..for kids at the local supermarket.

I'm posting another photograph of the flowers to show you the wee small scale... We don't have billowing clouds of cow parsley here but there is this diminutive form called pignut - very dainty and sweet - when we lived in Yorkshire and in Oxfordshire I loved big vases of cow parsley, but it's not abundant enough to pick here in Argyll.

..can be found in the simplest things..

William Maxwell is my new favourite author, and I am working my way through everything he has written!

Reading his novels is like being in an Edward Hopper painting, listening to Henry James  perhaps, with Gregory Peck in To Kill A Mocking Bird as the main character.

I started with The Chateau. A story about a happy couple a freind said and I thought Oh I could do with that - a happy story, and I knew I was going to France so I was extra interested. I read it slowly to savour the beautiful writing. it was a happy read I am glad to say.

They Came Like Swallows is told from three points of view. Insightful and tender with characters who are totally credible. Maybe the one to start with to see if you like this author.

Be warned that So Long, See You Tomorrow is perhaps the saddest book I have ever read.

Have you discovered any new-to-you authors whose works look like becoming new favourites?

My friend in the next village has a steep bank at the back of her house which is looking spectacular right now with rhododendrons, acers, rowans and a huge copper beech nearly 100 feet up.

There are 99 steep steps to the top and the head of a waterfall.

From the front garden she can watch, and hear. porpoise and dolphin.

Stunning.

I like the primary colours on the ferry, and the way they contrasted today with the subtle misty colours of the sea and the sky and the faint rainbows...

Since it was Chelsea Flower Show Week last week, and the Scottish version Gardening Scotland this coming week, I hope you will indulge me if I post more photographs of flowers.

it's a very pretty time of year in the garden.

I was conditioning the lilacs by crushing their stems so that they can take up water - they are from the garden, from a tree which we cut to the ground years ago because it was spindly and sad looking. They are scenting the whole room.

I was thinking too of my childhood conditioning. Buying myself flowers is one of the ways I treat myself well. Growing up in a poor part of a big city I remember that we could not buy the first flowers (daffodils) that came into the local fruit and vegetable shop because they were too expensive. We had to wait until the price went down. It was the same with strawberries. So flowers were an extravagance.

Perhaps an advantage of growing up relatively poor is that you never take the non-essentials for granted. I still get a thrill when I buy flowers and get a huge thrill from growing and picking them. If I buy myself an expensive bunch I almost feel a bit rebellious! Kind of defiant. If I am hesitating over them - and I usually am - I find that asking myself 'Whyever not?' allows me to go ahead, as I have not yet come up with a good reason why I should not have them  I never regret it.....crazy really!

There's a lot going on emotionally in the simple act of buying a bunch of flowers and of treating myself well.

Does something from your childhood stop you from treating yourself well?

..but friendly.

I am so enjoying trying out new restaurants and coffee shops in Glasgow since my favourite closed. and I do like this one..

Rich in maritime history with walls covered in posters and photographs, the coffee is good and the affogato to die for!

And it is across the road from my bus stop.

Just every now and then I do treat myself well :-)


What way do you treat yourself well?

I once visited the village of Naerum, a short train journey from Copenhagen to see the allotment gardens designed by C Th Sorensen. The way the oval shapes sat in the undulating site was delightful and I am waiting until my patch has been cleared and graded (it will slope towards the corner where the shed is) before I decide whether to make the meadow circular or oval. I know I'll know when I see it!

I am going to plant 150 or so wild dafodills (narcissus pseudonarcissus) and will collect seed from local wildflowers to grow in plugs and plant into the grass - first will be pignut (conopodium majus) which is looking pretty right now in the mini meadow in the front garden and buttercups from the road verges.

I am looking for low maintenance but I still want the wow factor....

I'm enjoying browsing these books by Christopher Lloyd and Pam Lewis though I am mindful that they both gardened in the south of England.

A circular meadow with a path to the red gate mown through it....

Angus and his digger are booked for late August so there is still time to ponder.

Overheard on the No 489 bus...

Some people. Moan, moan, moan. Ah said away ye go tae Yemen an' moan.


Well said! I thought.

We also used the back garden as a drying greeen...

We planted a few birch trees. They were meant to be the white-barked 'Jaquemontii' but turned out to be the faster growing and taller native birch - however this did mean that they soon became strong enough to support what turned out to be my favourite thing in the garden - the hammock!

Above all I wanted a cutting patch. I was totally seduced by Sarah Raven's lovely book.

We removed the conifers which blocked the view, the slabs, a wreck of a shed and other junk, planted hedge to fill the large gaps and give us privacy from the houses on either side, mowed the rough grass, put up a shed and woodstore and a 6X8 greenhouse and started a cutting patch growing everything from seed...

Have you ever started a garden from scratch?

Can I ask if anyone has found the layout of the blog page changed and the size of the font reduced? Oddly it appears misaligned on my laptop but not on my tablet or phone, or when I am in 'edit' on the laptop. Weird, and annoying!

..of the back garden.

I'm thrilled that this photograph of the garden won photographer Andrea Jones 2nd place in the Garden Views section of the International Garden Photographer of the Year Award and appeared in this gorgeous book

The view was always fabulous but the garden when we bought the house did not inspire
...

I thought I would consider how it evolved as I start to redesign it...

I love doing something different each year with the large black pots.

