Gong Bath anyone? ... Random Act of Kindness – match this one? ... My return to the fray ...

No – I didn’t need rescuing from the Gong Bath!  I have not done nearly as much as I intended to – on the other hand I’ve made a good start on a number of things – my flat is somewhat more organised and tidier than it’s been for ages ... so everything’s in place – and my head too!!

Resonance ...

Lenny’s comment touched me ..."for sure i’m gonna miss you my special friend.  Have a real fun time and come back and tell us all the cool stuff you did.”   

So, of course, I dropped Lenny an email ... saying I was here and we could email if he wanted to stay in touch that way .... oh yes, he did – and has kept me amused ever since ...!!!

The envelope with badge are at the back,
the card with a cat on it, Lenny's letter -
complete with Rocky headed notepaper +
Racoon footprints!, some chocolates, a
notebook, a bookmark ... 

I mentioned I go back up to the Nursing Centre to see one particular lady, Linda, as she doesn’t have any relatives ... is so lovely, doesn’t complain and gets on with her life as best she can, while my visits seem to cheer her up.

Back came ... "i been thinking bout that lady you go visit at the home and how you said shes got not one family person.  i could like to get her a nice card and send it to you so you could give it to her.  

... and pink hair slides - aren't they lovely,
while the box of Georgia mints has Linda's
name printed on them ...

maybe it could make her happy to get it.  do you think its ok to send it even if she doesnt know who iam?  if its ok you could tell me her name so i could put it on the card.”

Linda was so pleased to receive a card and little packet from the States ... I’d warned her a surprise was coming – she was soooo delighted though and I know really warmed the cockles of her heart ... thank you Lenny!

Lenny wrote a letter to her too – two pages ... [so Roland (or Mark Twain) – Letter Writing isn’t dying here ...] telling Linda about his critter cafe, his family and life ... in his usual bouncy style ... just so lovely – and Linda was sooo soooo chuffed .... then I had to explain “chuffed” to Lenny!  He was very happy to know that she was so pleased.

Now to other things ... I went to various films – The Well Digger’s Daughter – a French film ... being one I highly recommend.

Ah -  the Gong Bath ... I go to the Natural Fitness Centre based in the old Lifeboat Station overlooking the sea ... in a gorgeous place to have treatments ... with a lovely group of therapists ...  (some of whom spent time with my mother - for which I was eternally grateful).

Sailing in front of the Natural Fitness Centre

I have done and do a mixture of Qigong, Meditation, Shiatsu, Pilates and have osteopathy treatments ... this time the Qigong group were offered the experience of a Gong Bath – we’re game for anything!!

We relaxed on yoga mats with the sound of the sea washing the pebbles in the background, then Gabby began her gong therapy ... ancient gong sounds resonated through the room – varying with the different sizes used ...

Gabby with some of her gongs

... the meeting of sound with form dissipates everything that is not real ... the frequencies bathed, soothed, washed through, immersed and seduced us ... taking us fully on our journey of whispering vibrations as we experienced the full effects of the harmonies over and in our bodies.

A promotional view - just looks
wonderful doesn't it

We each had different experiences ... I would love to have another gong bath ... to experience the harmonious waves that vessels of sound can bring us to a time of peace and healing in this chaos of human existence.

It was interesting and fascinating to say the least ... while being an area I’d like to explore further ... to find out more about the origins of therapeutic sound that were the origins of our vocal chords – yet which today still have powerful influences on our beings.

To change the subject yet again ... I’m over with Laura at Mistress Snark’s Parlour – having a zizz after tea with Jezebel ... one dangerous lady – still she’s lured me out of my lair and I’m blogging again!

I'm over with Jezebel discussing
feet measurements in barleycorn
sizes!

See you all soon – especially as the A – Z is rushing towards us ...

It looks like it’s a good thing I’m semi-snowbound today as I’m back blogging ... Sussex has had the worst of the snowy weather – not a lot, but enough to ice up, block roads ... the wind was terrible yesterday ... 

Sunset at the NFC

... and the Natural Fitness Centre rang and said don’t come down ... we’re not sure if we’re about to swim or stay dry: squally winds, a high tide and a full moon did not help ...  update to follow ...

Roland Yeoman's post about Letter Writing in the 21st century ... 

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Lenny, Lenny, Lenny – how you pull my heart strings.....

