Welcome to my April 2023 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (My life in first drafts), but this year, instead of pretending there were ever plans, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, G is for Gladys Angley, my piano teacher.

I started piano lessons when I was 5. My teacher for many years was Gladys Angley. I didn’t know anything about her, Miss Angley, except the bits and pieces I learned over the years. She had taken care of her parents, as single women often did back in the day, and never married. She had a brother. She had arthritis so bad, her hands were twisted. She was very patient although there were times I know I wore that patience pretty thin especially when I wanted to play with the various ornaments and things she had in her studio rather than play the pieces I was supposed to.

At some point, she gave up the studio she had at the Conservatory and began teaching out of her home. Her piano was set up in her living room and I would come in the front door, and walk past the stairs going up to the second floor, into the kitchen, and around into a room that was probably a dining room at some point but was now set up as a waiting room. I remember there being a lot of stuff in the rooms, chairs and couches and books and just stuff. I would wait until she was finished with the previous lesson, then go in and start mine.

Miss Angley taught at home because she wasn’t able to get around any more. But teaching had become her life. Eventually I stopped taking lessons, but she kept teaching even when she had to leave her house and go into a care facility. She still had some students come in. When the day came that she couldn’t teach any more, she passed away.

Years later I tried to find her house where I had taken lessons, but I couldn’t remember which one it was. I don’t know if it is still standing or if it has gone the way of so many other old houses to make way for progress.

I don’t play piano any more, but we do have mom and dad’s piano in our house, so maybe someday I’ll sit down and listen for Miss Angley’s voice telling me to curve my fingers on the keys.

I said earlier I didn’t know much about her, but I googled her today and found this…I wish I had taken the time to talk to her more about her life and to hear her story. She was one of those people who have an influence on your life, but you forget that they also had a life with people who influenced them.

——

ANGLEY, GLADYS B. (1912-1989)
Educator

Gladys Bethel Angley was born in Radisson, Saskatchewan in 1912 and moved to Regina in 1916 when her father, Frank B. Angley, became manager of Regina Pharmacy.   She received her early academic and musical training at Model School, Central Collegiate, Qu’Appelle Diocesan Girls’ School and at Regina College.  She studied piano with Sister Agnes, S.S.J.D., William M. Buckley and Dr. Lyle Gustin, theory with George Coutts, and Fred Killmaster and vocals with W. Francis.  Gladys received an Associate degree from the Toronto Conservatory of Music in 1931 and a Licentiate diploma from the Royal Schools of Music in London England in 1932.

She began teaching piano in public schools from 1931 to 1933, and taught piano in the Qu’Appelle Diocesan from 1933 to 1941, the Regina Conservatory of Music from 1941 to 1958 and the University of Regina from 1958 to 1980 when complications, due to rheumatoid arthritis in 1955, began to hinder her public performances.

Public performances between 1931 and 1956 included solo recitals, performing as a guest artist and as an ensemble member of the Buckley Piano Quartet.  By local radio Angley entertained listeners on the Prairie Network and the Canadian Broadcasting System, know now as the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (C.B.C.)

Thanks for visiting my 2023 A to Z Challenge – Letter G.  You can find links to more blogs participating in this challenge at Letter A, A to Z 2023 Challenge Master List (Google Docs).

Guess I’m kind of a rebel too…although I do like using the “official” letters…

Welcome to my April 2023 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (My life in first drafts), but this year, instead of pretending there were ever plans, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, F is for Fire Table.

A few years back, I believe in 2019, we finally after much debate and searching bought a fire table for our deck. One we could plug into the gas outlet so we didn’t have to rely on propane all the time. You may have seen pictures of it here before, but I’ll add some later in the post, don’t worry.

We are really lucky here to be able to not only bbq all year round (which we did in Saskatchewan too, but only to -30C) but also to be able to sit outside comfortably most of the time. The fire table has not only made those times even more comfortable, but made the less comfy times (when it gets “cold” here) welcoming to deck times.

