7 Things That Say Spring's A-Comin'!

Source:  pixabay.com

1.  23 days after an official total or 40.8" of snow fell, (some sources say Kachina Village got 48") it looks like this in the forest:
 

Our yard is last to thaw, though, and still looks like this:

 

2.  The sunrise and sunset times:

I'm completely ignoring that 10% chance of snow! 



3.  Daylight Savings time has happened.

I know this because whoever is in charge of updates on iPhone switched our phones to Denver time from Phoenix time, and my alarm woke me at 6:00 Denver time last Sunday....yep, that's 5:00 Phoenix time.  Not realizing this, I turned over for another half-hour of sleep, and got up at what I thought was 6:30, thinking I'd slept in.  Went out to the kitchen and saw the clock said 5:30....

  

It was just WRONG! 

4.  The wood pile is shrinking:

5.  It's St. Patty's Day!

Source:  maxpixel.net

6.  The first Spring schedule for dog Agility classes came out yesterday!

7.  Finally, here's some Spring Music to lift your spirits.  Pick and choose as you like!

  Vivaldi's Four Seasons: Spring

Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong: April in Paris

Simon & Garfunkel: April Come She Will

Wait For Me, March!

March is in a hurry!  I'm slip-sliding my way through it, trying to maintain previous challenges and struggling with the new one this month.

 Here's a perfect evening schedule:

4:30-6:30:  Walk the dogs with Ron, prepare & eat dinner, wash the dishes
6:30-7:00:  Practice violin
7:00-8:00:  Focus reading or watch a video
8:00-9:00:  Yoga & Meditation
9:00-10:00: Snack, prep for bed, read a little in bed, lights out at 10:00


The Challenge for this month is that 6:30-7:00 slot.  I want the working part of my day to be done at 7:00.  This is a double-edged challenge.  One edge is that after the dishes are done, I feel pretty done myself, and want to call it a day.  Ask me how easy it is to kill that half an hour dinking around on the computer or reading.  That wastes a good practice session, especially now that I'm working on Tiny Deck Concert repertoire.  The other edge is that if I don't practice and get to dinking around on the computer or reading, I'll go way over the other direction, often running through Yoga time at 8:00 and Bed Time at 10:00!  Thus the Challenge!   Fail x3 so far!  Try, try again.

I'm thinking of stopping use of the word "goal" and substitute "intention".  "Goal" is too...ambitious.  It has a striving quality I'm trying to get away from.   

March Intentions:

• Music Camp was a February/March Intention; well-blogged previously.  Repertoire is taking shape; the CD's I ordered are arriving; Tiny Desk Concerts are what I'm listening to during my pre-bed snack.
• Cooking school:  "Saute: Fry quickly in a little hot fat." The why and how of it, and how it's different from what I'm doing now.
• File taxes:  done today!
• Quarterly order of books for my home library.  Done a couple days ago, waaay too late at night.  See above challenge!  However, with this order, my home library will have as many books as it can hold, and from here on out I'll only buy as many as I need to replace what I have read over the past quarter.  
• Jasmine to the groomer:  scheduled for March 19.  
• Bathe Gypsy at home.  On a warm, sunny day.  Quite the opposite of our current conditions!
• Plan the One-Woman Sprint Tri.  This has been on hiatus for the past two years due to injury.  It's looking really good for this year!  The timing has to do with my Aquaplex membership expiration on June 11 and our Spring Vacation which has been before Memorial Day weekend but is currently unplanned.  I've chosen the date of May 16, with flexibility.  A sprint tri consists of:  1/2 mile swim, 12 mile bike, 3 mile run.  I'm good on the swimming.  I hope to start biking in early April, but this is completely weather and road condition-determined.  My running has taken a hit from both weather and the trip to Tucson.  I'm on a re-building schedule now and should have no trouble achieving 3 miles by the target date.  Part of the recommended training is called "bricks".  It's biking followed immediately by running.  It's to give your legs the experience of the shock of going from one to the other.  I've done it in the past both with and without brick training.  I'd like to put some in this year.  
• Maintenance:  It's piling up!  Yoga and Meditation!  Getting up and to bed on time!  Tiny Deck Repertoire development!  

Music Camp, Concluded

Day 4:

Violin practice:  Check.

I started out with a session of the pieces I'll be working on for Tiny Deck Concerts.  I'm not lying about Twinkle Twinkle Little Star!!  That led me to one of the pop music covers I want to play, "Hallelujah".  I've already been working on this one, playing along with a YouTube violinist.  I have a version in a music book, but the key signature is different than the YouTube version.  Since I want to continue to play with the YouTube version, plus memorize it, I decided I wanted to transcribe the YouTube version to written music.  I can more-than-less do this if the piece is simple; it's very time consuming.  But I also find it a fun challenge. I was successful enough, too (there's a couple of rhythms that aren't written quite right).  Note no piano practice.  Yeah, it took THAT long! 