I had this wonderful card ... I opened said envelope .... to find a Valentine!  With memorable words ...

2/5 of Lenny's card! showing
message and critters!

Lots of love

and big hugs

from Lenny

and all the critters ...

.... hedgehog, mousie, rocky the racoon, groundhog, mices various, squirrel, rabbit, birds and butterflies ...

I emailed Lenny and back came:  wow! that valentine card got there sooo fast. i sent it early cause for sure i wanted it to get to you in time for valentines day. and...guess what!!! theres a box flying cross the pond to you but you gotta not open it up til valentines day. ok???

Showing 'orange onions' box and
the expanded card ...

So I did as I was told!  that was a surprise to a few!!  but look what I found in the box of orange onions!!!

Happy Valentine Day’s heart shaped box of choccies

M & Ms box containing 3 mini packets

Dark chocolate marshmallow heart

‘Peeps’ Marshmallow hearts

Just some of the
choccy selections and
the Save the Chimp bag

Whitman sampler box of chocolates, in a valentine’s wrapper

Raspberry Cream Buttons

Miniature peanut butter cups

Swiss chocolate Ghiradelli Squares – raspberry, caramel, dark chocolate

Milk and Caramel Ghiradelli chocolate slab

A pencil and a wildlife notepad

Wildlife stickers

Book marks

Save the Chimps.org bag

And a Valentine puzzle ...

Hardwick looking after Rocky, Muddy
Hippo peering through and the
new kid on the block: Zdena

And .... Zdena Zebra ... so called because she is a follower of Dionysos – the God of Wine!!

Made my little heart sing – and everyone has commented ... what a lovely thought and how wonderful of you, Lenny, to send those over to me ...

... the card in particular pulls at our heart strings – everyone thinks it is "fab", "absolutely fab!!!" ...(the word as Neville describes the card ... a great friend of my uncle, with whom I had lunch on Tuesday - pancake day - yummie!!)

Lenny's rays of sunshine

 Lenny – you are so kind and thoughtful ... putting together such a guzzly box for me for Valentine ... I shall enjoy and will be thinking of you more often than I normally do ...

Hardwick’s quite pleased to have a new playmate – he approves of Zdena ... she brightens up their lives ... Muddy Hippo is a bit muddy, Hardwick himself is a little bare – he knows he’s showing his age, while Rocky is a little tiny to shine out between Hardwick and Muddy ... but he keeps an eye on all things ...

Valentine cupid puzzle

They quite like chocolate ... so I can see the critters having a tuck in as well ... we’ll have a good and happy night tonight ...

I’m tempted to go out and see the film Les Mis ... but these critters might eat much of my chocolate ...and I might have eaten too much, so may need to rest my tum!!

To all blogging buddies ... I am not going anywhere – but I’m just going to take a month off and not participate or blog much – to get myself on track with all I want to do – new projects, sorting some technology out, spring cleaning and being ready for the future.

Tuesday Tea with Mistress Snark

Jezebel summoned me to Mistress Snark’s for tea... so I shall keep that appointment: Tuesday 12 March – I don’t think I could get away with missing it – I’d rather like my afternoon tea healthy and not bloodied ...

... but with Jezebel, she of the long projectile nails that can scrabble under the ocean to draw a poor unsuspecting English girl in to her parlour, we never know what might be floating in her punch – yugh!, or spread on those bloodied sandwiches ... eeeks .... 

Anthology launch 4th March

Then there’s Nick’s Overcoming Adversity anthology launch .. and I shall join in the fun for that ... scheduled for Monday 4^th March – what a great fundraising idea that was ... brilliant Nick ...

Well that’s me ... now to tuck into those choccies with a cup of tea methinks ... Happy Valentine’s Day to everyone ... may you have lots of love in your heart ... as young Lenny does for his family, friends, bloggers and them critters!!

See you very soon .... back by 16^th/17^th March ... all ready and raring to go for the A – Z challenge ....

... and on this note ... I am a minion ... so some of you may see me around doing some ground work for those amazing organisers ...

Happy Valentine's Day everyone ....  and as you can see from the photos - the sun has been shining ...... bliss!!!

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

The Curves of Time – Oscar Niemeyer, architect

The death of Oscar Niemeyer, at 104, caught my attention before Christmas which through the creation of Brasilia, Brazil’s capital, took me back to my school days – some moons ago.