One thing about the fire table is that it did not come with glass around the flame area. It was just open. I don’t know about you, but when the wind picks up I would prefer not to catch on fire because I’m leaning a bit too close to the flames, so Kevin adding the glass component was a good call. And it looks nice too.

There is nothing like sitting by the fire table at the end of a long day with a glass of wine and maybe some bbq appies while Kevin cooks the main part of our dinner. It might not send off a huge amount of heat (although the awning it is under does help trap it a bit) but just sitting next to the quiet flames is a happy place. Wish you could be here too!

Thanks for visiting my 2023 A to Z Challenge – Letter F.  You can find links to more blogs participating in this challenge at Letter A, A to Z 2023 Challenge Master List (Google Docs).

Guess I’m kind of a rebel too…although I do like using the “official” letters…

Welcome to my April 2023 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (My life in first drafts), but this year, instead of pretending there were ever plans, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, E is for Earrings.

I love earrings. Dangly earrings, hoop earrings, little tiny earrings. Love them all. But I never used to have pierced ears. I didn’t get my ears pierced until I was, well, I guess in my 30s.

I remember getting them done one day on a whim and then showing up to teach my class that day or the next day and regaling my class with my adventure in later in life ear piercing. I think they were in awe, or maybe just concerned that I would put a question on the exam about it.

I didn’t wear any of my fun earrings for over 18 months while we were in lockdown and then while my workplace was closed for in person work. Then for awhile after that while we were still wearing masks cause masks kept pulling my earrings out. I lost a couple of nice ones before I smartened up.

But then once we didn’t have to wear masks, I began showing off the danglies whenever I went to work or eventually to concerts.

Here are some of the earrings I’ve been wearing lately. Note that I have a lot of amazing earrings, some given to me by mom and dad, but a few months ago Oliver trashed my jewelry box and while I have since purchased a more Oliver-proof case, I have not taken the time to move everything over. While I was taking some pictures today I was going, wow I forgot about those, and those, and those. So I’m looking forward to changing things up in the next few weeks!

Thanks for visiting my 2023 A to Z Challenge – Letter E.  You can find links to more blogs participating in this challenge at Letter A, A to Z 2023 Challenge Master List (Google Docs).

Guess I’m kind of a rebel too…although I do like using the “official” letters…

Welcome to my April 2023 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (My life in first drafts), but this year, instead of pretending there were ever plans, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, D is for Defense of Thesis.

For those of you who don’t know, I have a Master of Arts in Linguistics which I completed, well, a really long time ago. Part of the process of getting a Masters degree is defending your thesis, a long paper that is usually not as long as a PhD dissertation, but longer than your standard course essay. Mine was long. Longer than normal because of what I worked on, which I am not going to go into here. I’m not sure why, but it doesn’t seem important to this post.

Anyway, the defense. Another one of those war metaphors that we like to use in English, like battling cancer or being on the warpath about something that you don’t agree with. We do like our fight expressions.

My thesis defense consisted of all the professors in my area, plus another one outside of my area, the head of the Graduate Studies department, or I guess the Dean or some such personage, as well as someone who was an expert on my topic from another institution. I was really lucky in this last as I got the true expert to come up from the states, and I don’t think anyone else getting a Masters in Linguistics was granted that privilege after that. But I could be wrong. I only know I was lucky.

The defense started with me being pulled out of the room by the Graduate Students dude to give me a pep talk, which didn’t leave me feeling very peppy. Then I went back to the room and gave a short presentation. I was told ahead of time that I had 20 minutes (I think that was the amount of time) and if I went over, I would be shut down. I was SO nervous. I have never been so nervous for anything and my voice shook – I’m surprised anyone could understand me. There was no PowerPoint back then, it was just me and my notes at a podium speaking to a room full of straight faced men. I don’t think there was another woman in the room, come to think of it.

I finished my presentation and sat down at the head of the table and the questions began. I think the external dude asked the first one, and I answered it! I remember the relief washing through me as I realized, hell, I knew what I was talking about!! All those years of study were actually still there in my brain.

