..taste the coffee.  Relax. Listen to the balckbird sing.

I am having to remind myself not to rush! I will probably never 'catch up' with this ever-wilder garden. Tomorrow is going to be sunny. I may just sit in it, at least while the blackbird is singing his heart out. It would be rude not to.

..here in uk is your garden growing like crazy? Are you keeping up?

Several people have said they look liike children's drawings of houses.

Here are a link which give a flavour of life on this thriving Hebridean island.

..about Tiree. This was the lovely house my friends and I stayed in, on the edge of a small tidal creek.

The walls are 5 feet thick in places.

The peaceful view from my bedroom window.

Larks, lapwings corncrakes and snipe were heard along with the constant piping of the oystercatchers and the bleating of the lambs. The occasional put put of a fishing boat..

I adored the houses on Tiree. It's a very windswept island with few trees, walls, hedges and gardens around the houses. Sheep have priority here and many of the houses are grazed right up to the walls, and I love the way they sit on the close-cropped land.

There are red toofs,  blue roofs, green roofs and thatched roofs. I am told the pink house has to be kept pink because it is described thus on the Admiralty charts.

Do you have a favourite?

..in a Twin Otter to the lovely island of Tiree.

Land of silver beaches and the cutest houses

More tomorrow..

We have had an amazing run of hot sunny days and today the first of my summer border flowers opened.

I love the hardy geraniums and grow four main ones - Patricia, Ann Folkard, Roxanne and this one psilostemnon, of which I have about ten plants. Totally trouble free, they make a wonderful show.

Wishing yu some summery weather and back in a week!

to raise a family. Well appointed, vanilla scented residence in a quiet area.

Something tiny is nesting here. I can't make out whether it is a blue tit or a coal tit..

..ever tai chi class this evening. I think I am going to LOVE it.

Berween the red gate and the shore.

..the subject of Denmark, I thought you might find this film interesting.  It's a 45 minute long film made by journnalist and advocate for Scottish independence  Lesley Riddoch and gives a good insight into the Danish way of life (the population is similar in size to that of Scotland).

I found it fascinating.

..of Danish aesthetics. This charming display was in a covered lane ourside a shop - not for sale as far as I could see - just for beauty. Candles in dayrime is a very Scandinavian thing I have copied many times.

I have also found myself removing things and I replaced the lively paintings I usually have here with a simpler drawing
of a lovely girl called Cecily who worked as a waitress in York and who I asked to sit for me.

Are you ever influenced in this way by your travels?

The everyday is often exquisite when you pause to look. (Thank you for that nice phrase Grace.) The pretty brown eggs on the blue tray - I'd never seen a blue egg tray before - delighted my eye when they were handed to me and as I put them down on the table to attnend to something else I noticed how lovely they looked beside the campanula. When I brought them into the kitchen there was no room on the counter and I recalled a perfect little basket which has been languishing in a cupboard for ages just waiting for such eggs...and the linen cloth completed the  natural scene.

Wherever you are right now, why not take a pause and  find the everyday beauty that surely surrounds you..

.
The shed is dripping with deliciously vanilla-scented clematis Elizabeth which thrives on no attention whatsoever.

The lovely warm weather also brings out the wasps and I got stung on the tip of my finger last night. I was told ice cubes on it was the thing to do but I had just used up the last of the ice cubes in a gin and tonic! I spent ten minutes sitting holding a piece of (wrapped) frozen chicken.

Still working hard in the garden as the man who usually helps me (he can do in a couple of hours jobs which take me a week) is unwell.

A huge loud thunderstorm today after which all the scents in the garden were intensified, and I am going out to pick some lily of the valley to put by my bedside. Another no maintenance plant..

Mid May is a lovely time of year here, and I am very happy in my garden.

..of beautiful little pullet eggs fresh from the farm..

..to lie in the hammoock on a hot day.

Half an hour work and half an hour in the hammock. A long day but a productive one, though I have to confess by evening I was almost on my knees!

What takes your mind off the hospitals, lawyers, vets and emails or whatever worries are going on in your life?

For a cuple of hours enptying pots, cutting grass, pushing a wheelbarrow, watering the new hedge and clearing space for a delibery of topsoil today I realised I had forgotten all about my worries. Physical work in the garden is such good therapy!

You may remember I mixed one Sarah Raven collection of tulips with three cheaper Morrisons shades of pink ones. They have been fabulous.

I'be been doing tulips in the big black pots for many years now but inspired by this display in Copenhagen I think I will go for a mixed planting next spring.

There are fritillaria imperialis and persica, tulips and narcissus, wallflowers, ranunculus, violas - stunning for a public display and maybe needs a parks department to achive it! And would I be able to get them all to flower at the same time? Food for thought..

..in the garden are the Welsh poppies. These ones have seeded themselves in the greenhouse.
The cuckoo has arrived, there are a few butterflies around and there are swallows up the glen but not here yet. Hints of summer..

..the farm's turn for the shinty team's laundry.

That's a lot of socks!

..and a very fine beach almost to ourselves.

A peaceful walk at Ostel Bay today.

Setting a pretty table is a small creative act - it's about respect for and gratitude for the food, a little ritual . Perhaps it's a bit like saying grace.

..interest me wherever I travel and Torvehallene in Copenhagen is spectacularly good.

Indoors and out the variety and quality are wonderful. Many of the indoor stands have a table or two where you can sit and enjoy their produce..

..by the delicious food in Copenhagen, I made myself an open sandwich.

Mackerel fillets, apple, parsley, lemon mayonnaise, lemon juice and some oil from the tinned fish. On buttered rye bread.

Eating it outside added to the pleasure.

The tulips and some sunny days were lovely to come home to..