pixelazy #puddles and #running make for interesting illusions on the trails. I did some flips and flops on this photo and I really kinda like the artistic vibe it gives off.

pixelazy Reflecting on #puddles

pixelazy The dance studio where the kid did her lessons has a lovely atrium filled with light and #plants for the parents to enjoy.

8r4d Our usual Thursday meetup for the #runcrew also marked day 16 of my #running streak. It had rained pretty hard all day but cleared up for a few hours and just long enough for the sidewalks and paths to dry... well mostly. I’m getting darn bagged doing this daily churn of kilometres tho and we had a good chat this evening on the value of a rest day to a proper training plan. Streaks are fun and all, and of course I’m gonna keep it going for a bit more, but anyone who runs daily every day and always has something in their mettle that keeps it going longer than most can.

pixelazy After a day of rain, this little critter found her way onto my window screen. #insect #macro

8r4dsfeets Between everything else a little #rain is welcome this week. I sound like an old man, but we need it.

8r4d So here’s the thing. I’ve been playing #violin now for almost 8 years. Why I picked up this instrument all those years ago is a winding tale that merits further documentation, perhaps to be elaborated as I go along, but not for today. Today, I am looking at some of the frustrations I’ve been having in #orchestra achieving the level of play that I felt I should have been at by now. Yeah, it’s been less than 8 years, but I squandered a couple back during the pandemic and so it goes, on and on with excuses. My bowing is jittery. My fingering is sloppy. My fourth finger never wants to cooperate. So what to do? Well. The #fourseasons is a renowned piece of violin music that is clearly stretching for my current ability. I own a full violin score that feels fairly advanced, slightly out of reach and something I could just barely muddle through now. But not if I worked at it. See, back when I was doing lessons my instructors would basically help me pick something I wanted to learn then walk me thru week by week learning it. A phrase at a time we would pick it apart and get it right. Those pieces were simpler but those lesson books were designed for beginners and children. It got me thinking. I could go back to lessons, or I could just pick something to learn—like learn really well—and just methodically practice it. Record myself. Tweak. Tune. Learn. And as such I think I could really hone the technique I know and work on fine tuning the fabric of my practice methodology around a focus. Yes there is very much a lot of positive about structured instruction, but for a few months, maybe a year, to do something self-focused that isn’t just noodling on easy music I think—I think—could be hugely beneficial and perhaps set me up to take some more structured learning down the road to hone and refine even more. So. I pulled out that Vivaldi score and downloaded a recording and… here goes nothing: day one.

squwetchy Week four of my #watercolour class and we dug into some interesting new techniques for this elaborate people flower. Some lifting and some layered/blending washes had some interesting optical effects related to what goes the illusion of transparency on the petals. I have been pushing in the boundaries of my backgrounds for all the pieces I’ve completed for this class …which was above and beyond to the assignment, and just something I’d seen done online. The instructor really likes it tho and has been ribbing me and calling it The Brad Technique and some of my fellow students have started to imitate it.

8r4d Half May and I’m officially fifteen days down on my #running streak. This evening we clashed our #runcrew with #runclub and raced the threatening rain with a speedy right klicks. Somehow I managed yet another day even though my legs are feeling the daily pound of the asphalt. That said, we broke off and ran a bit of parallel trail for kicks.

8r4d I spent a lot of the winter driving to various #cafe in the neighbourhood looking for a distraction-lite place to write and work. Then as the #spring arrived I switched to walking, trudging along the paths to my local haunts to find the same gaming-console-free no-tv nothing-to-clean space to get some more writing done. This morning I realized that with the nice weather and warmer mornings a #bike ride would substitute. So maybe I’ll spend my summer #cycling to write? As long as I can find a place to lock up. Starbucks was acutely lacking in bike racks this morning so I’m at Waves instead. #coffee

8r4d Day fourteen of my streak and on the last day of my second week of #running I opted to tackle the hot-ish #spring temps with some more mileage on my summer gauntlet project. I really need to be more methodical about my routes to be honest because I seem to recall that last time I tried this I was cleaning up the neighbourhoods with a lot less overlapping of stuff I’d already run. Or maybe I’m just idealizing my memories.

8r4d With only about 10 days until our year end concert our #orchestra is in full gear for practice. The result is that it’s Tuesday morning and I’m on the north side of town to meet for a morning sectional practice having barely recovered from our practice last night which ended almost exactly 12 hours ago. And it’s such a beautiful sunny #spring day too.