Personal Blogs

Just submitted TMA 02. Everything went ok,  but I only managed to get it submitted before the cut off date!
It has been difficult to concentrate at the moment, because at the begining of the year,  I often tend to look back at what events have taken place over the previous year.

At the start of this current pandemic,  I had not really heard or known of anyone nearby who had been infected with Covid 19. A couple of years on, and we have now lost a few more of our friends to the Covid19 virus. 

Recently I lost my good friend Rosie, who was rosie by nature too ! always so cheerful and bright, she had worked with me at the local charity shop,  a few years ago, she had worked tirelessly for many years , both for the Hospice shop and as a care worker in the charity's hospices.

 Then my dear older friend Gwen died who lived in my street, in the bungalows, who also lost her son (he was around my age)  she was a good customer in the shop,  she came in each monday regularly to buy a little something. She always made us laugh with her good sense of humour and optimistic outlook!

These were all valued members of the community who had lived and worked here most of their lives, so they were well known characters in the village. They will be sadly missed.

Although most were elderly who have died from Covid19, you feel it was a rather a bit prematurely, as they seemed quite healthy at the time.

 I have also known some younger members of the community, aged 30-40 who have had Covid very  badly,  one of whom has since died ( underlying healthproblems) and two have been hospitalised on ventilators. These only just managed to  survive, I only hope they will not suffer from long Covid, as a result of the Covid virus.

 There again I have known many people who have had Covid, who have suffered no worse effects than having had a very bad flu. How do you know if you are one of the lucky ones or one of the unlucky ones who get it very badly and die of it? It just seems so random. I took the vaccine because I mainly wanted to protect my family.

I hope you are all keeping well and managing to stay safe and healthy. We are in a battle! Keep on studying and stay positive!

I am exploring language through images. This is discussed in block 1 chapters 5 & 6 of Creativity in language book. I am finding this chapter very interesting. Colours can express mood, contrating of dark and light for dramatic effect. As in literature metaphors foregrounding and deviation can be used. Symbolic knowledge can also be transmitted through pictorial rendering. Graphic imaging is one of the oldest forms of making sense of the world, before languages came to be the main concept of communication. Contemporary Art and the work of Xu Bing is particularly interesting as well as cartoon drawings and some of  Banksy's graffiti works. I just want to point out that many graffiti artists were performing very interesting works freely and without recognition in many places in our country, for example on the side of train tracks and many other sites escaping the law.

addendum -  and the graffiti artists also putting their lives at great risk.

I am really enjoying this course E302 language and creativity. Discovering ways of analysing poetry,  was beneficial for the reading and understanding of poetry.
I have always liked reading poetry, and the study of the Stylistics approach has greatly enhanced my appreciation of poetry.
Next, working on making a critique of one of the advocates of the theory of Stylistics Mick Short, who was also a lecturer at Lancaster University and is a writer on this subject .

 At the same time I will be exploring other stylistics theorists, comparing and contrasting their techniques. There are other techniques to be explored within the study of language creativity and literature, that are used to understand the reading of literary texts, also included texts within everyday language,  that we all use. This will be the focus of the next upcoming TMA 02.

"For Unto us a child is born unto us a son is given."
                    🕯
Jesus was a man of peace. He spent his life in doing good. He died for what he believed in.
                       ✝️
He was also the son of God and our brother.   🌅 👑 our friend and saviour.

"Happy are those who are called to his supper."

                   🍞🍷

I keep reading my TMA02 assignment and trying to stay focused on the question. I write lists of technical words down, then search for the meanings of words on google and in the Oxford dictionary. I try to hard to concentrate on the task but I can't,  the words swim before my eyes, becoming more and more blurred..

Christmas cards keep arriving and I count all those who are still alive thanking God for them, then I worry about cards that didn't arrive,  from those relatives who have been ill lately and I make a note to phone them up in the new year. I want to cry for everyone who has died of Covid, but I just  don't have enough tears to cry!

The Omicrom cases are on the rise in the country and in the nearest town. I feel worried but I must stay focused on my studies. I am pleased that my family have been boosted, so hopefully they will all be well and I will see them soon.

I decided to pack in studying for the day and do some housework instead. It was a nice change and the cleaning needed to be done. Surprisingly it was incredibly therapeutic!

We later went into the village for a walk around, there was hardly anyone about, and  it was starting to get a lot colder. The Christmas tree and the decorations looked very pretty in the market place with a bit of a white ground frost, very picture postcard- like .  My hubby took a photo of the christmas tree with myself standing in front of it. In my white ski hat with pom-pom on and black and white parker.

I saw all the ladies through the shop window,  having their nails done in the nail parlour,  and I wondered if I should have mine done?  No I wouldn't,  because I will not be dressing up,  but will just be wearing my pink bunny  pyjamas,  white fluffy cardigan , along with funny white bunny rabbit ears on Christmas day, and just having a nice relaxed day with my family. It will also be my birthday on Christmas day!

Merry Christmas to all!

At the moment I am experimenting , with images as language. I think that it may be similar to the Russian formalist ideas, of foregrounding with  deviation. So drawing angels in the night sky is like deviation because we do not really literally see angels, physically as such, so this form is deviation.
However, the spiritual realm is invisible, but it exists in the minds of the believers. So is this inherency?  It has been interesting to find parallels in literature and in the art world . This has been fascinating to learn about lately,  as Art being like a language,  this is discussed in block 1 of the module.

🌻🌺🌼⚘🌼🦋🌾