Composite of Brasilia: National Congress;
Juscelino Kubitschek bridge; buildings of
Brasilia; Palacio da Alvorada;
Brasilia Cathedral

I loved Geography and was fascinated when I found that Brasilia was in the middle of Brazil – not on a river ... but high on a jungle plateau.  My attention was captured with the capital – we had London on a river, Paris on the Seine, Rome on the Tiber – weren’t all capitals built on rivers.

Capitals of countries and urban planning will make another interesting post – but today Niemeyer holds my attention ... especially as he influenced Dame Zaha Hadid (the Iraqi-British architect) who was commissioned to build the London Aquatics Centre at the Olympics and has designed many spectacularly different architectural projects around the world.

Back to Oscar ... he said in an interview in 2000, that “he’s not attracted to straight angles or to the straight line, hard and inflexible, created by man.  I am attracted to free-flowing, sensual curves ...

... those curves that I find in the mountains of my country, in the sinuousness of its rivers, in the waves of the ocean, and on the body of the beloved woman.

Curves make up the entire Universe, the curved Universe of Einstein.”

Auditorium Oscar Niemeyer International
Cultural Centre, Aviles, Spain

An ‘Influencer of the World’ – a man himself influenced by the giant of 20^th century modern architecture, Le Corbusier, with whom he was able to collaborate during periods of his life.

Niemeyer was a visionary, who through his interpretation of those curves could be called the concrete poet ... he has nearly 600 buildings or complexes to his name ...

... he put Brazil on the architectural map and ‘saw’ the future of Brazil before Brazil itself did ... the civic buildings he designed in the new capital were all completed in a few years.

The National Congress of Brazil, the Cultural Complex of the Republic, the Palacio da Alvorada, the Palacio do Planalto, the Supreme Federal Court and the Cathedral of Brasilia were all largely experimental in nature, but linked with common design elements.

A window in the Cathedral, Brasilia:
showing the interior with angel sculptures

The atheist with leftist views was well aware of life’s injustices ... yet this never stopped him from designing religious buildings, which span from small Catholic chapels, through to huge Orthodox churches and large mosques. 

He also catered to the spiritual beliefs of the public who facilitated his religious buildings ... the large glass windows in the Cathedral of Brasilia, he intended to “connect the people to the sky, where their Lord’s paradise is”.

He had in early life been influenced by the Dutch School – painters, designers, sculptors and architects of the 17^th century, the medieval-Renaissance enlightened artists who exemplified the stylistic evolution ...

Panorama including the church of St Francis of Assisi,
Belo Horizonte,  Minas Gerais, SE Brazil (1943)

... those ‘disastrous’ buildings of Brasilia when opened in the 1950s – but then the world caught up and the miracle appeared – he had faith and passion by  encouraging the architectural movement to change with the times and keep ahead of the game ...

The simple, frugal man worked from a very small studio in Rio: an inner sanctum for his books and where he received, then a studio room with no desks, no computers ... he never did drawings – he just did and presented his designs at one sitting ...

He had one or two assistants to hone the drawings into workable models, but the visionary eye stood him in good stead during those long years of work.

The Serpentine Gallery Summer Pavilion
(an annual temporary structure)

At age 96, Niemeyer was called to design the Serpentine Gallery Summer Pavilion in Hyde Park, London, a gallery that each year invites a famous architect, who never previously built in the UK, to design a temporary structure.

To quote The Guardian:  And yet the pavilion very nearly failed to happen: the architect initially said no.  He is, after all, a busy man running his studio pretty much every day of the year.

Julia Peyton-Jones, director of the Serpentine, flew to Rio to plead personally with Niemeyer and he gave in.

A sketch flew off his drawing board and was worked on by his long-time collaborator, the engineer Jose Carlos Sussekind.  In London, Arups’ engineering team performed their magic and the structure was ready.”

Perspective of the Oscar Niemeyer Museum
showing the lenticular eye tower and gallery
space, the ramp leading to it, the reflecting
ponds below, and rectangular galleries behind.
Located in Curitiba - the 8th most populous city
in SE Brazil 

He had the courage of his convictions throughout his long life – he tested boundaries, he went beyond, he took risks ... there was no cowardice, there was enthusiasm.