And then I was ok. I was questioned for, well I don’t remember for how long. One hour? Two? But the moment I remember the most was when one of my professors (not my advisor, but another one) asked me a question about something he had asked me to change in my thesis before hand that I refused to change because, well, he was wrong about it. He asked, and I was about to answer when the external expert chimed in and said “Actually, Emily is right about that.” Boo and Yah! I wanted to fist bump right then and there, but I maintained my decorum only grinning to myself inside.

And then, it was done. I had some things to revise, they threw a party for me, and I got my Masters. Almost a let down because the adrenaline had been pumping for so long, and I spent so much time working on the damn thesis, that now I felt like I had nothing to do. Luckily having several jobs and beginning to teach classes took care that that feeling.

So that is the story of my thesis defense. I want to thank myself for taking me back through those lows and highs. Glad I have no intention of ever doing this again!

Thanks for visiting my 2023 A to Z Challenge – Letter D.  You can find links to more blogs participating in this challenge at Letter A, A to Z 2023 Challenge Master List (Google Docs).

Guess I’m kind of a rebel too…although I do like using the “official” letters…

Welcome to my April 2023 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (My life in first drafts), but this year, instead of pretending there were ever plans, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, C is for Cats.

Yes indeed, and I have had a lot of them. Or really, many cats have deigned to cohabitate with me over the years.  As I work on my memoirs, each cat will have their own chapter (or chapters!)

We got our first cats when I was in grade 6. Some friends of mom and dad had Siamese cats who had kittens, and we got two of them. My brother and I each had one, you know, in the name of fairness. Mike imaginatively called his Sy (mom quickly changed this to Cyrano), and the little girl I called Taya. While they had the run of the house during the day, mom and dad shut them in the basement at night so they wouldn’t bother everyone trying to sleep. I never thought about it at the time, but now it seems weird that you would not invite kittens to drive you crazy while you are trying to sleep. Sy and Taya lived long lives – until 18. I was gone and back from university and had met Kevin before they were both gone.

When Kevin and I met, he had a little street cat (well he was a street cat when Kevin brought him home) named Luther. Luther never warmed to me, except one time when I was really sick and he decided to take care of me. Or maybe he was waiting for me to die….I will never know. Luther had feline Leukemia and while it was I remission for awhile, he died at four.

Kevin swore he didn’t want cats again any time soon, but one month later we found two black kittens in the newspaper (yes, before Kijiji there were paper want ads) and thus Simon and Bailey came into our lives, followed a short time later by Finnegan, the yin to their yang. They hated Finnegan for awhile, and while Bailey never did like him, he and Simon became friends. We moved from the apartment to our first house with these three. Bailey left us at 10, and then we moved Simon and Finnegan from Regina to Victoria when Kevin got his first optometry job here. It was traumatic for them because I stayed behind for a month to sell the house. But they adjusted. After we moved to our first house here in Victoria, Finnegan, who suffered from urinary tract disorder for years, succumbed to it at 13. Simon was alone.

But not for long, as we adopted Dexter to keep Simon company, not thinking that a 13 year old cat and a wild kitten might not be the best mix. And thus Nicholas entered our lives to keep Dexter company. Nico was a feral kitten and never did like to be around us, but he adored Simon and played with Dexter. When Simon died a couple of years later, It was just Nico and Dexter. But again, not for long.

In 2011, we brought home Jasper. Kevin had been googling Savannah cats and wanted one. Jasper fit the bill. A month later we traveled up island and after meeting a huge, tattooed, Latino mobile hairdresser who raised monkeys and Servals, we brought tiny Elliot home (half Bengal, half Savannah) to join our crew. Four cats, but I assured myself that two cats per person did not crazy cat people make.

In 2012 we uprooted the lot and moved the to our current house. Dexter left us suddenly in 2015, and last summer Jasper got cancer and our sweet sensitive angel was also gone.

