..not only that it still exists, but that it works as well as it does.

Venice that is.

Deliveries, ambulances - yellow with blue flashing lights, rubbish collection - steep fines if you get it wrong! Repairs, sewage, I was aware of working vessels on the canals day and night. Washing hanging out to dry. One of the nicest sounds was the voices of children going to school in the mornings in the street below our apartment.

This issue is one of the most contentious of all..

We saw a swallow in Venice, and yesterday I spotted the first one here. I wonder if they will nest with us again...

A lovely gardening day. Warm and sunny (though raining now as I write). Perfect for dividing and planting and moving established plants. I am simplifying - trying to be less 'fussy' - more of the things which do best and a sad farewell to some old favourites, but they are going to good homes in a local community garden, so not too sad....

,I planted lots of daffodil Thalia in pots to fill some gaps and although they are flowering at slightly different times this year I think they may flower in sync  next year. Geranium Patricia is ready to fill the space when the daffs are over.

I love the lime green foliage of geranium Ann Folkard and its magenta flowers and nice habit of lightly sprawling over other things without harming them. I have about 6 or 7 if these scattered throughout the garden.

This quite well-behaved bamboo (sadly I have forgotten it's name) was growing up through the horizontal branches of viburnum Maresii and spoiling it's form, so Jennie has moved it to nearer the yellow gate and given it it's own space. To make room we took out three veronicastrum which had the unpleasant habit of the dying of all the lower leaves while the flowers were still looking good. It had to go to the compost. Looking at the photograph I see that it looks rather scrappy but there are lots of new shoots at the base.

The new foliage on the Cornus controversa variegata is a delight (and the deer left it alone this year thankfully.

Geranium Rozanne is a great performer though I have noticed some of my older plants dying out in the middle. I may buy a few fresh ones to fill some gaps. It's the longest flowering of the hardy geraniums here. It's so exciting to see all the new growth.

I have five pots of white violas already looking summery on the front steps. Planted from a couple of 'six packs' they are a very cheap and easy option which will probably last for months with a little deadheading and not much else.

I am hoping the white lupins will be in flower by Open Day. The plan is to have five or six areas looking close to perfect and hope that I will get away with the in-between bits! We shall see!

Do you have a garden? Ot do you enjoy other peoples' gardens?

It really is a wonderful time of the gardening year - so full of vigour and promise.

 
We did not shop in Venice, except for food. until our last morning when I bought some Murano glass gifts and Heather bought a beautiful little bag, but do come  window shopping with me - what windows! What style!

Do you have a favourite place to window shop?

I go for a walk in tne forest of Fontainebleau. I get green indigestion. i must get rid of this sensation into a picture. Green rules it. A painter paints to rid himself of feelings and visions.

I've always liked this quotation (and have quoted it before I know).

I am paraphrasing him when I say I visited Venice. I must process the feelings and sensations. A writer writes to....

I plan to write more blogposts about Venice and alternate with posts about gardening, which is grounding me nicely, and becoming somewhat urgent. Open Day is seven short weeks away. This morning was warm and sunny and I planted seven white lupin 'Noble Maiden', pulled (most of) the not-so-black leaves from the ophiopogon nigrescens and admired the primroses.

There is a 'back story' (if I am using that term correctly) to my Venice trip which newer readers of Live Simply Simply Live may not know of..

My husband Barry and I had planned to spend a month in Venice in February 2016 and had done lots of research and planning and booked an apartment which was very Venetian. We wanted to know we were in Venice and didn't want to stay in a place which could have been anywhere. So the one we found  had a canal, a bridge and a private terrace with a view of this 15C church! You can see the apartment here.

When Barry died unexpectedly the owners of the apartment said they regretted they could not refund the deposit but would hold it indefinitely to be used by me or anyone I cared to give it to, and it went to the back of my mind for many months.

As you can imagine it was with mixed feelings I went to Venice without Barry and to the apartment we had so carefully chosen. I know Barry would have been as thrilled as I was that our lovely Heather came along. She made it fun and a very healing and happy experience.


Last night I watched a production of Vera Brittain's Testament of Youth. In it, towards the end, Winifred tells Vera, who has suffered devastating losses at a very young age,

'All of us are surrounded by ghosts. Now we need to learn how to live with them. You must start at the beginning. Get up, get dressed, eat. Spring is out there, waiting...'

For me, Venice was out there, waiting, and I'm very glad I went to meet her.

..everywhere for my birthday yesterday; cards and gifts and delicious food.

What could be nicer?

(Thank you everyone.)

The tulips which are on the porch and out of reach of the deer are looking good too.

April has been amazing.

..in Venice which is still a living city of some 57,000 people.

I had read of this tradition to announce the arrival and the sex (blue for a boy, pink for a girl) of a new baby by attaching a ribbon to the door.