Niemeyer continued to talk the language of the young iconoclast of his youth ... we have to be ready to resist active mediocrity ... it is necessary to not be afraid of your passion.

He stirred my educational strings by designing the architectural elements of the new federal capital located in the Brazilian Highlands, and now once again stirs it ...

... Brasilia with its population of over 3 million is one of the largest cities in Brazil ... while it is the largest city in the world that did not exist at the beginning of the 20^th century.

This weekend is Carnival time in Rio, where Niemeyer had an apartment overlooking Ipanema Beach, and where he had mostly lived, though he had a period of exile ...

... he died in his beloved city of Rio leaving behind innumerable thought provoking creations for us to marvel over as the years progress and to watch his visionary take on architecture continue to unfold.

I’ve been taken back, yet taken forward ... there’s much to appreciate that this incredible man has touched in his life time ... Brazil is the popular destination as far as the world and major events are concerned ... I am sure there will be opportunities to spend some time with Niemeyer’s work as the media explore Brazil for us.

The Guardian article: Oscar Niemeyer's Serpentine Pavilion 2003

Oscar Niemeyer - Wikipedia

Brasilia - Wikipedia

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories

Curiosity Killed the Cat - Overcoming Adversity Bloghop

Today, I’m happy to participate in the “OvercomingAdversity” Bloghop, hosted by writer and blogging friend, Nick Wilford.

Nick has asked us to write a piece that revolves around the theme, overcoming adversity.  The entries will be compiled into an anthology with all proceeds going to his stepson’s college fund.

Nick’s stepson, Andrew, has cerebral palsy and hopes to attend a specialist college in Scotland, but reaching this dream has been difficult. 

It is through actions like this that Nick and his family hope to generate awareness and get Andrew the education he needs.

We truly hope that they achieve their goal.

Curiosity Killed the Cat – did it?  I don’t think so – it stimulates, keeps us interested at all levels of life ... a brief tale of hope, during a time of challenge:

You’re in London to celebrate your brothers' birthdays, your mother has travelled up from Penzance ... she is obviously not well – and the next thing we know she is in hospital with a stroke.

It’s not severe, there is hope ... she can talk.  Life takes on train journeys from Sussex – you’re exhausted ... what now?  Relocation to Cornwall to look after your mother ... life is on hold.

After 4 weeks and a dose of noro-virus she is ready for recuperation ... a short trip to the new hospital ... more strokes and our next visit is to the Acute Brain Injury Unit (ABIU): we’re lucky it has exceptional care, diagnosis and treatment.

Yet the uncertainty abounds ... will she live, how incapacitated will she be ... questions that of course we don’t have the answer to; it is serious that’s all we know.

How to adapt?  When she was able to my mother was happy to interact ... so during her time in the ABIU we go with the flow and there were days that were good and days that were bad – and all days were exhausting.

For six months the world went around before we were able to get my mother down to a Nursing Centre in Eastbourne, where I live and could be around more to support and care for her.

At the time of the first stroke she enjoyed shortish articles, or snippets of information, that would stimulate her brain with ideas or things we could laugh about together – when the incapacity strokes happened ... the progress was extremely slow and not hopeful.

By the time we reached Eastbourne she was able to communicate, I’m extremely grateful to say, though essentially was bedridden for the rest of her life (another 4.5 years).  We had to overcome the fact that she could not eat or drink ... challenging at times: but my mother having owned a care home realised and was able to work out what was what.

I wrote to friends and relatives which generated cards back – and more interaction ... the blog had started but now evolved as time went on – my mother could comprehend and always remembered ... Washington’s teeth was one of her favourites.

George Washington (1797) painted by
Gilbert Stuart

We had fun and I learnt to put her needs first - my life could go on hold for a while – because I could see a future ... I was blogging, teaching myself history, learning how others coped through their adversity.

Curiosity didn’t kill the cat – it gave me hope and an education ... while I have the happy memories of those curious snippets.

Washington’sTeeth and other tales

Perhaps appropriately the dashboard tells me this is my 500th post - don't count, curiosity killed the cats ... only 496 show up!!


Nick's Anthology can be bought at Amazon:  Overcoming Adversity - either as a book, or in Kindle version ... please support the family .... thank you!

Hilary Melton-Butcher

Positive Letters Inspirational Stories