Monday Morning At My House

It has been a while since I have written and it feels like today (or yesterday as it happens now as I finally post this) is a good day for the next blog post. I must admit that I am using it as a procrastination activity. I have things that I should do today and I will get to those things on my to do list. First, I figured I should share my summer morning.

My backyard on a Monday morning in summer...

This has been a relaxing morning. The sun is shining. The day is bright and warm. After the day's start with yoga and breakfast al fresco, I had to check on my garden. It is my first PEI garden. Most of my adult life, I have lived in places where my summer garden consisted of plants in pots. This is the first time that I am planting seeds and seedlings into the ground. At this point in the summer, I can say that I have confirmation of things that worked and things that didn't. My plants are starting to bud and flower.

My garden, with some very successful plantings, and some other not quite as successful. It is definitely a learning experience.

Today, I tackled a few weeds, decided that with all the sunny weather lately, I should be watering more. I was more diligent with watering in June before my plants poked their way up through the soil. I also decided this morning that I would throw a bit more seed in the spots that did not have any visible signs of life. It is late in the season to be planting, but it might work. I am being very optimistic.

While waiting on my oatmeal this morning, I sat down at the piano and decided to do a quick session with Scott Joplin. I have been looking at "The Entertainer" the last few weeks. It had been quite a while since I had looked at it as I had other priorities, but since it is one that I had always enjoyed playing, I decided to revive it again.

A bit of music to play with...

I first learned "The Entertainer" many years ago and at that time, I had partially memorized it. Yup, partially. I have to laugh at 16 year old me who felt that partial memorization was sufficient. The reasoning I had at the time has long since disappeared from my consciousness, but I'm sure it had made sense at the time. I know a piece of it was that I was rather lazy. I did not think that it was worth the effort to memorize it completely.

The copy of "The Entertainer" that I had at the time was printed on 4 pages. I memorized the first two pages because I did not want to deal with turning the page. Once the page turn issue was addressed, I just did not bother memorizing the sections that were printed on the last 2 pages. To my 16 year old self, the first two pages were sufficient.

In the years since then, there have been many times when I wish that I had memorized all four pages. I had started to do so, but had never really dedicated any effort into it. I am finally at the point where it feels like my longest, still existing, unfinished project. It is time for me to make the effort to finish it, so I can sit down anywhere and play the entire piece of music and not just half of it!

Aside from my gardening and my time with Scott Joplin, I decided to check out the latest happenings on the shore. I had happened to notice yesterday that the water had turned milky.

Just a wee bit of algae...

The water is even milkier today in appearance. This is algae bloom. Algae in the water has died off which makes the water look like milk. When you actually look down to see if you can see the bottom in the shallower parts, the water has opacity and you can no longer see the bottom. Hopefully, the water will clear up in a few days.

This afternoon, I will get caught up on the Tour de France. I love watching the grand tour bike races. They are also fantastic to have on in the background as I practice music. Right now, I am working on a few things with the trumpet, and so the Tour will be the background for my afternoon trumpet practice session.

When I watch the Tour de France, I do not usually watch the live broadcast, I tend to prefer the re-plays. I like the option to pause the video and even do a re-play if there has been a fantastic crash. However, by watching the re-plays, I am behind in the live action and grit my teeth when I open anything on my phone that has the latest updates. I will be watching stage 9 today, even though today's stage in France is stage 10. I will be caught up to the live action after tomorrow, which is a rest day for the race, but I will still need to practice trumpet.

I am hoping that today's trumpet session will go well for me. Yesterday, was an off day. Like cycling, there are days that are better than others. It is inevitable. Like cycling, it is all in how you deal with the off days. I had a pivot in focus to ensure that my off day was not a lost day. I had a shorter session out of compassion for myself. It can be counterproductive to "flog the dead horse". If it's not working, then honour you, the process, and do not force it. Tomorrow is another day.

And now, as the breeze blows in the window, it is clearly time for me to end my procrastination and start my trumpet session. I need to get that out of the way so I can tackle the things that need to be dealt with today.