I heard....

I heard an angel singing...Well, not quite. I heard a bird. With the lack of planes to drown them out, I was drawn to investigate loud chirping. A rosella was singing perched on the palm.

Were the birds always there and I couldn't hear them over the plane noise or have they come back now the planes are all but gone?

Are you hearing new things in the quiet Covid times?

"Just when I thought my soul was lost, I heard the angels singing.
My dungeon was shook and my chains dropped off ,I heard the angels singing"

See the bird on the palm?

"In that great getting up morning I heard my angels - Hallelujah!"

May you be hearing angels in whatever form they take for you.

Linking with #WildBirdWednesday

Rescue me...

Someone left these records out to be rescued in the CovidCleanOut

This cover's been on high rotation for my morning exercise, and quite possibly my theme song for the lockdown, dedicated to all the smart scientists and doctors out there..."Can't you see that I'm lonely? Rescue me!"

Fontella Bass released the original that I know, though I believe Aretha did a version too. Here's the cover that I'm loving at the moment.




Have you discovered a theme song for the lockdown?

Kind offers of rescue in the Great Toilet Paper Shortage

Throwback to last week's post if you missed it, and the study on the healing power of music. 9 minutes is all you need to feel better!





Every Sunday, link a post featuring a cover of a song for #SundayCovers. (I will delete posts linked not on the topic of musical covers).




Linking with #TheRandom #FotoTunes

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Everything old is new again.

I talked about the healing power of music here and here, so it was little surprise to me that this UK study found music takes 13 minutes to release sadness or 9 minutes to make you happy. In this lock down life I'm exercising online but with my own dance track in the background, and it starts my day in the best possible way. It shakes off any low mood and makes me feel great.

So I recommend, and again this is just for mood maintenance not depression (always see your doctor if low moods hang around for more than a day or two, now is not the time to 'soldier on'), blasting your favourite tunes as you cook or do the housework, or during exercise or anything more than 9 minutes...

To get you in the mood, I am going to play a game with you all called #SundayCovers. I love the song The Sun is Shining Down by JJ Grey and Mofro. It is however, a little down for me at the moment. I was delighted when my Spotify alerted me to the fact that Lost Frequencies had done a cover (mix?) of it. Much more dancable and yet still the same pretty song.

Every Sunday, you can add a post to the link of a cover of a song you like (and a link somewhere in your post to the original so those of us with time and inclination can compare). Let's find 9 mins of new music for those happy soundtracks.

Please only link posts about covers of songs. I will delete other posts linked. Cheers

Linking with #TheRandom and #WordlessWednesday

Bluesfest - a lament

We were meant to be at Bluesfest this weekend, and while there's personal disappointment, a bigger loss was made with the death of John Prine with COVID19 complications. It just sort of hit a little closer to home the mess that we're in. And I hope that's as close to home as it gets, given I know a number of doctors on the Covid Teams around the city, as well as teachers who are my age, so at high risk too.












On Bluesfest, I miss being in a crowd. I miss the energy you get from shared live music. I miss the sheer joy of it all. I miss being in that festival bubble.







There is a spotify playlist of the artists that were coming for the 2020 event and this clip from last year really made me smile.

I guess all we can do is start planning for the next one, and go to those events we can, as soon as we can.


Think of those that we have lost forever with this disease, and work hard to keep that number as low as possible.

Stay home and stay safe.

I'll leave it to John Prine for the last words.




Linking with #PictorialTuesday #WordlessWednesday #FotoTunes  and #WWOT

Tromso - Share My Snaps!

Given that I don't have a lot of snaps to share that are of interest at the moment, I'm sharing some of the pictures from our trip to Norway that we were lucky enough to complete without incident (other than with a polar bear).

Open flames light the streets

Most of Tromsø, including the city centre, is located on the island of Tromsøya, 350 kilometres (217 mi) north of the Arctic Circle in the newly established county Troms og Finnmark (1st Jan 2020).

 

There is a cable car lookout which has stunning views across the city. If you walk back, you get a lovely view of the picturesque houses and their hygge window displays.

 

 Tromso has a mix of very old buildings and wonderful modern ones. It's a beautiful and easily accessible city, though very slippery with hard ice in the streets!



It is a base for the Northern Lights, when in season, though we didn't see them. It is also a good spot to see Orcas, however you now need to travel a few hours (by boat or car) to find them, due to climate change and the herring moving north. The Arctic Fjords are a stunning back drop if you make the excursion by boat.

Look closely and see an Orca.

We were there for the International Film Festival, which alas was sold out when we attempted to attend, but there were screenings in the street as well, and a tipi to warm up in.