Kachina Village Hill Walk:  Check. 

Years ago when I was too injured to run but not too injured to walk, I measured a 3-mile course I could do here in Kachina Village.  The Village is very hilly, so I didn't have to search for hills, but I did deliberately choose a course with two short hills and two long hills.  Other than the one day of swimming, the dogs and I have been enjoying the hour it takes to do this walk.  The weather has been glorious, the sky blue, the sun shining.  

 Here's a look at the 4 hills:

Hill #1:  Short

Hill #2:  Long in two pictures.

 

Hill #3: Well okay, medium.

Hill #4:  So long it took four pictures!

Another Great Courses lesson:  Check.


Day 5, The Last Day:


Violin and piano practice:  Check.

After all the brain work of shopping, planning, wishful thinking, and transcribing, I wanted my last day to be filled with playing, and I did.  Lots.  

Finish Great Courses:  Check. 


Final Words:

I loved Music Camp!  It provided the break in routine I wanted.  It was permission to focus a lot on just one thing.  I was able to dig in to some things that had been on a list for a long time.  It gave me a chance to look at my music in the longer view and see where I want it to go and how to go about it.

I plan to make this an annual winter event.  I'll take the opportunity to take that longer view once a year.  And throughout the year I'll keep a list of things that spark my interest to explore during Camp.  You won't be surprised to know there are already two items on the list:  1) Another Great Courses already sitting on my shelf:  "How to Listen to and Understand Great Music", with Robert Greenberg;  2) Come up with a way to record piano accompaniment that has a reasonable sound quality and possibly a portable way to play it back (thinking of Tiny Deck Concerts).  Without costing a fortune.  I already have the piano accompaniment to lots of my violin music; I'd love to accompany myself!  And so,

 
  

Music Camp, Continued

Day 2:

Swimming and Tai Chi with Sue and Donna:   Check.

This is my normal Friday fitness schedule.  I chose to go ahead with it, even though it takes up the entirety of the morning.  As always, I thoroughly enjoyed both activities.  As always, it made me quite tired, and that got in the way of Camp a little, both in motivation and straight-up fatigue.  Another time I'd choose one or the other and save the rest of my energy for Camp.

Dinner:  Check. 

I'm trying to minimize dinner prep time, and chose Slow-Cooker soups as my go-to.  As it happened, Ron made dinner on Day 1, a delicious preparation of skillet salmon and go-withs.  Today I made the first soup.  It sure was delicious; however, I'm not sure but what the prep time just moved to a different part of the day!   An aside: while in Tucson, we had another hilarious conversation about the regional ways to which meals are referred:  in the southwest:  Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner.  In the midwest, Breakfast, Dinner, Supper.  Getting tangled up in these differences with brother Scott, who lives in NE, always amuses me to no end! 

Violin and piano practices:  Check.

Finish My Personal Music Library Theme of the Day:  Check.

I'd let my Amazon order sit overnight so as to look at it with a fresh eye today and make certain of my purchases.  I added a couple of CD's, then pushed the $$ button.  



Day 3:  

Violin and piano practices:  Check.

Progress on Great Courses video:  Check.

I've had this course, titled "Understanding the Fundamentals of Music",  for some time.  I've watched 10 of the 16 episodes, and liked Camp as a time to finish it up.  The lecturer, Robert Greenberg, is like all Great Courses lecturers, very much an expert who is expounding on a topic he loves.   Though his style is very professional and self-contained, he does inject a goodly amount of humor, making it fun to watch and listen.

It is pretty heavy going.  It's college-level information and delivery.  Probably not why it's titled something like "Fundamentals of Music for Dummies".  I have encountered a good share of the information in the course of my musical life, and have a context for what I haven't.  It's good for my overall base of musical knowledge, but it's way too theoretical for what I'm struggling with in my daily practices. 

Theme of the Day:  Explore repertoire of Little Deck Concerts:  Check. 

This got thoroughly explored and decided, as follows:

• Tiny Deck Concert season is May-October
• There will be two Tiny Deck Concerts per month
• Each Tiny Deck Concert will consist of two short tunes played several times or one longer tune.
• I'll be incorporating Suzuki tunes, fiddle tunes, popular covers, and folk songs in this repertoire.
• As much as possible, the short pieces will be memorized (a particular weakness of mine).
• The concerts will be ephemeral.  
• November-April will be repertoire building months.  
• This will require finding additional practice time.  I think I see some places in my schedule to fit it in!
• Yep, I'm instantly behind in my repertoire building.  But the first pieces will be from Suzuki Book 1, which I've been playing since I started lessons.  I think I can squeek out "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" without too much rehearsal!  And if I repeat repertoire, who's to know?

