Trees being cut down

One day a letter came through the letterbox telling us that our neighbours wanted us to cut down the trees in our garden. Apparently, the trees were causing subsidence. Of course, we really didn't want them cut down, but in the end it became clear that they had to be.

A few weeks ago, two guys came to cut down the four biggest trees in our garden, the ones that were causing the subsidence. One of them was already dead, but the other three were still alive, and I was sad to see them go. They've been around for about twenty years, way before we moved here, and way before I was born, so as long as I can remember, they've been around. Every time we sat in in the garden, they were there, and I've climbed them loads of times, really high when I was younger and less heavy. My dad even put a rope ladder on one of them, and attached wooden blocks onto one to make it easier for me to climb. There was a also a trapeze on one, and a tire swing joining two of the trees, and I know lots of tricks on all the equipment. The silver birch used to have a vine on it that I swung on sometimes, but it either got cut down or came down naturally a few years back.

It took surprisingly little time for the two guys to cut down the trees. One of them climbed really high with a harness attached to him and cut off all the branches, while the other guy shredded them in a machine. After all the branches had been taken off the tree, one of the men held on to a rope tied round the trunk, and the other made a gap in the trunk. After three the first man yanked the rope and the tree came crashing down. Obviously, we all had to stand at a distance, not just for the last part, but all through, in case any branches crashed down onto us, and also because they didn't want to risk hurting us with their equipment.

The next day the men who cut down the trees came by to shred down the stumps.

Here are some pictures:

"Gangnam Style" parodies

Since the "Gangnam Style" video came out on youtube, I've watched it about twenty times, but recently I've started watching the parodies of it. As my mother is a member of couchsurfing, she gets all the circulars, and a few days ago someone sent one round with "Gangnam Style" parodies. One of them is called "London Style" and it's set in London, so the guy goes on the underground and does some stupid stuff next to a cab, and sees lots of things that London is famous for.

 My favourite parody is "Mitt Romney Style". I think you can guess who that's about. The video has two swearwords but it's still really funny. "Obama Style" is quite fun, but it isn't as good because it's not as professionally done. I think for "Mitt Romney Style" they used quite a few computer effects, but for the one with Obama, not as many.

Another good version has three people sitting on a sofa. One has a guitar and the other two are singing the song really slowly and calmly, and sort of changing the tune.

Gangnam Style, like "Friday" and "Charlie Bit My Finger" is one of those really popular youtube videos that "everyone" has watched. I think it got so many views because the people who made it e-mailed it to all the people in their address book, and the people who received it did the same. I'm guessing that's how most videos go viral. People also tend to enjoy watching funny videos, so that's probably one of the attractions. Of course, there's also word of mouth, but that doesn't spread things as quickly as electronic gadgets do. Still, it must have been that too because we've shown Gangnam Style to most of the people we've seen recently, and I'm sure a few of them have told others about it.



                              Part of the original Gangnam Style dance

Sketching in the past few days

Since my art class has started after half term, I've done more drawing at home. Most of the drawings I've done lately have been of things from the kitchen like a bottle of olive oil, and interesting dishes that I've found in the cupboards. Some of my drawings are really scribbly like the teapot below, but others are smoother like the one of the terracotta dish. I prefer the scribbly ones because they've got more character, but its harder to show shading on them.

The week before last one of my art teachers told me to be more aware of the edge of the paper, and not have my drawings floating in the middle of the paper, so that's why I've shaded round the edge of the page. Now I actually think it distracts from the actual drawing, so next time I think it would be a good idea to shade more lightly round the edge.

Last week we drew from black and white films without sound, and tried to show the movement of the people. I'm going to try practice that soon if I have time.

                                                                 Sketch of a teapot

                                                             A terracotta dish

Today my dad taught me how to upload photos onto the computer, and copy them onto my blog. I haven't yet learnt how to control whether the colour is back and white or in colour, but I'll ask my dad soon.

Update on djembe drumming

Okay, so ages ago I did this blog entry on djembe drumming, but I'd just started the classes when I did that so I probably got a lot of things wrong. Now that I know more about djembe than I did before, I'm going to write about it again, and hopefully I'll be a bit more accurate.

Firstly, there are three main sounds when you're doing drumming; tones, slaps and bases. Slaps are loose strikes on the edge of the drum; tones are firmer, with your fingers closed; bases are tones in the middle of the drum. A slightly harder sound to make is a "flam". To do this, you have to hit the drum with both hands, one a fraction of a second before the other.

Secondly, you need to tilt the djembe slightly away from you, gripping it between your knees, so that the sound can resonate better. 

I used to find it hard to concentrate when my teacher is talking because he sometimes starts saying things that I don't understand, and at the same time he can talk fast. I still do sometimes, but I understand more. He goes into this weird djembe gibberish mode and I don't get a word.  To me it sounds like this: "You sometimes think it's hard to do the fill 'cos it's a different level something something something because the rhythm sounds strange but after a while you get all ten not two and it's not hard any more something something something and then you can do it faster blah blah blah". 
I have to try really hard not to daydream when this happens because if I do, when he changes back in to normal mode, I'll still be off in my own world and miss something important. Then I'll be lost when everybody else is doing a new rhythm.

I'm not sure whether in the last blog entry I said this, but I've started doing a different kind of drumming on Saturdays, which is called "Dun dun" or something like that, I think I spelled it wrong. On saturdays I do djembe too.

Little people (Short story)

While I was writing this, my mother gave me phrases every few minutes for me to fit in however I liked. Later on I edited it.



"Under the bridge, once lay a miniature city of gold, where the little people lived. They co-existed with humans, each living in peace and in their own way, though they both sealed a pact not to visit each other, in the fear that their ways of life and long standing traditions would be contaminated by the others'. This way of living did not last for long, as the curiosity of humans got the better of them, and a group of them made their way to the city of gold. The little people scattered. Since then there have been sightings of them, but very few, and lately people have been beginning to disbelieve the fact that the little people ever existed."

Augustus' grandmother sighed  after finishing the last sentence and stared into the fire, giving Augustus time to reflect on the story. It occurred to him that he ought to be looking in his back garden in case he should catch a glimpse of one of the creatures. A good excuse if his mother asked what he was doing would be to say he was picking out weeds as they didn't want to start life in their new home with an overgrown garden.

The fire crackled. Augustus jumped, shaken out of his thoughts, which was when he realised he was getting bored. He told himself it would be rude to leave his grandmother now, as he had only been sitting with her for a couple of minutes. Augustus glanced at her, but seeing that she was lost in thought, decided that it would be better to go next door to his house now, rather than interrupt her daydreams with useless small talk. Besides, they would see each other more now that they were neighbours.

The boy inched himself towards the door, taking care not to disturb his nan. There being nothing in between the doorway and the door itself, a draught was making its was into the house. Augustus felt it bringing in droplets of water that splattered his socks, and wondered whether or not to brave the weather.

The fire was starting to burn down, so he decided to stay to tend to it. Beneath the surface of this decision was a hidden desire to stay in the warmth of his grandmother's house rather than face the cold, even though his house was only next door.

As Augustus sat back down by the fire to resume his thinking, a new thought, a wonderfully cool and warm and orange and purple one floated into his mind, suggesting that at this very moment in time, the little people were not as far away as they were before.