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HA! N— ever E— at S —hredded W— heat (oh my gosh...this is what I learned too) It's funny my children and I were just talked about this the other day but they had a different way to remember...which I can't remember right now. (go figure) Anyway, loved your post and YES to egg shells in the compost. I don't eat eggs but my husband does and they go right in each time. I looking forward to starting my garden in the spring and can't wait to use this great soil we are making. Have a lovely day Rebecca. Write on!

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Thanks, Julie! Oh do ask your children how they were taught to remember the points of the compass - I’d really love to know!

Have a great day too - keep warm in all that snow!

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I just asked Brindsley and can't believe I forgot...Never Eat Soggy Waffles! LOL

I like that better. :) Plus I LOVE waffles.

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SOGGY WAFFLES!!! Yes, MUCH better! Thanks, Julie - and Brindsley! 🤣

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:) You're Welcome! :)

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I agree. I like your way better. I've never heard of the other way either. I don't think I was ever taught a way to remember it like that.

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In Australia we went with Never Eat Soggy Weekbix!

(In case that's not international, weekbix is a wheat biscuit cereal thing).

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We have Weetabix over here - I think they're the same!

I have to say, though, that what I like about 'Never Eat Shredded Wheat' is that it rhymes, even down to the assonance in 'never' and 'shredded' - so it's really easy to remember. If only finding my actual WAY were that simple...

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That might be true, but I can't tell, coz I've been so brainwashed with 'soggy weetbix', that I get tangled up when I try to read your one!

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Oh! Too funny Medha, I never heard of Weekbix so thank you for sharing. It does sound very similar to shredded wheat.

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Mar 15, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden

That representation of your inner compass 👌🤣

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😂

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Figure 2 makes perfect sense to me. Figure 3 is masterful. Your writing sparkles, too. Media for your artwork? The third one intrigues me.

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Thank you so much, Mark - you're very kind! I had some fun drawing Figure 3! 😉

Short answer: They're all mixed media.

Longer answer: The third one is thick, textured gesso with acrylic paint on top, which I've spread around with a brush and a damp rag, then scribbled on top of with water-soluble wax crayons. For the pebbly effect of the beach I messed around (and it WAS messy) with a stencil, paint and a damp rag again, and I highlighted bits and pieces with coloured pencils. The white foamy sea spray effect where the sea meets the beach was just a white wax crayon.

I stumbled across mixed media when someone recommended the 'Wanderlust' course to me in 2020: https://www.everything-art.com

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Mar 15, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden

Love your Puddlegate artwork!

The mention of the daisy trick was a nice addition - hoping for spring to come soon!!

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Thanks, Jess! The 'seven daisies' thing was something I'd come across as a child, and I've heard it as nine from another source since, as the 'actual' diagnostic figure (!!!). Mind you, I'd say the alliteration of 'seven' and 'spring' makes that a more likely number for whatever the folklore proverb is!

THREE daisies, though - well, THAT doesn't mean spring in anyone's book! 🤣

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Mar 15, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden

I sort of like how these little things get mixed up as they are passed on (even if there's no truth in any of it)! :)

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Yes, me too! And I always take them with a large pinch of salt! 🤣

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I like all of your artwork Rebecca. The first one is my favorite.

I like how you did Figure 3. That fits you exactly. 🤣 Although I know you wish it didn't.

I wish for spring too. The funny thing about the weather today versus two days ago is it was freezing this morning. It's been in the 80s during the day a few days ago. I wake up this morning and it was 54. I had to switch to jeans and a sweatshirt today. I don't know why the drastic change, obviously a cold front. I'm just glad we're not getting that snow that's in the northeast US and over there in the UK.

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Thanks so much, Matt! Figure 3 made me laugh - funnily enough, drawing a compass like that made me feel better about the whole thing!

80s Fahrenheit - gosh, that's what I'd call real summer temperature over here! 54 is certainly chilly in comparison. I'm glad to say that we haven't been subjected to the amount of snow they've been having in northern England and Wales recently - schools were closed, people were sleeping in their cars because they were stranded, whereas we had just a bit of falling snow for an hour last Tuesday, and then the rain washed it all away!

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Mar 15, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden

I am trying to decide what delights me more, your writing or artwork. We are so lucky that you share both!

How did you and Terry decide to begin writing to each other? (Please let me know if that's been answered in other posts. I have yet to have the chance to read all of them.) I look forward to both sides of this conversation each week! xoxo

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Mar 15, 2023·edited Mar 15, 2023Author

You're so kind, Kerri - thank you!

Terry had invited me to participate in the 'Letters' project a little after the time that Substack published a post suggesting the concept. We'd been subscribers of each others' Substacks for a little while, and were reading each other's stuff and - I'm sure he won't mind me saying this - making pithy comments on both sides (!), and he suggested we start writing these letters! We began our correspondence by whingeing Britishly about the weather, but it turned out that we have more to talk about than just that! We started writing a letter a week each, but in January we went to alternate weeks, and that suits me better in terms of the time commitment.

