Personal Blogs

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The day started off beautifully,  with sunshine and birdsong. I didn't even need to use the heating at all, so that was great!

After having a cup of coffee, and a lovely large croissant !  (just for once- for a treat! )
I then settled down to study. I sat near the large front window, overlooking the green lawn, watching the evergreens blowing gently in the breeze.

The cats were curled up one on the setee, the other one on the armchair.

I opened my book to chapter 5 'Borderlands of fact and fiction'.
I looked first quickly at my study guide for the learning outcomes, to see what I am aiming for,  in this particular chapter.

The learning outcomes will be :
• identify the interplay between fact and fiction in creative writing, and how experience, information, hopes and fears can be synthesised into something new and original

• appreciate how, during the process of transforming experience into writing, writers’ creative techniques blur the differences between novel and memoir

• understand how verbatim theatre presents a kind of people’s history which may challenge the political status quo (compare this with the multiple truths seen in the life stories in Unit 12)

• appreciate how imagination and historical record are intertwined within historical fiction.

This sounds like a promising start to the chapter. The last chapter had been interesting too,  about life stories, complex narratives and everyday truths.

The dividing line between ‘fact’ and ‘fiction’ is, as Richardson points out, very blurred. In the last chapter it was also pointed out that we may sometimes 'include' or 'exclude' certain facts, to shape the narrative so that it flows better and highlights the main points and  ideas we want to get across.

This was also true in the narratives for the work place, as with the CVs, where when applying for a certain job,  you do not have to include every part time job,  or every single  hobby you ever did, but only that which is relevant to the job in hand. 

Otherwise this  could be confusing for the employer. It has to be constrained and condensed. Which makes it easier for the reader to understand, and to judge how you are presenting yourself, in terms of content, language and identity.

The same can be said of the short story,  which is compressed  to only a few pages or less. That has a beginning a middle and an end. It should have a good plot or storyline which should be quite exaggerated or dramatic,  because you want to get the ideas across in clear and interesting language .This can be done using metaphors, foregrounding with defamiliarisation and by using other literary devices.

Took a lot of notes as I went along,  using bullet points,  Spidergrams and  Mind Maps. Thinking also of the three 'P' s Purpose, Process, Product.

By the afternoon, the sun had gone in behind the clouds, so I decided to call it a day, I packed everything away until tomorrow.

Though her smile is gone forever
and her hand I cannot touch
I still have so many memories
Of the one I loved so much.
Her memory is now my keepsake
With which  I’ll never part.
God has her in his keeping
I still have her in my heart.
Sadly missed, but never forgotten.

I'm still coming to terms with my sister Fran passing away this week,  mid- fifties from cancer. She was a kind, funny, friendly lovely person who worked hard as a care nurse at her local hospital. I shall miss her terribly but she always wanted me to continue with my studies and get a degree. That's what I intend to do. I will continue to study because life is too short, you have to follow your dreams and It's what she would have wanted me to do.

Take care everyone. Life is a gift. Bless you all.

Gill

Finding it is easier for me to study in the mornings,  rather than the afternoons. I have a lot on my mind at present but  find I have a lot more energy in the morning time.(except where there are appointments) I will stick to this but being flexible if necessary.

So having to go through re-registering process again, and proving he was in the at- risk group.

The afternoons are for going out shopping, cleaning, walking and cooking the meal.

Today I studied narratives in the work place. Chapter 3.  These narratives include founding story of the company, company identity, which includes company logo, CVs and interviews. I am in the process of reading this chapter again,  then I will attempt the activities.

I am enjoying this module and finding it stimulating. The reading materials are excellent as well as the online units with audios.

Later I will go for a walk as I have to collect the Organic Vegetables, from the Vege sellers which is about half an hours walk to the edge of village.  That will be my exercise for today!

I will then do the shopping in my local supermarket, then cook family meal. I usually do my cleaning late afternoon, or at night time when it is quiet.

My English Degree finishes in May.  So I hope I can make it!

Things may not always be like this
The winds of change may blow your way
A turning point may come one clear day
You may feel something move within you,  a greater power at play

Then in that moment inner peace will visit you

And with fresh hope your thoughts renew.

🌼🌻🌺⚘🌾

🌚

Last night I went out for a walk,  I had to go out into the village to buy some thing from the late night shop. While walking there,  I noticed the full moon and it was shining very brightly, in the dark night sky, so I snapped it quickly with my mobile phone camera.  Later I looked it up on google,  and it highlighted the fact that at the moment, it was a Wolf moon, which is the first full moon of the year. Popular belief among Native American tribes, was that it was the time of year,  when the Wolves used to howl at the moon, just before February. But I don't think we have any wolves left in this country any more now. 

                            🐺

The garden was covered in a white frost this morning. At first I thought it had snowed overnight,  but no, it was like a fine white frost with  ice chrystals, resembling icing sugar,  that looked as though it had been scattered about, on the lawn and the trees, glittering like diamonds in the pale winter sunshine.

On the path in the frost, I noticed the fresh dark paw prints of the cats!
I knew they were both about somewhere but where? under the hedges or in the shed? or the summer house? or under next-doors caravan in the drive? or perhaps under the tall evergreen trees in the back garden? or behind the house in the little wood under the rickety old bench?
Suddenly a flock of birds flew up and out from the little wood at the side of the house.  

That was a bit of a give away!
I tiptoed as quietly as I could along the little footpath that runs past the front window and along to the end of the house. There I peered through the fence into the little wood, beside the house, and I could just see the smaller striped cat creeping slowly up a tree, tail flicking, ears pricked, he was ready to pounce on a little bird on the lower branch. I tapped with a spoon on his plate

" Come on! Tyger,  dinner time!" he turned his head quickly, looking around him , all bewildered with  his ears twitching. At that moment the little bird flew away and past by him to safety. The cat then came running eagerly towards me, ready to forget his fun and games, and to eat some tasty fresh fishy morsels!

"Now, where is that other cat hiding I wonder? "   🐈⚱