..and a mackerel sky.

Jous of spring.

Top to bottom - tete-a-tete, Jenny, February Gold and Thalia.

Be back in a week..

 ..that posts will be a bit erratic over the next couple of months. There is a lot going on (mostly nice things!) Apologies in advance.

I saw War Horse in the Theatre Royal in Glasgow on Thursday. Spectacularly good!
The stage sets and special effects amazing.

Have you seen it?  Here's a 7 minute video of the puppets and the puppeteers.

I have been learning about autophagy. We all know that the body uses sugars for energy, and that when sugars are low ketosis takes place and the body uses fat for energy. If that runs low, as when  fasting, a process called autophagy occurs and the body uses damaged cells and debris as a source of emergy, recycling and cleansing as it goes.

This is a simplistic explanation but I want to know more about this fascinating process, research into which won a Nobel prize for Dr Yoshimoti Ohmusi in 2016.

A cautionary quote from the brilliant Memoir of My Former Self by Hilary Mantel which made me laugh. -

I came across it on the internet, which is the same as saying I read it in the Beano.

I've found Dr Jason Fung interesting on this topic.

I really savoured and appreciated the luxury of a week's retreat -an hour of uoga each morning, short talks on diffent health issues, delicious juices and soups, walking in beautiful places, daytime baths and naps (so decadent!), books to browse, time alome, compamy if I wanted it...and no news for a week was very good for me.

The thing now is to incorporate some of this into normal life.

Can you see a way to build in a few good pravtices into your days? Is a once a month  'retreat day' at home a possiibility? I'm told Queen Elizabeth II fasted one day a week - I may give this a try. But gently does it.

..to accept an invitation to a fundraising afternoon tea so soom after returning from a week of super-healthy juicing..

but it would have been rude not to, don't you think?

It was absolutely delicious!


Thank you so much for all the lovely comments yesterday.

..to celebrate the 15th anniversary of Live Simply Simply Live! (See first post here.) A huge thank you to all of you who have made it such a joy in my life.

Ia m also celebrating being home again after a wonderfully restorative time at Katrina's health rerreat.

I feel rested and refreshed and full of a good steady energy and calm. I cannot recommend it enough,  and there is a place available due to a cancellation on the April retreat which you might want to fill! See the link on the previous post..

More tomorrow.

..and a week without biscuits or news! Off on a health retreat and hoping for good weather. Wishing you sunny days. x

..of things. I am always moving my things around. A visitor to the house once said 'little still lifes everywhere!' I am in good company. Matisse, even when ill in bed, would have someone move an item on the manterlpiece one or two centimetres to the right or to the left until he was satisfied with the balance of the arangement.

Mostly my arrangements are by design but sometimes they are by happey chance. A friend brought me this seed pod from Malawi and when I opened this page of my current daybook I was struck by how beautiful they looked together.

Changing thins often keeps them fresh for me.

Three of these are decades old! I don't like to finish them because they hold such precious memories.

Special nights out, Audrey Hepburn (Interdit was created for her), Penhaligon's Bluebell is spring in a bottle, and Barry loved the smell of frangipani. It reminded him of Africa where he grew up.

I don't wear perfume now (so ecpensive for one thing!) but I do love how a smell can transport you to another place or anther time. Sweet peas take me to an Aunt's cottage, dahlias to my father's allotment, orange blossom to the tree in my Cyprus garden.

I use unscented products in the house, preferring my scents to come from flowers and fruits, or branches of pine.

Writing this I realise how important scents are to me.

Are they special for you too?

 ..of the scent of hyacinth. I wonder what prompts the flower to pump out it's scent. It's not always there. Is it the temperature or the light levels? I have a single hyacinth in a glass beside my bed and woke this morning to a delicious waft of that unique perfume.

The timing was beautiful. I think it actually woke me up, and it lasted right through the breathing exercises I do while still in bed - 20 minutes or so, just washing over me, heady, intoxicating. How beautiful was that?

Do you have a favourite floral fragrance?

I am so enjoying teaching this workshop.

If you don't live near me and are interested, perhaps I could travel to you  (you kow I love to travel). If you can fit a few people round your table, or if your WI group or book group would find it interesting...

Let me know in the comments and I will get in touch by email.

My two goals for the experimental session of the workshop at home recently were to find out a)  if the author's claim that the process could be done in three hours was correct (that's Jinny Ditzler Your Best Year Yet)  and b)  whether with my impaired vision I could still teach/lead a group. I am happy to say the answer to both appears to be Yes!

To me, teaching is about sharing and I love to share my interests and enthusiasms and to teach things I believe in eg  that everyone can learn to draw, and that you can create a beautiful thoughtfully designed garden without spending thousands. I do believe that if we make plans and set goals the good things are much more likely to happen.

Looking down the stairwell of the Burgh Hall Dunoon. I rreally admire the restoration/conversion of this 150 year old building. Read about how it was bought by the community for £1 under About Us. An ideal venue for my workshop today.

 I got a Christmas card in the post today! Thank you Eleanor if you are reading this.

..but I am not sure that the boids lile the stylish new bird feeder. They are not using it much althouogh it has been in place since Tuesday...

..

I am doing another Your Best Year Yet workshop on Satuday 8th  in Dunoon. Would love to see you there!

Blissfully peaceful on the shore.

..in the big wide world, the more effort I put in to make my small conrner of it gently ordered. The more shouty the world, the more calm I become. The more uncertain, the more I am looking at the certainties - spring will come, the sun will set, the moon will rise, the robins will nest, I will have to decide what to make for dinner. The uglier events become, the more I look for the beauty and kindness - both easy to find all around me thankfully if I just take note. All this feels like a mild act of rebellion, or defiance!

I go through phases of following current affairs intensively, seeking out reliaable information and intelligent  comment, but sometimes for a spell I listen only to the headlines to know if the killing has stopped. If it hasn't, I switch off.

Just need to stay sane enough to help the helpers, which is the best I can think to do right now.

It's not much, but it's not nothing.

Fishertown in Nairn consists of tiny cottages down narrow lanes all in a huddle. They were clearly not designed for cars, wheelie bins and our predeliction for 'stuff'. I like it for the absteact compositions I find of gable ends, windows, angles and shadows.

Although it is a conservation area there  are ugly extensions on most cottages and some of the small gardens have two or even three sheds. Understandable but chrmless though in summer much of it is pretty with flowers and climbing plants.

I really loved my face to face February. Do you have anyone you really want to spend face to face time with? Can you organise it? It is a different and perhaps more meaningful and rewarding experience than screen time, wonderful though that can be.

Make it happen!

..and four straight days of sunshine in the fine little town of Nairn  in the Scottish Highlands. Lots of interesting details on the late 19C municipal buildings if you look up in the High Street.

The spring flowers are up..

but so are the Christmas decorations!

I met face to face my two sisters, a niece and her husband, a nephew and my brother-in-law and for the first time three lovely great-nieces.  I had only seen them on screens before. Walks through the town and on one of the lovely beaches, delicious meals, coonversations and laughter. Wonderful.