But you all know that we love lots of cats, so Kevin, cruising the Kijiji net, found our latest family members, Lucy and Oliver. And so, the adventure continues.

Simon

Bailey

Finnegan

Dexter

Nicholas

Jasper

Elliot

Lucy and Oliver

Small, Medium, and Extra Large (Elliot, Jasper, and Dexter)

Jasper and Elliot

Thanks for visiting my 2023 A to Z Challenge – Letter C.  You can find links to more blogs participating in this challenge at Letter A, A to Z 2023 Challenge Master List (Google Docs).

Guess I’m kind of a rebel too…although I do like using the “official” letters…

Welcome to my April 2023 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (My life in first drafts), but this year, instead of pretending there were ever plans, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, B is for Bass. String bass, that is.

Many years ago, although at the time I felt quite old (meaning mature…hah!), I began to play the bass. I was 19 and in Pre-Veterinary medicine, although I had been a musician all my life. I started piano at 5, flute when I was in grade school, and then began singing at 16, But I had wanted to be a vet since I was in Grade 5. It wasn’t going well, and I wanted to learn another instrument. I don’t remember why, but I wanted to play the viola. But the Principal bass player in the Regina Symphony convinced me to take up the bass. It would give me more opportunities to play somewhere, and hey, I thought, why not??

Thus began my bass journey. Nine months after I started playing bass, I was in the Regina Symphony, and had switched my major from Pre-Vet Med to Music. A year and a half after I started playing, I headed off to Kingston, Ontario to join the National Youth Orchestra for the summer (I did that for three summers in a row, the last summer was when I decide to move to Ottawa to get a Masters in Music).

I have played in a few orchestras in Regina and Ottawa, and when I moved back to Regina having not completed my Masters (this is part of my Life as a Quitter series), I began playing jazz bass with my brother and ultimately with a lot of other great musicians in Regina. Eventually I found my way back into the Regina Symphony, and I played gigs and symphony until I left Regina in 2007 to move to Victoria when Kevin finished Optometry school and got a gig out here.

I never did try to find a place to play out here. Thought about it, but I started to enjoy a life where I only had one job and didn’t have to haul a bass all over town to gigs during the evenings and weekends. Eventually I sold my bass and while sometimes I miss it a little, I just let myself enjoy listening to the music I used to play.

People think I miss it, or maybe think I should miss it. I really don’t. It’s another closed chapter of my life and I’m totally ok with that. Add it to the pile of things I did and eventually moved on from.

This was my bass, before I sold it. It was my third bass and while it was cracked and old, it served me well for a long time. I hope the person who bought it (a car salesman who wanted to learn to play upright bass) enjoyed it too.

Thanks for visiting my 2023 A to Z Challenge – Letter B.  You can find links to more blogs participating in this challenge at Letter A, A to Z 2023 Challenge Master List (Google Docs).

Guess I’m kind of a rebel too…although I do like using the “official” letters…

Welcome to my April 2023 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

I’ve revealed my theme (My life in first drafts), but this year, instead of pretending there were ever plans, I am unashamedly blogging my theme letters on the fly.  So, here goes nothing!

So, without further ado, A is for the deceptive but always delicious Avocado.

Why begin with avocado, you may ask. My life in first drafts. Well, I had to choose something and this was the first thing that popped into my mind. So there.

We love avocados. We eat them all the time, and I love them plain (with a hint of salt and pepper), as garnish on salads, and of course in guac. But they are deceptive. They are green which makes you think, hey, green…must be like good for you. But they are huge on the caloric front which you can forget really easily because they are a “good” fat, so we are told.

I don’t know when we started eating avocados all the time, but if we don’t have an avocado to add to our dinner plates, disappointment is in the air. Doesn’t matter what else we have on the plate, it just doesn’t quite taste as good.

Avocados are like the one food habit I have, not we cause Kevin has a lot of food habits (same things for breakfast and lunch on workdays for 20 years, whereas I like to mix it up, man). And I never really thought about it that way until writing this post. I guess there are worse things to have as a food habit. But I tell you, if I start carving them, please call someone….

