Patricia Kerns

The list of things I'm not interested in would be shorter than the list of things I'm interested in. I have been accused of lacking focus from time to time. Current interests include: natural building (cob, straw bale, papercrete), renewable energy, sustainability and unconsumerism. I'm a student of the Alexander Technique, Taoism, meditation and other things that lead to relaxation. Speaking of which, I love naps. In my spare time, I enjoy playing the fiddle, and fiddling around with a tin whistle. Not long after my 53rd birthday, I believed myself to be lacking enough hobbies and acquired a button accordion, which has been no end of fun and surprise, since the same buttons play completely different notes depending whether you're pushing or pulling. I have also played the guitar for 40 years and totally suck at it, no matter how hard I try. I love to sing (the only reason I persisted for so long with the guitar), and in the last few years have become very fond of the old unaccompanied ballads from the British Isles and unaccompanied Irish Sean Nos ballads, the operative word being unaccompanied, since this obviates the need for the aformentioned ridiculously bad guitar playing. I love naps. I have always enjoyed learning new languages, and my current favorite is Irish Gaelic. I especially like the fact that hardly anyone speaks it, so I can usually rattle off whatever I want to without anyone noticing that I have abominable grammar and a terrible accent. On the artsy side, I enjoy making stained glass and mosaics. Someday when I finish building my house, I'm going to cover the whole thing in mosaics. Did I mention how much I love naps?