This year it is going to be palest pastels, pretty and frothy... petunias, violas, nicotiana for some hieght, trailing lobelia and bacopa andpale sweet peas on canes painted white.

In this prolonged spell of lovely weather gardening has been such a pleasure. A few more days of it are forecast.

I hope it's nice where you are.

A bunch of mint makes a simple (chemical-free) air freshener - a little rub with your fingers scents the whole room....

I watched a robin take a long bath in this shallow dish of water this morning. As well as bathing in it, birds drink from it, the swallows need it to make mud for their nests, it brings the sky down into the garden and reflects things in it. You can also tell at a glance if it's raining. It's an important addition to any garden however small. (I am scarifying the grass - it always looks worse before it looks better!)



When I am trying to make a decision I still find What would be simplest? my favourite helpful question but here is a good one from Gretchen Rubin -

What is the value of what I'm going to get if I...........?

After yesterday's chocolate fun I worked off some calories today as conditions were perfect for gardening and there is a lot to be done here.

I sowed, pricked out, transplanted, weeded, tied in, edged, mulched, watered, pruned, deadheaded and planned some big changes and between times I sat on the porch in the beautiful sunshine and listened to Private Passions.

By the time I had dinner, also on the porch, the light had changed, slanting across the garden catching the about-to-flower cornus.

I hope you had a sunny Sunday

for £1 Thornton's do this little pack of 8 chocolates - perfect for the chocolate mindfulness trial.

The record was 7 minutes and 41 seconds and I could still taste it after 10 minutes (but my mind was all over the place!).

I am so lucky to have a bluebell wood across the road from my house.

Sometimes I have to pinch myself when I look our of the front door and see this

I have to go shopping for chocolate tomorrow...!

I just have to try this one out!

Dr Michael Moseley suggests putting a chocolate in your mouth and keeping it there for a full 10 minutes, concentrating on the taste and savouring it, putting all other thoughts out of your head.

My friend says that is impossible as chocolate melts at body temperature so it would not last that long. In the interest of science I feel obliged to test it :-)

For more sensible and serious advice from Michael Moseley there are lots of videos of his BBC TV programmes and talks on YouTube

 Re yesterday's post How To Reduce Your Carbon Footprint When You Fly is a BBC video that encourages us all to make tiny changes...

..that we will simply stop flying for holidays or to the other side of the world to see our families, or just stop centrally heating our homes if we live in a cold climate, or cooling them if we live in a hot one, or give up driving cars - and having one each, or abandon other modern luxuries that most of us take for granted and many of us imagine are actually rights. You just need to observe how an eco-tax can lead to riots in the streets...

Carrots, not sticks? Incentives, improvements, new inventions, efficiencies, information, optimism?

Less likely to lead to hopelessness, depression or civil unrest - or so I like to think..

I know It is anything but simple.

And that ways must be found.

.. I love flying. 

A few days before I left for New Zealand I was on the beach watching a gull effortlessly soaring high in the air and I thought I'd soon be up there with her, though to get me up there would take the efforts of thousands of people, millions of pounds, hundreds of gallons of flammable and polluting fuel, and systems so complex and amazing that they blow my mind. I've flown in a balloon, gliders, a sea plane and various small aircraft, a Hercules and the usual commercial planes, but this long haul flight was the first time I'd flown in an Airbus. Emirates Economy Class is pretty luxurious.

I always have a window seat ( I gave up learning to fly a glider when I realised that all I really wanted was to look down. I don't think I'd have made a very safe pilot!). My favourite feature of this comfortable and quiet aircraft with its 14 flight attendants speaking 18 languages, is the flight information panel (forget the zillion films). I am up here looking down on the earth. Real geography, maps come alive, names conjuring up history and memories as I fly over Europe including Dresden where my husband's father was born, mountain ranges and deserts, the flares of the oil rich gulf states in the darkness, place names which are familiar only because people there are at war.....

In the quiet and almost empty early morning airport in Melbourne, a family have made a little camp. Mother and baby lie on a yoga mat on the floor, equipment and luggage are spread out in an orderly way over 5 or 6 chairs and father is entertaining a toddler who has such a delightful and infectious giggle that I move a few seats closer to hear him better.

On the way home we follow the night. Fourteen hours of dark is challenging but I get this shot of sunset on the wing over Sydney

We are not going to stop flying.

It's not going to happen.

More tomorrow...

Such good advice,,

Compare Yourself To Who Youe Were Yesterday And Not To Who Someone Else Is Today.

 (Jordan Peterson's 12 Rules For Life.) I hereby promise to stop comparing myself to Matisse and just get on and paint!

 I hope to have more time to review the next interesting rule - Do Not Let Your Children Do Anything That Makes You Dislike Them.

Regular readers will know I like motivational books (The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up by Marie Kondo - loved them both.)
You may also remember I don't like to call them self-help books because I fear that makes me sound too needy though I expect I am just as needy as the next person :-).

Anyway, I have used this one in the past, working on it with a friend and finding it really useful. The idea is to look back at your achievements and disappointments over the last year, see what you have learned and make plans and create goals for the year ahead.

It focusses the mind, and I'm enjoying answering the ten questions nd sharing my thoughts with the friend who is doing it too.

Do you like self-help - oops, I mean motivational books? And are there any you would recommend?


If you would like to live a more poetic life you might find motivation here with my friend Lynne in her new venture!