tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-255998362024-03-23T19:16:49.883+01:00Little Yellow DuckPassionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.comBlogger444125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-77155700576331198142015-03-01T12:15:00.001+01:002015-03-01T12:15:42.761+01:00That TCK / Expat / Global Citizen ThingThis video on what it feels like to be a Third Culture Kid resonated with me, even though I technically don't qualify!
I'm actually ready to go home now, but I know that, even though I wasn't a TCK, it's not just that I've grown in particular ways in response to life in the UAE and in Spain, but that the culture I left two decades ago has also continued to evolve. So is it home? I shall have to Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-9605242772843008462015-03-01T11:41:00.001+01:002015-03-01T11:41:46.725+01:00Children need unstructured time; they need to be allowed to be bored.Una amiga publicó este artículo en Facebook. Para mi, hay mucho aquí que tiene sentido común
Lots of unsensational good sense here - in my opinion!
Absolutely bang on. I think the paragraph on the factual knowledge of a ten-year-old is a bit off-track, because ten-year-olds can absorb that amount and variety of information to a degree (not necessarily knowing any background, thinking about it Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-76520990185366571232015-02-27T23:33:00.002+01:002015-02-27T23:33:17.172+01:00Goodbye February 2015Right, January went from having a pleasantly over-indulgent rounding off of the Christmas season and thank-you-but-I've-had-enough-chocolate,-cheese-and-wine-and-don't-talk-to-me-about-liqueurs-for-another-eleven-months-and-where's-the-timetable-for-the-yoga-centre? kind of feel to it, to superintensiveclassicintensiveoffsitepage43?itmustbeTuesdayandtellmeagainhowmanydayswe'vegottilltheweekend. Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-51174580913866880982013-07-14T20:33:00.002+02:002013-07-14T20:33:51.497+02:00Heat, leaves, stems and beasties
Bloody hot week. Stress and pleasure in more or less equal measure, though the balance has shifted since I gave up watering in the evening. And I've had advice. Ants really don't like cinammon, so the colony appears to have moved out, though I've made a strong solution of cayenne pepper in case it doesn't do the trick. Been reading up on companion planting: to deter pests, attract Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-21594185243564454892013-07-08T17:39:00.001+02:002013-07-08T17:45:15.056+02:00It's been 7 months!Ooooooh, life's been interesting! That's my excuse for not blogging for seven months!
Howsoever, although I'm on holiday this month, we're into our second week of 36º or thereabouts, which just knocks me sideways, so I'm sitting here posting some pics of the terrace that's too hot to go out on between 10 and 8 - but such a pleasure outside those hours! This is s what currently occupies my Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-58535471330916251272012-12-01T10:21:00.000+01:002013-07-08T13:10:21.829+02:0034,280 out of 50,000 ain't badWell, I've done my best. Last year I got the word count but not the quality. This year, I sincerely hope it's the reverse!
As an exercise, it's very useful because you have to be so organised and disciplined in order to do the work without allowing everything else to slide. I joined the NaNoWriMo Spain page on Facebook, and that has been fun too - mutual support without wasting time we haven't Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-61821622291364561302012-10-21T01:03:00.000+02:002012-10-21T01:12:32.485+02:00NaNoWriMo 2Last year I did something astonishing, and not a little barmy: 50,000 words in 30 days. This was my first experience of NaNoWriMo - or National Novel Writing Month - in which some 300,000 otherwise sane people from around the world commit to a 30 day timeframe in which we are supposed to write - not read, rewrite or - in fact - edit in any way - a bit like this sentence in fact Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-12605018873162014652012-10-13T21:53:00.001+02:002012-10-13T21:57:38.773+02:00New needlework blogSorry about the mess, but I'm doing so much knitting and sewing these days that I thought I'd put it all in place where those of us who enjoy such things can wallow together. Meanwhile, those for whom the word crochet recalls the abomination of 70s macrame owls, Fair Isle tank tops, fitted bathrooms in puce and avocado, and living rooms dominated by noxious purple, brown, green or Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-89126430948583474672012-05-02T12:47:00.000+02:002012-05-09T22:36:11.020+02:00Happy New BedWe've got a new bed: 135cm x 190cm, with a storage base. WoooooooooHOOOOOOooooooooo! I have dreamed of this day. (Actually, it was the day before yesterday. Yesterday was a public holiday, and I spent it rearranging STUFF, and filling the bed base with - oh - a spare duvet.... some extra cushions... and felt, cloth, embroidery materials, beads, rug canvas, yarn, the accumulated and - until now - Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-21473567059194705792012-04-28T20:26:00.000+02:002012-04-28T20:26:44.661+02:00April to MayWell, we're doing all right for April showers. I put the houseplants outside to get the benefit of Thursday's mist, which developed into drizzle later the same day, and a then a whole string of downpours that are going to continue for several days to come..
This was mist, not rain.
These rather battered beauties in yellow, orange and red are ranunculus. I love the way their petals fluff up Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-51801264066011946012012-04-21T23:13:00.001+02:002012-05-09T22:36:35.433+02:00Ravelry makes me happyIn December 2009, I joined Ravelry 'a knit and crochet community'. Online.
Now, I have a rather awkward relationship with the virtual world. As a source of information, especially English language information, it's very, very useful for me. But in my experience the word 'community' is frequently hijacked by commercial and political bodies to leverage new markets, or as a useful buzzword for Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-7162244981180927712012-04-19T22:26:00.009+02:002012-05-09T22:37:23.724+02:00¿Conejita feliz? Bunny of Happiness. Choju Giga
I am a happy bunny.... a choju giga (OK, so this is a hare.)
