Micro foraging for art supplies

It hasn’t rained here in 3 months and has been unusually hot too, so most blooming things are over and done with if they have even survived. I’m glad I didn’t make a dye garden this year, as the cost of watering would have been massive.

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How To Go Viral

A very timely post on many levels, one of them being how I’m not really posting here at the moment.

I have been instagramming a bit, so you could always scoot over there to have a look, you can view and comment even on a PC.

Anyway, I recommend Sarah’s list on how to “go viral” (it may not be what you think it is). This was my favourite of her suggestions and wise words:

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Last week, last post

It’s a bone-cold, lazy (ie exhausted) indoorsy type of week with no social duties whatsoever, yay. I’m knitting a hat from an old handspun skein for no particular reason, G is finally updating my webserver and in return I’m rebuilding the website for his gun club.

It’s always fun to see how a handspun or handdyed yarn knits up, sometimes they need crochet or weaving to show off, other times they really seem to be their prettiest as a skein. I had some which were too small for the pattern, but if I like the fit, they may become headbands for my delicate ears.

I began writing a typical “status of the year” report, slept on it and decided I really couldn’t be bothered and had no profound learning experiences to impart.

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Mary Oliver: The Artist’s Task

“It is a silver morning like any other. I am at my desk. Then the phone rings, or someone raps at the door. I am deep in the machinery of my wits. Reluctantly I rise, I answer the phone or I open the door. And the thought which I had in hand, or almost in hand, is gone. Creative work needs solitude. It needs concentration, without interruptions. It needs the whole sky to fly in, and no eye watching until it comes to that certainty which it aspires to, but does not necessarily have at once. Privacy, then. A place apart — to pace, to chew pencils, to scribble and erase and scribble again.

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How Thinking Like a Little Kid Can Keep You Sharp As You Age

As we get older, we focus more on specialized knowledge than broader learning. A new paper argues that’s slowing us down.

Well, I may be deluding myself of course, but I feel every bit as sharp as I did 30 years ago. If I needed to learn a new language for example, I’d assume I could just go ahead and do so. How about you?

Source: How Thinking Like a Little Kid Can Keep You Sharp As You Age — Science of Us