Known as the tiniest bar in the Universe

Even in the cold weather, the tiny bar was very popular. 

  Are you thinking of faraway places and wide open spaces?

Linking with #WaterThursday as we're watching Long Way Home and they are hitting a number of the spots we went to....lovely to revisit!

“There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.” ― Leonard Cohen,

There is not a lot going on. We are loving playing Badminton - I can't believe I packed it away for a decade!

I loved dancing away to Hot Dub Time Machine - my kids did not enjoy my dancing at all, nor a lot of the music. (But seriously, check it out from 6 every Saturday night for the next few weeks. We had cocktails and I pretended I was out in a crowd...what do they say? Dance like no one is watching or like you really don't care what they think).

I'm not happy that daylight savings is over. Ordered some glow in the dark shuttlecocks so we can continue playing before dinner even as the light fades.

I'm enjoying my nightly wee dram of Aquavit for medicinal purposes (except on that dreary alcohol free night. You may also recall I'm not a dr and Aquavit is not a known cure or preventative measure against Covid19. Except in my head). And I know the Norwegians don't say dram, feel free to give me the Norwegian version....




Sunrise and sunset still bring me much joy.

Lastly on Sunday's I am hosting a linky where you link covers of songs that you like. Link is here for #SundayCovers.

Stay safe and let's beat this thing.


Linking with #NaturesNotes

Self Care under Covid19

I started writing a self-care post awhile back but a lot of it is rendered obsolete. I want to say up front that I am not a doctor, and any mood depression for more than a day, while understandable, probably needs to be acted on ASAP in these times. Seek professional help where possible. This post is self-care for people who are in a good frame of mind, to keep them there.

It is a fact that smell is one of the senses that brings a sense of wellbeing (it's not a fact, I just made that up but it sounds right so let's go with it). Now is the time, if you can afford it, to spend extra bucks on the shower gel, conditioner and laundry detergent you like. The ones that remind you of a holiday, the one that make you feel pampered, the one that makes you smile when you sniff the dry towel as you take it off the line. These are small moments but they happen throughout the day so you'll get an instant hit of happiness.

Now is also probably the time to invest in fancy soap given you'll wash your hands more times a day than when you had a new born. Also nice smelling hand cream. I managed to get a lavender hand sanitiser and compared to the others, it feels like a luxury (because the smell envelopes me in a sense of wellbeing).


Go through the cupboard and dig out any fancy lotions you were given that never got round to using, or start going through all the hotel bottles you pilfered over the years. The memory trigger of where you got them might be enough to start your day with a smile.

Carve out some time for you. It can be first thing in the morning to write, before everyone gets up. Or a lunch break in the middle of the day where you listen to a lecture. I signed up to a University short course on literature, and you listen and answer questions in a group chat. It's an hour but I felt so elated after the first one. Intellectually engaged, talking about something other than the virus or the impacts. There are plenty of free courses and talks so make use of those.

Work on making yourself feel good. Exercise and healthy eating are a must, as they help your physiology (again, not a doctor & this alone won't cure depression but it will help maintain happy mood levels). May not have used the word physiology correctly.


If you are finding concentrating too hard to read, try audio books when you cook. The escape into another world is a welcome break, and the focus of your thoughts actually works to relieve stress, just like meditation would. It shuts out the noise in your head, which I suspect some days will get loud and heavy for us as time passes.

I am playing music in the shower on my phone (still a navy shower - we can't forget the drought, people!) and I am doing 30 mins of exercise daily with YouTube to music. If there's an exercise I think will hurt my back, I just dance through it. I do it before my shower each morning and the energy burst and happiness of the music is really starting my day right.

Organise Zoom catch ups with groups of friends. It gives you something to look forward to at the end of the day and helps you feel less isolated. Look also at what's on. There's now trivia nights you can sign up to, streamed stand up and a myriad of other things. If you can't go out, still find a way to enjoy what you used to enjoy. Or find something new...

You can't fix the big picture, but little by little you can make it easier and more enjoyable.

Linking with #FriendshipFriday 
As stated, now is the time to act quickly if mood is slipping. Don't waste time struggling. Now is not the time to muck around. If you can't afford to talk to a psyche, call a friend or here are some numbers:
Kids Helpline (for anyone under 25) 1800 55 1800 - there's also a webchat.
Beyond Blue 1300 22 4636
Black Dog Institute has Covid19 specific resources on their website https://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/
I would recommend talking to your GP ASAP regardless. Most GPs are now doing phone consults for non physical ailments.