..has been fun to do.

Maybe a bit premature but away with the fur throw and the brushed cotton bedding and in with a bit of spring colour (extra layers still to hand of course!)

I do think what you see when you first open your eyes in the morning should delight you..picked from the garden and sparking joy.

Since I wrote this earlier today it has snowed!

Have you read Dr Hannah Ritchie's recent book Not The End Of The World?  I'd love to  know what you think of it. A dara scientist, she seems to have taken up the baton of the late and great Hans Rosling. (I first posted this more than 10 years ago.)

As with Hans Rosling there are lots of YouTube interviews, TED Talks and videos of Dr Ritchie and her message that far from being the last generation of humans on the planet we could be the first generation to create a sustainable world.

Two facsimile editions bought at Sissinghurst many years ago. Re-reading these will help me fall in love with gatdening again I am sure.

..and a variation on the kitchen shopping makeover.  Free and very easy.

Is there a place in yourc home that could do with a bit of a refresh? Maybe  a shelf in the siitting room, or a corner of the bedroom? Or a table top in your entraneway.

Decide on a colour you love that will give you a lift and go around the house and into all the cupboards to find objects of that colour and make a little arrangement of them in their new space.

This surface in the sitting room has had the same things on it for years, and although I still like it, they say a change is as good as a rest and I think there is some truth in that..

I had not intended to chamge the painting until I remembered  a series of green paintings  I did when I was learning how to use Chinese brushes then I just had to add the red candle - a little bit of opposite colour always sparks joy, and it echoes my red 'chop' which I used on the chinese brush inspired paintings, and which reads 'still learning'.

What colour will you choose, and I wonder what you will find..

,..the kitchen is decked in red. The instant makeover, courtesy of the weekly shop and a tea towel, clutters the surface a bit but of course it becomes clearer as the week goes on and the food gets eaten. Meanwhile, it sparks a little joy!

Hae you tried it?

Great Western Road is a fascinating street.

Hoos and Niki Jones are particularly beautiful. Curated and expensive - lovely for a specia gift. I resisted the exquisitely embroidered linen cushion and spent £7 in the market-like Tiger on Easter eggs and tiny cactus shaped candles.

The cafe with the generously embellished almond croissants is the Cottonrake Bakery should you find yourself in the vicinity.

We did splurge on a lovely dinner at The Annchor Line. Oh, the High Life! I so enjoyed it.

Vibrant lime green hellebores.

In the glasshouses are lovely old fashioned displays of coleus, hyacinths and petunias, beautifully cared for

and along with the jasmine smell divine.

..fills the well. A good dinner out, a walk in the Botanic Gardens, coffees and croissants and browsing in some very stylish shops.

Thursday lunchtime concerts at the University of Glasgow are wonderful (and free). Four members of the Dunedin Consort played some lesser known Bpieces on cello, viola da gamba, violin and organ. It was superb.

Watching the wet world go by

with a capuccino and an almond croissant.

My new favourite word. I only discovered it recently. It means the warmth of the winter sun. I

Do you  have a favourite word by any chance?

First the howling gales awoke us
Then the rain came down to soak us
Then, before the eye could focus
Crocus!

A morning of sunshine, kind words of encouragement from lovely blog friends and all is well.

First lunch out of doors this year.

I hope you had sun where you are, and time to relax in it.

Unable to sleep I scrolled through all the  photos of the garden under Simply Grow.

This was one of many moments of magic..

The little collection of inspiring photographs of the garden are certainly helpful as all the jobs in the garden just now are muddy ones. The paths and steps have been power-hosed, the black pots scrubbed, the greenhouse door washed and the table and four chairs cleaned, some roses pruned, some leaves raked up...and I have put in the first yew of the new hedge. It's nine days since I decided to do a job in the garden every single day. So far so good!

Wht I really want is to fall in love with the garden again. Is that possible do you think?

I looked at yesterday's photograph and thought what utterly different worlds the three parts of it represent.

The World of the Imagnation. Oil paint on canvas - created from inside someone's head (mine in this case), a fantasy, a fiction of a kind, unique.

The World of Nature. Narute which sustains us all. In the wild are these exquisite things food for some creature? Or do they just exist to be stunningly beautiful?

The World of the Internet. On this small neat device on my table in my quiet house on the loch in Scotland, I communicate with hundreds of people  on our planet from Texas to Japan, from Switzerland to New Zealand. I have no real  idea how.

My mind is truly blown!

I may have to go and lie down in a darkened room  :-)

..with Eliot. April is not the cruellest month. February is.