Graffiti on the hoarding around the Accademia Bridge which is being restored.

I had planned to visit the church of SS Giovanni e Paolo on our last morning but a funeral was taking place.

I have been following this blog about Venice with interest for a few years. The writer Steven Varni, wrote a post about the very funeral I mention above.

Do you have a special theatre memory, or dream as yet unfulfilled?

When I was in Venice as an Erasmus student I couldn't afford a ticket for the opera (it cost my whole week's food money) and not very long after La Fenice burned to the ground and I thought that was the end of that particular dream.

So I was especially thrilled when my daughter and son-in-law bought me a ticket, and I bought Heather a ticket to the now beautifully and faithfully restored Opera House to see Madame Butterfly.

We showed our tickets and the elderly, very courteous usher said, in Italian, 'Follow me' and when he got to our box took out a tiny key and with a little flourish unlocked the door!

Rarely was my disbelief so willingly suspended.

It was magical.

as I post a few more memories of Venice!

I learned from Heather, who learned from Cinzia, who learned from her mother exactly now to make an espresso. I didn't know I liked it.

This came today. First try tomorrow morning.

How do you like your coffee?

This is quite fun.

I only read it after I came back :-)

..returning.

..to sketch and paint, having just spent a few inspiring days with my artist friend Caroline Bailey who generously invited me to share her wonderful studio space. See Caroline's stunning work here.

The journey to Skye where she is now based meant a bus route along the shores of Loch Lomond, through moody Glencoe and over the bridge to windy Skye and its stunning west coast.

Apart from her obvious talent (she is a wonderful colourist) I am so impressed by Caroline's commitment and sheer hard work, and - that word again - passion.

She has just had a very successful show at the Walker Art Gallery in Harrogate.


No more excuses Freda.

Just do it.

I got a little boost too from an email while I was in Venice to say that I had sold four small paintings in a local gallery.......and I'm staying home now, 'til at least next Tuesday!

..like no other!

In Libreria Acqua Alta they are prepared for high water and flooding

with books stacked in a gondola

in bathtubs

and in kayaks.

You can sit and read looking onto the canal

This is also the fire escape. And there are chandeliers on the crumbling ceiling,

and several cats.

Fantastico, no? 

Back soon.

If you have been to Venice you will know that even in April it can be very crowded and we found it best to be out early, or late after the day trippers have left, and to go to some of the lesser known museums and galleries.

On our first full day Heather had us up before dawn to see the sunrise from in front of the Doge's Palace.

This is my favourite shot.

One of the many sweepers out at dawn to clean, with birch brooms, the Piazza and the surrounding areas.

There were only the sweepers and a few other photographers around and the light was beautiful.

The Bridge of Sighs Ponte del Sospiri built in the 1600's and so called because of the supposed sighs of those who passed from the courts of the Doge's Palace on the left to the prison building on the right.

It took us just 15 minutes with the help of Google to get from our apartment to Piazza San Marco, without it it took 40 fascinating minutes to get back!

There is something to astonish and delight at every turn.

Back for breakfast on the terrace in warm sunshine!

Bliss.

Heather and I were walking back through a quiet, almost empty Piazza San Marco to our apartment having just been to a superb performance of Madame Butterfly in La Fenice. It had rained while we were in the theatre. The cafes were almost empty and the chairs were being cleared away but the orchestra was still playing...I didn't really want anything other than Puccini in my head, but my feet were doing the listening and they could not help but move to Scott Joplin. Heather laughed and videod me (No, I am not showing it here!)

Almost exactly two years to the day since this post...

I am passionate about Venice.

A wedding today.

More passion.

More dancing!

So happy.

Venice by night is magical. Lighted windows became something of a theme....

'Our' bridge! The door to our apartment is just by the railings on the right.

..for joy in Piazza San Marco last Tuesday night.

What are you passionate about?

I read that fear is overcome by passion.

Would you agree?


And would you agree that you can make a choice to be passionate about something?

A blog break while I ponder this (and test it).

I find it very hard to believe that this (today)

can possibly do this (17 June 2017)..

by Open Garden weekend on 16 and 17 June this year.

I am so glad to have this evidence to calm the slight panic arising!

..forgive me if posts are erratic?

.. bitter cold wind and more snow on the tops, but good friends staying, delicious food and some very nice wine, a fire, candles, a friendly little dog, and the music of Tord Gustavsson made me very happy.

Happy enough to help me get over the discovery that the early morning deer ate almost a hundred white tulips to the ground.

Country life.

Love it.

..on Loch Fyne today.

In the village of Newton is a long floating pontoon.

Looking north from it..

Looking south to the village..

and at the end of it a picnic table! With flag.

One day I will take a picnic there.