablet. My phone doesn't often ring because I rarely give people my number, it's usually turned off anyway, and people who know me know it's better to text me.
So , put me down as phonophobic.
I like to think I'm fairly decisive about making changes: once I've decided to do it, I do it. For example, earlier this week we received a very good offer from our local garage on their new cars, we talked about it that night, today we went in, and now we have a new car.
But, we had been thinking about replacing our elderly, 100,000+ car for a long time, and we've discussed it a lot - so was it really that quick? All we've really done is bring the date of purchase forward a few months.
So perhaps the answer is 'yes and no'!
What would be my perfect room for writing (which I don't do that much of) and reading (which I should do more of)?
A prompt from here.
Essentials:
1. A comfortable sofa with a large coffee table next to it.
2. A log fire - and someone to keep it going. This person could also provide tea, coffee and wine at appropriate intervals, and cook, wash and keep the house clean.
3. A good view, preferably of the sea, or the Downs, or both. One or more bird feeders would be a nice addition.
4. A plentiful supply of books, obviously. I usually write on a tablet, so a state of the art iPad and printer, but I would still like notebooks and a variety of pens.
5. Given that I would need to move occasionally, a work table and a supply of materials for knitting, embroidery, and paper crafts. (I'd be very happy to make my own notebooks.)
6. A good radio tuned to Radio 3.
That should do nicely. At least to begin with.
