I learned very early in my career that I couldn't take care of my baby daughter, my special needs pupils and my home if I didn't take care of myself (How did I do all that?!)

 Rosemary in yesterday's comments must have picked up on the fact that I just re-ordered a book I found interesting some years ago - The Art Of Extreme Self Care by Life Coach Cheryl Richardson. I intend to read it as I did first time round, one chapter a month for the year. What better time? In the first chapter she has you ask what you feel deprived of - sleep, emotional support....and what you can do about it. The answers and solutions will be different during a pandemic - so that will be interesting!

Isn't it astonishing that these feeble looking little seedlings (sown in November) can produce such beauty and fragrance.  I got the heated propagator out of the shed today and put it in the studio ...

Usually very self motivated I must admit to finding it harder these days. But I am a great believer in carrots rather than sticks so have been tryng a few old strategies.

One is to set up a tray with coffee in a favourite cup and saucer and fill the kettle, set the timer for 15 minutes and get moving. I remember FlyLady saying you can do anythng for 15 minutes. It's true, and I will someitmes do longer once I am started.

When our families were little and we were working full time and studyiing too, a friend and I had an arrangement when things got really chaotic. One of us would phone the other on a Saturday morning and say The place is a mess . Woud you like to come for lunch at one? Right you've got two hours the other woud say and we would get the family to join in and whizz round the house cleaning and tidying and making lunch in record time. It worked every time, and we would enjoy the rest of the day.

I did that with the same friend the other Sunday. I texted her to say I coudn't motivate myself to do anything - If I got things done within the next hour coud I reward myself with a call with her?. She agreed and said she would do tasks which she had been putting off  for a week. One hour later with everything done, we had a lovely long chat, all the while laughing at ourselves for needing such tactics still!

How do you get yourself motivated when you feel you really can't be bothered?  All suggestions welcome!

Major part of my We will get through this kit!

Like mnds from all around the planet - 6 - 700 of you. It thrills and astonsihes me. It gives me a focus each day, it flatters me that I am listened to (!) and the warm affection I experience here and the sense of yuo listeining to each other definitely heps me through. Living smply in an ever more complex world isn't easy is it? Thank you so much for reading.

On the grey days I have lots of light - candles, lamps,  I don't stint on them. They lift my spirits and represent light at the end of this long tunnel. Here in the northern hemisphere daylight is extending too - so cheering.



A question - has anyone used those 'silver plating' products which claim to restore worn silver? If so, would you recommend them?

(I may have used that line already!)

But where would we be without Zoom, WhatsApp and Facebook? Lonelier than we are already is where we would be. My  social life is on devices- family, friends and book group, coffee mornings, crossword evenings, Saturday nights with my sisters....it's wonderful.  Even if as it were, one step removed from reality. And you know how I like 'the real thing';.

Susan wonders if everyone feels they want people in their homes (yesterday's comments). I had not realised until lockdown that I am really a much more sociable person than I thought I was. I like my own company but not all the time! I really love having visitors - for coffee, to sit in the garden, for dinner - especially if they are staying over and we can sit and talk till late....maybe its the thing that most makes my house a home.


What about you? How is your social life?

I have just been listening to our First Minister telling us, yet again, to stay home, and to not even think of travelling.

Never has it been more important that our homes should be our sanctuaries - should comfort and sustain us and bring us joy. So I am continuing to think about how my home can help me through the pandemic....good progress has been made in 'putting my house in order' which is what I set out to do in the first lockdown, imagining that it might last a month or two.

Thanks to FlyLady (whom I heard about in the unlikely place of Leo Babauta's Zen Habits - which is like an ultra cool version of old fashioned Fly Lady) The house is clean. With Marie Kondo's help it's pretty uncluttered and organised.  I was lucky enough to get some decorating done during the easing of lockdown, outside repairs are being done and the outside is being painted in the spring.  So something positive has come out of this period.

I have flowers and candles, art upon the walls, heat and light and nothing to complain about, but what my home needs most is people in it, and that I can't have! Like all of us I am finding this tough.

So the next most important part of the 'we will get through this kit'; is undoubtedly video calls - Facebook, Zoom, WhatsApp.


I so enjoyed your comments yesterday - sausages and Sibelius, too much chocolate, slowing down and dressing up, and lipstick under the mask - thanks for sharing!

That Atlas of Great Britain makes it look like I am planning to travel! (It's an old photo...)

This is like a post-Covid wish list of placesI want to visit again....and the return of the garden.

Does the idea of a post-Covid wish list appeal to you? I coulld enjoy giving that a little thought..

..during my recent blog break.

The new laptop broke down (which was the reason for the break), the electric blanket gave up the ghost, the juicer  bowl stuck to the base, and the sight in my right eye dereriorated further. Oh and the doors of my bus jammed shut with me still on it!

The laptop is fixed, I have a hot wter bottle, with a lot of patience I released the bowl from the juicer and clearly, I got off the bus - though it took a little time. The eye problem is not so easily solved alas, though some tretment is planned which may help.