As many of you will know, I've always had a bit of a problem with February. (Low moods/dreary weather/mud season/ spring-will-never-cone  kind of thing).  But since I Istarted to look at it differently (see here and under Simply Write ) it has become a very interesting month for me. Perhaps I learn more about myself in Februaries than in any other month.

I began calling it my Writing Month and I had such fun with that. Last year I had Romantic February and so enjoyed the suggestions from you for music and films and books - it was a lovely time.

This year I am creating Colourful February and have ideas for Generous Febtuary, Extravagant February, Fun in February, Foodie February - should I live so long! Philosophy February. Philosophy Phebruary? Now I am getting silly..

How is February for you? And what would it look like if it was your very best month?

..life and this blog!

Happy Valentine's Day to everyone reading here.

..in fact only  on rainy days does nature provide this bit of nagical colourr.

It seems to me that there is a fine ine between 'drapey' as in soft and flattering, and 'droopy' as in saggy and ageing and I think how I accesorize these new htings will be important.

I won't be wearing a floaty skirt and dangling earrings - that look would be much too boho for my taste and would accentuate the already droopy lines on my face! (When did that happen?)

Instead I will wear a sharp pair of straight leg dark navy jeans (I like Sienna Straight from M^S), simple navy ankle boots and a neat crisp style of earrings. Like these vintage Swedish ones. A subtle balancing act. A nice challenge.

• Trying different combinations of the new things will be fun.
  

Have you bought yourself anything new lately?

I am really liking my new clothes fron Kettlewell Colours. I bought the first short cascade wrap and infinity scarf a few weeks ago, and they felt so right for me that I ordered another of each in different colours.

They work well with my standard round neck long sleeved T-shirts.

You know those things that when yu put them on you just feel like yourself and you can forget you are wearing them because you feel confident that they are right for you? That is, you don't feel self conscious in them, just very comfortable both physically and psychologically. I think when you find them you stock up!

Tomorrow making sure 'drapey' doesn't become 'droopy'..

The Kettlewell site has a quiz to help you decide what colours suit you best.

There is so much that is beautiful in our world.

I find this website inspirational and beautiful. I suuggest you scroll down to the video. What do you think?

..and a totally free and almost instnat kitchen makeover.

When I unpacked the shopping today I kept out on view everything that was yellow and put out of sight everything that wasn't.  I put things I wanted close at hand in a yellow carrier bag and hung it on a handle. I found my yellow apron and chose a few yellow cards from my lovely collection.

Just for fun.

Next week it may be red.  Or green.

Tomorrow I will go and find some branches to put in the yellow pot.

,,on the garden spring clean - MIT for the next few months. (Most Important Task.)

Bright sunshine had me up and about early this morning. There was some snow on the tops. (Hoping for more!)

A wet autumn and winter have meant a coat of green algae on the garden furniture. Scrubbing kept me warm.

I've decided to focus a lot of energy on the garden for the next few months by doing a miniimum of one task a day, even if it is a small one, and having as much paid help as I can afford.

To inspire me I have put a small pile of photos of t.he garden in the kitchen and I will prop a different one up by the kettle each day, and I am making myself accountable by stating my intention here! This helps us stick to our commitments it is said. Probably true for me. Does that work for you?

I do like having paper photos and you can get  45 of them a month  free from Freeprints. (How do they manage that?)

Thank you for all the recent links to colourful shoes ad slippers!  I have recently discovered Kettlewell Colours and am awaiting my second order from them. They do have a sale on just now..

Meanwhile there is colour around the house to enjoy.

I am enjoying Gretchen Rubin's book  Life In Five Senses. There is a quiz (see here) to identify which of your senses you may be neglecting. Mine unsurprisingly is touch. I don't have pets and the babies and little children in the family have all grown up! So I think through February I will focus on the sense of touch.

A nice little meditation  which yu can do almost amytine and anywhre is to just take a pause and take note - try it now - of what you can see, what you can hear (as I write I can hear yet another gale buffeting the house), what you can smell and taste and touch....

It brings you into the here and now and reminds you you are alive!

Let's make February really colourful.

A little branch of cornus which I had picked for the January nature table because of its lovely dark bark has begun to burst into not just leaf but flower in the warmth of the room.

So I picked lots of small branches to see what will happen - prunus, azalea, rhodedendron, skimmia, and I don't know what else as it was windy and rainy and I was just clipping randomly at anything that looked promising.

Spring will come and if I can bring it on a little earlier so much the better!

I couldn't resist adding the little bird to the collection when it arrived in the post with a packet of poppy seeds from a friend..