Music Camp is On!

I had a plan...

February is far enough in to winter and far enough from spring to be an excellent month to shake up the schedule a little with some sort of alternate activity.  Last year we tried a 3-day trip to Lake Havasu City.  It was satisfactory, but not something we care to repeat.  This year, I decided it would be a good month to try out the idea of a One-Woman Music Camp.  I did a little pre-planning, and chose February 24-28.   Then life happened, as it will.  A sudden and sorrowful trip to Tucson to gather with family after the sudden passing of a way-too-young nephew eclipsed Music Camp plans.

Back home this past Monday, I was uncombobulating myself.  As you probably know, this can take longer than one anticipates.  However, I had made a commitment to an outside event for my original Camp dates, and rather than cancel and let Music Camp slip-slide away due to inertia, I decided to let that event be the motivation to go ahead with Camp. 

THE OVERALL PLAN

I wanted a 5-day Camp.

I wanted to maintain minimal regular duties.  Keepers:

1) The quickie morning house straighten.

2) Some sort of exercise.

3) Any standing appointments.

4) Make dinner.

5) Yoga and Meditation. 

I wanted to let the Camp develop as I went along; uncharacteristically, not over-plan.  Which is not the same as not planning at all!

Here's what I had loosely planned:

1) Maintain my regular violin and piano practices.

2) Finish a Great Courses set of videos "Understanding the Fundamentals of Music". 

3) Choose a Theme of the Day for focus.

4) Go to one live music event.

5) Watch several music-related movies I'd acquired for the Camps Sally & I did and didn't get to.

6) Blog the Camp.

Here's how it's going:

Day 1:

Violin and piano practices:  Check.

Great Courses episode:  Check.

Theme of the Day:  Build my personal music library with purpose:  Check.

This turned out to be a lot of fun.  It's been a topic that's been on my mind for awhile with no action; Camp seemed like a natural place to address it.  Some on-line research got me on track.  First, identify what I like to listen to.  Second, acquire it or some means of listening to it.  I went through my existing library (currently on my Media Player) and identified the various genres/styles.  All over the place: pop, new age, classical in the instrumentals I play....

From there, I can acquire/listen to more of the same artists or, as suggested, choose one of the many on-line radio stations and listen to similar music and find new artists. I'd already picked AccuRadio as my go-to station, and pulled it up again with a new eye.  

Not only can I find styles I already like, but there's a choice of genres from literally around the world.  No end to the trying-out here!  Another suggestion that came up was...NPR Tiny Desk Concerts!  I'd not listened to them in a long while.  I've been wasting my time with mindless news feeds on my phone as I'm eating my before-bed snack.  No more!  NPR Tiny Desk Concerts are so much more rewarding!  And always there's the ubiquitous YouTube as a limitless resource. I can do some discovery there, and also try out any given artist a little more extensively.

I dipped a little in to learning about classical music.  Surprising to me, even though I enjoy playing classical music on both piano and violin, listening to it has always felt...complicated.  There's too much going on for my ear to understand it.  Do you think I found "An On-line Course to Appreciate Classical Music"?  You know I did.  

I did a little shopping, too.  A Camp without shopping?!  Not to be!  When I disposed of my vinyl collection last year, I made note of a handful of albums I wanted to replace with CD's for my permanent library.  Amazon had all but a few of them.  Some of them are old enough that it appears there's been no release on CD!  I might give them up and enjoy them on YouTube when I get the hankering.  There's a way to make a Favorites list on YouTube that I'll have to investigate.   

I've got the Tiny Desk Concerts assigned to a regular time.  The challenge will be to start integrating more purposeful listening in to already busy days. And the Music Appreciation course.  And setting up a Favorites list on YouTube.  I'll bet I can!   

Live musical event:  Check.

In the evening of this day, I attended a local event called "Violins of Hope".  What a story it is!

A man who emigrated to Israel as a boy, escaping the Holocaust, became a world-renowned violin maker. 50 years ago, someone brought him a violin that one of the Holocaust victims had played to be restored.  He didn't restore that first one-it was still too close.  Twenty years ago he was ready, and he put out a call for violins belonging to Holocaust victims, and it became part of his life work to locate and restore as many of these violins as possible.  A very cool part of this is that they're not special violins, they're "everyman" violins.  Violins anyone could afford.  Played before and during the Holocaust. The 66 restored instruments, violins and some cellos, are now on a world-wide tour.  An educational program has been developed around them describing their stories, and they are played in concerts.  There are general-public events like the one I went to, and there are extensive school programs.  Scottsdale Center for the Arts has the main exhibit, sponsored by the Jewish Federation of Greater Phoenix, and Flagstaff was included in the statewide tour.  Guess what?  All free.  To remind those of us who know the history, and teach the ones who don't, what can and does happen if we allow it.