Otherwise all is well, though it is taking time to get back into the rythm of blogging and I am still having difficulty posting photographs - but am working on it. I have had a few paddles in the loch and some lovely walks, and am still enjoying poetry and the shore most days.

As I was cooking some sausages today it began to snow - at last! So I got all togged up and wandered around the garden with a sausage on a fork.


Are you still in lockdown where you are?

I am so choosy about where I get my information from. Are you?

I want my news from a person, a named person, one with some editorial/peer review/fact checking background. One whose political affiliation and/or vested interests are known. One who is accoountable. And even then I may retain a degree of scepticism! More than one such source is even better.

I don't want information/misinformation from an anonymous algorithm driven search engine, unaccountable to anyone, which targets me with only what it has decided I want to hear - essenially a robot.

Or maybe I will step off my little soapbox and, just for a bit,  let the world get on with what it does, and feed the birds and observe the snowdrops and the stars  :-)

Lovely.

..and so beautiful.

I put on quilted coat, another scarf, woolly hat and gloves and stood out in the garden till my  eyes adjusted a bit to the dark. The moon had a bright halo, and to the left of it Orion stood out first. As I watched more and more stars seemed to switch on until the sky was brilliant with them. It's awe inspiring, isn't it - a frosty starry night!

Indoors  again before my nose froze, to a glowing fire and a late supper of ripe pear, feta cheese and walnuts and a little glass of wine.

The water is heating for a deep hot bath.

Happy..

I've never forgotten a history lecturer saying -

Most of us live in the realm of the norm.
 
Thankfully!

 :-)


(I am not at all sure how this stands up in a time when norms have been altered .....but I leave you with the thought.)

 
Still here! Hope you are too.

Have just been planting up a pot with two pretty hellebores and three little ivies from  the supermarket to brighten up the back steps.

I took a lovely photogrpah to show you but.....can't upload it!

 
I've been thinking a lot about news - what it is, and where we get it from. Will write about that tomorrow and about the news from my own ltiny conrer of the world.I do hope all is well in your corner and send warm wishes to all the American readers on this important day.

Sorry!

My new laptop has decided to join the rest of the country and lockdown. 

I may be some time.  Meanwhile, stay safe, stay strong and find some January joy wherever you can.
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Decor that is wintry but not Christmassy...

I like the neutral colours after all the bright red and green

A garland of white foxes!

There is a tiny Santa on his sleigh in this little painting (but he is on his way back home).

The first daffodills thrill me.

Hot plums, toasted flaked almonds and cream.

Thank you Charlie Mackesey

I will.

From Shorelines, the book of poetry I am reading through January.

Haiku

Shiki (1867 - 1902


Long the Summer Day...
Patterns on
The Ocean Sand...
Our Idle Footsteps

Here is my winter adaptation

Short  the Winter Day...
Patterns On
The Frozen Grass...
My spark-joy footsteps


It feels like deep mid-winter tonight - snow forecast. Stay warm!

the necessity of lockdown against this terrible disease. The stories of hardship and heartbreak can be overwhelming, even for someone like me lucky enough so far to be relatively unaffected.

So it's one day at a time, and today is the twelfth day of Christmas so time to take down the decorations. Doing that and cleaning out the fridge for a fresh start took most of the day (work expanding to fill the time available I suspect).

I took a walk too in beautiful sunshine - it was warm enough to sit on a rock on the beach for a while.

 
Isn'tit lovely to receive a thank you card, or letter/call/text...

I am thinking  about how to decorate the rather bare house for the rest of winter now. Daffodils bought at the supermarket will help and I have just remembered that I always say at this time of year that when I take the decorations down I notice how badly the rooms need decorated - not this year! They are freshly painted (September)  - SO NICE!

Come walk with me
Along the sea
Where dusk sits on the land
And search with me
For shells are free,
And treasures hide in  sand.

Anon

This is the first poem in Shorelines and I thought it would be a lovely thing to read a poem each day of January and then take a walk upon the shore with that poem in mind.  It was a bitterly cold walk at dusk tonight, and before I ventured out with as many layers as an onion - thermals and two scarves - I made sure the fire was stoked up and a tray was set with cranberry and orange tea and a slcie of Betty's Christmas cake (thank you Lynne!).

I am so glad I went! It was beautiful. Joyful.

Where to find it? I don't think the government are giving amy out, and indulging in what could easily become a morbid obsession with world news is unlikely to provide much, nor is scoffing all the leftover seasonal goodies which I would normally be sharing with visitors but now feel obliged to consume all by myself..and it may be a long wait for the vaccine.

No.

It's time to take back control and assume sovereignty over my own life again.

If I am to find joy in January I will have to look elsewhere. And I think I may have found a beautiful starting point in the lovely Christmas gift of an anthology of poems called Shorelines. (Thank you Maggie!)

I may have found my word too....

Where will you look for joy in January?

Because it is quite important that there is some, don't you think?

Wishing all who visit here health, strength and happiness in 2021