emma

A busy day of immersive theatre and when I left it was pouring with rain, but when I walked through Blackfriars Station to the other side of the river, it magically stopped raining and I headed down to the foreshore!

It was quiet, as people had been put off by the rain.

Earlier in the day, in an Ambient Lit workshop, I had pretended to be a dog and chased pigeons. “Woof”, I said to the pigeons on the foreshore.

There were patches of metal objects, nails, screws, objects once used.

I picked up pipes, pottery sherds and pieces of glass, and also a tiny heart shaped sticker. Thanks for the love, dear Thames.

It was just before low tide and the foreshore was busy with people, teenagers on a guided mudlark tour, and others searching.

The foreshore emptied and then there were more geese than humans and the goslings pecked at the wall, green with algae.

That day, I kept finding stripey pottery sherds. As I was going to meet Ingress players afterwards and our team colour is green, I started to concentrate on picking up green sherds. Green triangles!

I found another pipe with an “S” on it, different to the last. The other side looks like it could be a “P” so perhaps it was made by Solomon Price.

Another piece of Staffordshire Slipware, some more pink slag, and a sherd with a letter “E” on it.

It seemed appropriate to go to the Mudlark pub after that to meet friends and show them my bag of finds. On the walls of the pub were pictures of the foreshore and of pipes.

First y'all: I am disturbed that the original post I grabbed this from called this the "Favorite Characters Colors Addition". It is like nails on a chalkboard, the way I cringed. The correct word in this case is "Edition", and I half-assed a correction using Paint.

I gave a thought of branching out to other Final Fantasy games but no, I could fill the grid only with folks from Final Fantasy XIV, so I did so.

( cut to spare your reading pages, but also: some light character spoilers through Endwalker patches )

Mudlarking - 15A

It was lunchtime and not much beach could be seen. I’d gone down an alleyway that didn’t smell pleasant, and then down steps, and past flies. I walked back and forth on the small patch of shore anyway, while the tide went out and the beach gradually grew.

I found a small piece of glass, a blue and white sherd, and a mysterious brown metal object. It is not the telescope I imagined it was when I picked it up.

A man sat on the steps, but the tiny patch of foreshore was entirely mine that day.



–

Mudlarking 15B

An after work trip to the foreshore, low tide was a few hours before.

A religious looking poster floated in the water, but later appeared on the shore.

An Egyptian goose walked by.

I found a tiny green plastic bottle with a swirl on it and I wondered what it once contained.

I found another square small black tile that looks modern, but I have about 4 now. Maybe I’ll find enough to make a space invader mosaic eventually.

There were a few broken pipe bowls, and what I thought was a piece of green pipe, but now looks like something else.

I found a stone with delightful stripes, or is it a fossil?

Apart from health scares (there's been a couple of these in the last couple of weeks and I'm due for a CT scan next week), an interesting end of this week. I got a call (several calls and a voice-mail message) by this lady who needs a ’Spanish style guitarist’ for a function (her 80th birthday). I said I was not exactly that; I do not play flamenco, etc. She said she was aware that I was a classical guitarist, Would I be free to play (unamplified) at that garden do? How much would I charge? I said £250 and she jumped straight back ‘yes!’ Which made me think I should have said £400, but there you go. I’ll have to prepare a few biz cards to give out at that thing, see whether I can get more custom of that sort. Summer is normally very very slow and I very often just scrape through September, so this is quite welcome.

I found a sherd with a piece of writing on it on the foreshore and found it looks very similar to a cute pearlware Child’s Alphabet Mug, circa 1830 on an antiques website.

I like the verses on it:

"G was a Gardener who works many hours.
H was a Hot-house to hold his choice flowers

A was an ass so stupid & dull.
B was a bee with her honey bag full.”

Full mug and photos here: https://junoantiques.com/childs-pearlware-alphabet-mug-ref-1382/

The rest of my finds included some more Staffordshire Slipware, a very speckled sherd with a bumpy texture, a piece of blue glass, and various other things:

I was discussing confidence and job searching with friends the other day, and one of them suggested reading Refuse to Choose: Use All of Your Interests, Passions and Hobbies to Create the Life and Career of Your Dreams so I dutifully clicked the link and then went WAIT WHAT A BARBARA SHER BOOK I DIDN'T KNOW ABOUT?!?!

I'm a big fan of Barbara's books, and spent a lot of time on her message board when I was younger. I helped proofread Wishcraft when she was first digitizing it, and had even talked to her on the phone once regarding the project. I was very sad when I heard she had passed away, because her books were very formative and helpful for me.

So yes, I immediately bought the ebook of Refuse to Choose and started reading it, and well, it's basically a how-to manual for scanners.

Hmm.

Okay, let me explain: Barbara says there are two types of people in the world: scanners vs. divers. A diver is someone who finds a subject they are interested in, then dives into it and learns everything about it. Scanners are the opposite: they taste a bunch of different subjects and have a lot of different interests.

In the past, I had considered myself a scanner. Now, I'm not so sure. I mean, it's been TWENTY YEARS and I am still primarily listening to Final Fantasy music. It's been FIFTEEN YEARS and I am still knitting and crocheting happily. And those are primarily my two interests. So that feels more like a diver to me.

And yet: I get bored within 6-12 months at a job. Once I learn what I'm doing and master it, I get depressed and listless. I was also the person in high school and college who took classes just because they sounded fun (like, I was never REALLY interested in acting or the theater, and yet I took both "Beginning Acting" and "Play Production" in high school, and enjoyed the classes.)

There's such a thing as a frustrated diver--that person who hasn't found their niche yet. I do wonder if that could be me. Or flipping things around: am I really a scanner that's masking as a diver right now because of anxiety/depression/whatever? There are so many ways I'm afraid to step out of my comfort zone. I'm trying to be more brave and try new things, but it's going to be a process.

If I think of all the things I have tried in the past... well, let's list them:
* photography
* drawing (when I was a kid)
* digital art (a college class I took that was open to highschoolers)
* journal/memoir writing (took a class on this)
* fiction writing (I subbed to Writer's Digest for several years)
* acting
* play production
* embroidery (I have a kit from the library that I was working on)
* candle making (never did it, but bought a kit when I was younger)
* astronomy (had a telescope)
* piano (took lessons as a kid, had electronic keyboards as an adult)
* flute (played in grammar/high school)
* violin (bought a cheap one off ebay and the Suzuki method books and played around with them)
* marathon walking
* pin loom weaving
* tablet weaving via backstrap method
* bracelet making (as a kid/teen)
* origami
* studying Japanese for fun
* anime/manga
* coding for fun (bot!)
* interactive fiction coding/writing
* website design
* DVD making (I made a simple menu for a DVD of Serenity-related items)
* painting, particularly on windows
* trading card games (MtG and LOTR)

...and probably more... that's quite a list! And I wouldn't say I mastered any of them, with the possible exception of bot. I am proud with what I did with bot. Oh, and I actually succeeded in completely a marathon, so that's an exception too. But all of the others, I dipped into for a bit. Usually, I would get REALLY EXCITED about something, throw my all into it for a bit, maybe succeed in accomplishing something, and then... drop the subject.

One thing I notice is that much of the stuff on the list has a creative element to it. I do very much feel like I'm a creator. I want to produce stuff. I want to create stuff out of nothing. I want to inspire or bring joy to people with my creations. I am happiest when talking about creating things. Also happy when discussing video games, but then it's primarily about the really good stories and characters and not so much the gameplay. I'm a sucker for a good story.

So yeah, maybe I *am* a scanner that hasn't allowed herself to explore lately. Either way, I'm gonna finish reading the book and see what Barbara has to say.