Reading, rea-ding, Gosford Park and other things

Yesterday's mammogram went okay, no technical hitches, pinchier than usual, and the reports as far as I can follow them seem okay. 

In the course of their technical updating, the radiology people have gone so transparent that, instead of the usual easy to read paper letter saying dear patient you're fine, the new online portal, they're all portal mad in the medic world, directs me to open the electronic letter. 

This is the letter that also goes to my doctor, full of technical terms and bet-hedging, and is pretty much above my pay grade. I did see the word benign here and there, so I think all's well. And the voicemail from the radiology folks , a high-speed gabble about next year, may also be good news. My own doctor's nurse will call and tell me intelligibly, I expect. Then there will be a letter in the mail.

While I was waiting in my little gown, mercifully nearer my size than last time, when I was given one which I had to hold up on my shoulders, made for a much bigger person, I read this.

By the end of it, I felt like an irritable teenager told to have a good day - "don't tell me what to do! You're not the boss of me!"

The afternoon at the movies was great. GP was as good as ever, and I saw more things in it than before.

I'd forgotten how old it was, too. Great antidote to disturbed nights and body squashing. 

The blogistas who predicted good sleep were so right. Hours and hours, lovely. I woke at six, opened the window to soft rain and birds carolling away. Life's definitely good.

And here's a reading line of thought. Came up earlier today, Josie George, brilliant writer, saying it would be great for her if she could get it everywhere, to assist with her visual reading issues. 

Quite a few people joined in a discussion about the relative usefulness of bolding syllables as a reading assist. To me, a lifelong fast and comprehending reader, the right hand passage was like having someone shouting at me and interrupting my thinking.

But to a lot of people with reading difficulties, it was great, and they were eager to find out where to get it and how to apply it.

Then someone else offered this

This was a terrible idea for folks with synaesthesia, because color carries all kinds of information different from the words, but again other people found it helpful to delineate phrases rather than individual words.

And there were explainers about why the bolding and coloring are obstacles to fast readers

A saccade is a group of simultaneously perceived letters or symbols, and it just means those readers grasp large pieces of text all at once, not bit by bit. 

Your humble blog writer learned to meaningfully grasp entire paragraphs in one pass,  in her final Uni year, when a working knowledge of over three hundred textbooks in both English and French was required to have a hope in the final exams, on which the entire degree depended. 

Anyway, back to now. And here's a new one on me. 

I read this easily at close to normal speed. Turns out that as long as you have first and last letters of the word, the order of letters inside the word isn't as important as you might think. Which I guess is why typos don't  destroy meaning, though they annoy people no end, particularly neat people.

What do you think? This is supposed to be about comprehension rather than speed, though the assist for one reader may completely trip up another.

It's not meant to be taken, in here, anyway, too seriously. Judgment free blogzone, we are. But I'd like to know your experience of these approaches all the same.

Happy day everyone. The swallows arrived back this week, swooping and spiralling and helping us with the mosquito population, lovely little friends. Swallows, not mozzies.

The new seedlings are big enough to see from the second floor  bedroom window now. It's all just very good. And I'm going to learn a new knitting stitch today.

Photo by AC

Breathing and looking about

A note this morning from C reminded me to look about. Lilac in bloom but not where I could stop and pic, blossom everywhere, saucer magnolia finished, partly by a late frost, partly recent rain and wind, dogwood in full bark.

First swallows all over the pond. Rain is on the way, so I expect there are plenty of insects to catch 

At my front door, the usual crowd of wild and tame flowers suddenly pushing about. First iris bud. I have to look up the wild friends again, poor memory.

And here's the latest reading. The Leon novel is a reread, the essays new to me.  I'm deep into The Strange Journey of Alice Pendelbury, too.

Also here's the Jacket's Progress. I have to lay it flat and stand to stitch, so as not to get lost.

And, on the olive oil cake front, to my amazement, it tastes much better after a day or two.  Handsome Son visited yesterday and actually liked it. But he did put in a request, while he was at it, for a repeat of the blueberry Newtons. Just in case I went over to  the olive oil cake side suddenly, I expect. Hedging his bets.

Sometimes life's about hedging your bets.

Speaking of which, I'm planning on a couple of nice upgrades at the condo once the plumbing and appliance situation is resolved.

One is a new mantel to replace the one I made and installed decades ago, which finally fell off. Here's where it was

And here's the one at the townhouse

I think the condo one, lighter colored floor, white surrounds, might be good with a paler wood, whatever Artist Michael suggests. He probably has some nice pieces he can pick from. The bas relief you can maybe see, is my work. Artist Michael will know how to accommodate it, I expect.

Raises the whole tone of the place. At the condo it's the first thing you see when you open the front door, so I'd like it to be nice to come home to.

Meanwhile, Son Michael is embarking on a serious cleaning and Winnowing, since I made the case that we need a nice environment for the original artwork mantel. He's usually oblivious to dust bisons and clutter. He's working on it now. I'll assist.

And I will replace the ancient track lights, there since the early 80s, installed by the original owner. It's time.

All in all, some progress. Thanks to you blogistas and other friends, raised spirits, too.