Today I had to make a sculpture using 5 objects found in my home. Once this was completed I had to rearrange the objects to form another sculpture which may or may not have relevance to the first one! I had the battle with Covid in my mind! My first sculpture is called TOWER OF HEALTH! I rearranged the objects. This is called Attack Formation! And finally a third arrangement! This is called Defeat!
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Pause. I recently watched a film based on the life story of Helen Reddy, a female singer trying to break into the music industry in the 1960s, 70s and 80s. It was called I Am Woman after a song that she released of the same title. It was released at the same time as when women in the USA were demonstrating for equality with men in the work place and within the law. This song became their anthem and since watching the film, whenever I have felt down, depressed or overwhelmed by something I think of some of the lyrics which are; I can do anything I am strong Strong! I am invincible Invincible! I am woman!. And I feel better! My group's challenge today was that a picture is worth a 1000 words. This scene was painted by my talented husband. Hopefully it will remind people to think more about following the lockdown rules. REMEMBER COVID KILLS!
PS You can find more paintings on my husband's website- Philip Westcott - Home Although I'm not signed up for this group's challenge, it caught my imagination and brought back memories of my teaching days. The challenge was to create a bird. I remembered doing something similar with the children in my classes using tangrams. You can find these puzzles quite easily on the internet and can download free PDF templates if you and your children wanted to try them out. Not only can you make birds, there are many other animals and shapes you can create. I know that the children in my classes enjoyed doing them. So over to you. We all have good days and bad days, so today’s challenge was an interesting take on this concept. I had to imagine a character that represented these different kinds of days and then write a conversation that they might have had with each other. My choices were a little unusual. My good day was Road Runner from the Wiley Coyote cartoons and my bad day was a sloth! Here is my conversation:
RR—Good morning. Just look at that sunshine. It might be a little bit cold but hey fresh air didn’t hurt anyone! S—I…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. RR—I don’t know about you, but I feel that a good breakfast to start the day is important. After that I’ll wipe down the kitchen, raid the freezer for tonight’s meal and whip up some homemade soup for lunch. Oops! I just need to straighten out the cushions in the living room first and I’m good to go. What about you? S—Don’t……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. RR—I’m so glad I decided to shower rather have a bath. It does sav time you know. I’m ready to go for my essential shopping. I need to visit my Dad first and collect his shopping list, stop off at the dry cleaners and post a parcel at the post office. No rest for the wicked! Ha! Ha! S—Feel……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. RR—How’s your morning been so far? I’m on a roll. I met a friend and chatted for what seemed like ages, socially distanced of course! Now I’m back for lunch. Would you like to join me? (SLURP! SLURP!) That was delicious even though I say so myself. A quick check at the lunch time news and finish the next two chapters of my murder mystery. I think I know who the murderer is, but I’ll have to wait and see! What are you reading now? S—Like……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… RR. Mmm! Let me see. I need to check my list of jobs for this afternoon and organise myself. I’ll change the bedding and put the sheets into wash. Then I need to sort out that bathroom cupboard. I might as well- clean the bathroom whilst I’m in there. The office could do with a wipe down as well and then after that I’ll have a cup of tea and listen to some music. A 20-minute breather does wonders doesn’t it? I know I’ll write down my list of ‘to-do’ jobs for tomorrow. What have you got planned? S—Doing……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. RR—Goodness me is that the time! I need to get a move on. Are you staying for tea? I hope so as it is one of my favourite dishes. Did you say something? Sorry but I must dash I can hear the kitchen timer beeping. S—Anything…………………………………………………………………………………………………………….. I hope you get the picture! Sue Westcott.(C.) 2021 My challenge today was the dance challenge (see Day 18 part one) but there are two other groups who have different challenges to my group and today one of them had to find hidden faces. This intrigued me, so, on my daily exercise walk my lovely husband and myself set out on a mission to see if we could find some for ourselves. We were amazed at how many we found. Here is a selection of them. If you are feeling gloomy, sad, or just down-in-the-dumps then this challenge will help set you right. Today, all I had to do was choose a song and simple dance to it as if no one were there. I also had to think about how it made me feel. Well obviously, there are so many songs that would fit the bill and I did spend a few minutes stressing about this but in the end decided to choose the first CD in the cupboard which was ‘Now That’s What I Call Country.’ I looked over the list and chose number 9 and number 10 from CD 1. Number 9. Achy Breaky Heart by Billy Ray Cyprus This made me feel happy, light-hearted and I soon lost myself in the song and the dance. I thought about my holiday in 2019 when my lovely husband and myself spent three weeks in Texas. This line-dancing song made me remember our visit to Fort Worth where we saw, cowboys, stagecoaches, dance halls, cowboy hats and boots, longhorn cattle and a rodeo show. As I ‘sloshed’ (a type of line dance) my way through, I added grapevine and a couple of 'dosey doe’s' to my routine and was a little disappointed when the song came to an end. Undeterred and feeling the groove I decided to dance to the next song. Number 10. Dance The Night Away by The Mavericks Suddenly, I was whisked away to Puerta Vallarta, which is a holiday resort in Mexico. We enjoyed our last holiday in 2020 just before the pandemic hit the UK. We came back to empty shelves and the spread of the virus. However, this song remined me of the enjoyable two weeks we had there. Every Saturday night in the town square, the locals held a dance evening for all ages who dance the night away with Salsa’s and variations on this theme. I have learnt a few salsa steps and so for the next few minutes I was transported back to that place, which was a brilliant motivator and fun. I also added a few of my signature aerobic moves into the routine so that I could say that I actually did some exercises today! Yea! LOL A really fun challenge. Maybe I will make this a regular challenge to start the week off- Dance Mondays! The challenge today was thinking about and recording your views about the word care. What does this word mean to you? To think about either the people who care for you or for the people you care for. I thought for some time before deciding what to do for this challenge as I realised that for me, it was going to turn out to be quite personal. When I think of caring my first thoughts go to my Dad who has cared for me my whole life. He is 88 years old, coming up to 89 at the end of January. During this horrible pandemic, he has been brilliant and I, as well as my husband, my sister and all our family have cared for him. He has been brilliant, shielding when told to, staying at home and generally being a good boy by following the rules! He has hardly complained and just got on with things, gardening, looking after his house, cooking, and generally keeping busy. His work ethic is second to none. He is a sociable person, and seems to know everybody, so this past year has been especially difficult for him. He has had two holidays abroad cancelled and doesn’t believe that he will ever go and ‘sit in the sun by the swimming pool with a beer in his hand again’ which is sad. But as he himself says he is much better off than many others in the world and he is thankful for all his blessings. I decided to create a mind map about him, to say thank you and to remind him that he is loved by his family, highly thought of in his community and within his friendship circle. I love him to bits! Sue Westcott (C.) 2021 Today, I had to design and plan a festival. It was suggested that I could include family and friends by holding a zoom conference, prepare and eat festival type food and dress in festival clothes. However, as you all know, all the best laid plans can go wrong and parties, celebrations and festivals can suddenly take on lives of their own. I know that other participants in these daily challenges will have thought of festivals of light, of music, of art and crafts and of literature but I had devised my own festival- the festival of cleaning! It all started when the element in my oven blew and I had to call in the lovely repair man. He lifted out the oven from its casing and to my horror there was quite a bit of mess behind where the oven had been, So, while he dismantled the insides of my oven I quickly cleaned the casing. I finished this with a smile of course and when he went out to his van to collect the correct part, I quickly grabbed the oven cleaner and applied myself to cleaning the insides whilst the interior lay on the kitchen aisle. The repair man soon came back and as quick as a flash and £115 later my oven was working. "Yeah!" I thought until I noticed that some of the debris from the oven had fallen inside the pan drawer underneath it. I realised that I would have to clean this so that’s what I did. I removed the pans and gave them a wash, cleaned the drawer and then when I was happy I thought to myself, “Well, if I cleaned the top drawer, I’d better clean the bottom one as well.” Now this drawer held some old pans, so I made an executive decision to throw them. Collecting a black bin liner, I soon filled this up with unwanted and unused items. Once it was sorted and re- organised as well as being cleaning I had another thought. "My George Forman grill will fit nicely in there." So yes you guessed it, I opened another drawer and did the same here. Re-organised, cleaned and as it was a set of three drawers the other two above it were completed as well. I was on a roll! I then turned to yet another set of three drawers and was rewarded with a beautifully clean and tidy trio that when opened gleamed at me in grateful thanks. One side of my kitchen had now been tackled so I had some light festival refreshment and decided to continue. I turned on the radio and was soon tidying, discarding, and cleaning six more drawers. Now festivals often take place over a few days, so it was back to planning and designing the next stage of my festival of cleaning. Tomorrow, I would tackle the remaining three drawers and the two cupboards under the sink! And then on the third day it would have to be the fridge and freezer, widows, surfaces, and floor. What a tremendously exciting two days to look forward to! Can't wait to see what happens if I ever have to plan a rave! Sue Westcott (C.) 2021 |
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