I've just come back from a lecture at the Japan Foundation on the evolving role of the Japanese woman in the modern world, starting with the Confucius-inspired prescription during the Tokagawa shogunate, right up to the present day. It was all in Spanish, and the speaker talked incredibly fast in order to get through her material Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-52086607470603915262012-04-17T21:25:00.006+02:002012-04-17T21:55:23.410+02:00Pequeñita aventura en la calle (Que nada arriesga, no gana.)Pués..... estoy volviendo en casa al fin de la jornada. Hay un hombre paseando el perro (un perrito encantador, como dos fregonas atadas). Me sonrie (el hombre, no el perrito), y dice algo. No oigo bien. Paro. - ¿Perdón?- Quiere amor? Busco una mujer, si quiere amor, ¿sí?- Primero, ¿quizás si hablamos con mi marido...?-...Nos reimos, y vuelvo en casa... a mi marido... :) Y el mes pasado, cuando Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-582932999048278842011-12-03T17:58:00.000+01:002011-12-03T17:59:04.212+01:00Pangur BanI and Pangur Ban, my cat,'Tis a like task we are at;Hunting mice is his delight,Hunting words I sit all night.Better far than praise of men'Tis to sit with book and pen;Pangur bears me no ill will;He, too, plies his simple skill.'Tis a merry thing to seeAt our task how glad are we,When at home we sit and findEntertainment to our mind.Oftentimes a mouse will strayInto the hero Pangur's Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-33429559646732101562011-12-01T00:04:00.005+01:002011-12-01T09:29:00.074+01:00NaNoWriMo - Done!See what I can do once I scrap the deadline pressure - meet the deadline! Yay! I went to bed at 5, went off to work at 49,132, with 868 words left to write. Tonight: 50,475. I rest my laptop.I am so chuffed with myself!Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-65374666006129991432011-11-19T11:20:00.003+01:002011-11-19T11:57:35.985+01:0020711 - NoMoNaNoWriMoOK, I give up! I've hardly moved from this laptop in two weekends and on two public holidays; I've twice been up until 4.30 in the morning;I've written before work and after work; and this week, when after work it's been sleep or die, I've written twelve 12 A4 pages on trains and in underground stations between schools. I don't know what 12 A4 pages will add to my registered word count of 20,711 Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-16389788387606879592011-10-29T14:06:00.002+02:002011-10-29T15:11:28.669+02:00NaNoWriMoMy husband is about to embark on a piece of lunacy, and I think I'm going to join him.It's NaNoWriMo - National Novel Writing Month - brought to us by the Office of Letters and Light ( at http://www.nanowrimo.org/ )I have a full-time job which I am unsuccessfully trying to keep within bounds so that I can have a part-time life with my very nice husband. And I've got a full-time novel which I am Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-37622278691085179182011-09-04T19:44:00.002+02:002011-09-04T19:48:41.889+02:00Nearly there.155 squares!
Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-41803265123280158682011-08-22T14:46:00.006+02:002012-05-09T22:38:00.726+02:00Report this imageI was doing a Google Image Search this morning. (I love Google Images!), when, among the images I expected for my key word, I saw one that perturbed me. It was a picture of a very young girl, her long hair brushed to cover yet reveal her naked upper body, looking at the camera with all the wrong sort of knowledge in her expression and demeanour. I really didn't like it, partly because another Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-84349713903939416132011-08-22T11:41:00.002+02:002011-08-22T12:37:51.358+02:00Siss! Boom! Rah!It rained last night! The first drops fell as the Pope was walking down the red carpet to catch his plane back to Rome after JMJ, or WYD, if you'd like that in English! (Also available in 12 other languages.).
However, it (the rain! the rain! Do keep up!) then held off for hours. The clouds gathered. The wind rose. And rose. Enough to blow the potted lemon tree over, so that I had to move it to aPassionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-46209150457327222262011-08-21T14:36:00.008+02:002011-08-21T17:05:49.123+02:00Still hotI've been sitting in this exact same place for days. It's too hot to move. It's also too hot to stay still, but I'm trying not to run the air conditioning all the time. Not all the time...
Anyway, the crochet is coming on a treat. There's a lot to be said for embarking on a big, repetitive project when you're a relative beginner. Turning a ball of yellow yarn into forty flower centres, and then Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-48789049090361791612011-08-20T10:56:00.002+02:002011-08-20T11:16:35.571+02:0050 waysJust to show I haven't gone off and slashed my wrists, here's one of those lists of what we can do to limit our personal (negative) impact on the planet,
and an evaluation of a 2007 list commissioned by the UK's Environment Agency . There's a PDF at the top of Leo Hickman's article to the original (very pretty and upbeat) report, which I can't upload directly.
Still,
Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-39235761276299133652011-08-15T10:07:00.008+02:002011-08-15T19:09:17.279+02:00Time out, or - I read the news today. Oh boy.I pass my days in a small happy activity, developing a humble practical skill that can be used to make things of great beauty and charm; working towards pleasure in a handmade comfort.
I pass my days watching stems rise and leaves uncurl; blossoms unfurl, glimmer, fade and fall; pods emerge, lengthen and fatten.
I think of summer herbs, winter salad, water conservation, mulch and compost; Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-70846011606132867092011-08-13T16:06:00.002+02:002012-05-09T22:39:52.258+02:00How d'you like your eggs?Passionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-25599836.post-20769129203565135262011-08-13T10:41:00.005+02:002011-08-13T11:05:07.091+02:00Dad's birthdayPassionate Dilettantehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10073869820209508894noreply@blogger.com0