Avocado Art

Thanks for visiting my 2023 A to Z Challenge – Letter A.  You can find links to more blogs participating in this challenge at Letter A, A to Z 2022 Challenge Master List (Google Docs).

Guess I’m kind of a rebel too…although I do like using the “official” letters…

Welcome to the Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z 2023 Theme Reveal!

This is the 13th or 14th year of the challenge, I can’t rightly remember which, and I’ve been a participant since 2014.  Every year I choose a theme, and every year I blog it on the fly.  Like last year, I am starting to write my posts today, the day of the letter A, on the same day I am revealing to you, my precious reader, my theme.  No plan this year, aside from last night, loosely deciding what I might post about.

Before I reveal my 2022 theme, here are themes from challenges past:

• 2014:  I blogged about our house, and the befores and afters of the renos we did and changes we made after buying it.
• 2015: I blogged about interesting places in Victoria (all close to home).
• 2016: I blogged about learning to use my DSLR
• 2017: I blogged about my ‘hood in Welcome to James Bay!
• 2018: I blogged about the wonderful world of wabi-sabi in photographs.
• 2019:  I blogged about A picture-story a day (in the life, so to speak)
• 2020: I blogged about female photographers
• 2021 I blogged Photos and Stories
• 2022 I blogged Photo editing apps!

This year, it’s the exciting theme of: My life in first drafts!  I am in a memoir writing phase.  And don’t worry, there will be photos too…

So, I will see you on later today for my first post!

This post approved by Elliot.

Welcome to my April 2022 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

Today, Z is for Glaze.

I’m gonna keep this short for today as it’s Saturday, I am writing this of course at the last minute, and it’s the last letter of the A to Z challenge….We made it!

So Glaze, like TangledFX, is one of my go-to apps, one of the first apps I discovered on this journey to appdom of photo editing.  According to the iPhone Photography School “a photo to painting app that converts your pictures into textured paintings.”  And it is indeed.  There are 12 sets of glazes each with five styles, and using the “workshop” you can mix and match your glazes. I confess I haven’t quite got the hang of this but I tried and some of those tries are below.  There is also a masking tool, but as we all know I still haven’t learned how to use these yet…a summer vacation goal!

Websites

• Poem about Glaze

• GLAZE is still a standout ‘photo to painting’ app

Examples

Original Image

Glaze from set 1

Glaze from set 5

Glaze from set 12

Mix of 1 and 5 above

Mix of 1, 5, and 12 above

Thanks for visiting my 2022 A to Z Challenge – Letter Z. You can find links to more blogs participating in this challenge at Letter Z, A to Z 2022 Challenge Master List (Google Docs).

Welcome to my April 2022 Great and Powerful Blogging from A to Z Challenge!

Today, Y is for Skylab.

Skylab is an app for changing, basically replacing, skies.  I am curious to see someday what it can do to photos with no skies, but it is a little trick to figure out since I believe masking is a key component of the manipulation and, well, masking still eludes me.   The interface is very similar to AlienSky and Reflect.  The only site I really found was it’s creator’s site:  Skylab

Here’s what I found myself:

• There are several sky types with specific types in each Clear, Cloudy, Sunset, Stormy (my fav), Vortex, Vortex 2, Night, Moonlight, Pastel Skies, Heavy Skies, Rainbow Skies, Unstack Cities, Unstack Sunsets, Unstack Auroras
• There are masking tools which I have yet to learn
• You can add Elements like moons, trees, and people
• You can work with layers for your Elements
• There is a set of filters

Examples

Original Image

One of the Stormy Skies

One of the Vortex 2 with an Element

One of the Moonlights with a filter

One of the Unstack Sunsets with an Element

One of the Unstack Auroras with an Element

Thanks for visiting my 2022 A to Z Challenge – Letter Y. You can find links to more blogs participating in this challenge at Letter Y, A to Z 2022 Challenge Master List (Google Docs).