What I really enjoy about these letters is that I get to explore another style of writing, to be spontaneous and 'unplanned' - because I'm writing in response to something unpredictable, which is really good practice - AND to include all sorts of other topics of conversation which wouldn't otherwise come up in our usual posts on 'Dear Reader, I'm lost', and 'Eclecticism: Reflections on literature and life', respectively. Having said that, most of THIS letter is about getting lost - so I guess I can't really escape my favourite subject matter...! 🤣

I'm so glad that you're enjoying reading our letters over our shoulders, Kerri - it means a lot to hear that. We both enjoy writing them! 😊

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Love this! My mind was boggling as you talked of compass points.

PS: I love the artwork snippets.

And as others have said - 'Write On!"

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Thank you so much, Prue! 😊

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Excuse me? Is that your art? The puddlegate ones?

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Yes - a while ago I did a mixed media art course, and loved getting stuck in! I've always struggled with art - at school any painting we ever did was in watercolour, and once the paint was down there wasn't much I could ever do to change anything that was on the paper - but with acrylic paint and gesso and crayons and texture and scribbling and collage and inky puddles you can just keep chucking everything at it! 😉

Drawing is something I'd love to tackle properly one day - I'm in awe of your work (and I had a really good look at the link you'd posted yesterday...)!

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Another great post, Rebecca. I'll reply properly in my letter. Several bits of this made me LOL, so they deserve the full Freedman treatment in a letter, wherein I can give my response the human touch. (This comment has been written by ChatGPT)

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Mar 16, 2023·edited Mar 16, 2023Author

Thanks, Terry! I mean, thanks, RoboTerry.... 😉

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Mar 16, 2023Liked by Rebecca Holden

About your question, "Do you find that tea tastes different in different types of mug?" I, myself am a coffee drinker and use a heavy 8 oz mug. Tea and coffee are like oranges and apples, ( ie , not comparable) to me. However, when I do drink tea at home it is always in a fine egg-shell thin, translucent porcelain cup - delicate and fragile. It seems more fitting somehow for tea. I bought two antique porcelain cups and saucers as I have one friend who only drinks tea. A mug of tea or ( eeeuuw) a styrofoam cup of tea just does not seem correct to me. FWIW from a Californian.

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That's really interesting, Sharron! Actually I have my coffee moments, too, and they're definitely in a different category to my need for tea, so I get where you're coming from.

I love the sound of your delicate and fragile tea cups. I've nothing against such vessels - indeed, I have some, too - but I never use them because I've yet to find one that holds enough tea to do the job!

I remember Pa in 'Little House in the Big Woods' drinking tea out of a saucer. He'd have it in a cup, but then pour it into the saucer to drink it.

Tea in styrofoam (we call it polystyrene) is an abomination!

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I think you might be onto something with NEWS! Somehow I never learned the Never Eat Shredded Wheat navigational aid, but it's probably for the best because I always orient myself by facing East. I'm not sure what kind of sentence one would make from E-S-W-N, though... eat soggy wet noodles? :-|

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Wow, Jacquie - it's so interesting that you always orient yourself by facing east. My problem would be that I don't know where east IS, apart from at sunrise and sunset, I guess. This is such a silly question but how do you do that? Can you just tell where east is, even if you're in a place you're not familiar with?

I'm not sure whether Eat Soggy Wet Noodles would really catch on among geographers, no matter how you try to sell it to them....!

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It's true, I don't always know where east is. But when I have an idea of which way the sun rose (or is setting), that's my one anchor point. For example, I'll be home and a contractor will reference something like "on the north side of the house..." and I'm like, hang on while I do my weird orientation thing. (Don't ask me how THEY know which direction!) I know which side the sun rises on, and I go from there. Yes, afterwards, I will forget which is north and south again, but I always remember the east! It helps that I'm up before sunrise ;-)

And I agree, the noodle thing needs work :-( Even I don't want to go anywhere that compass points!

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That sounds pretty awesome, you know! I need to adopt a point of the compass as my own anchor point!

Actually I'm quite fortunate that I know which way is south when I'm at home, because our bedroom window looks south onto the South Downs. Easy! But it's only WHEN I'm at home, and I literally ONLY know where south is. Okay, I know that that means that north is the front of the house, but sometimes Jim will come home at night and say 'gosh, have you seen the moon, it's looking amazing tonight?' and I'll ask him where he means (expecting him to say 'you'll see it if you open the back door', or 'walk out to the lane and look to the right') and he'll say something absolutely CRAZY like 'it's in the north-west'. I mean, where's THAT? He knows all this stuff - he can feel it, somehow!

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I'm convinced that some people are like pigeons--they just have compass material in their brains that we directionally challenged beings lack. But there's no reason the rest of us can't get a handle on things with some practice! As long as we have a place to start... :-)

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