Coffee will make you jittery

Alcohol will impair your judgement

Drink water

Lots of it

X

.Yes, I know some of you are basking n the sun....but this was the weather when I had my friend to stay recenrly!

..to celebrate the beautiful things.

Midsummer night and a brandy Alexander.

What do you see when you first open your eyes in the morning?

If you are very lucky it will be the face of your beloved.

Or is it used tissues, a dirty coffee cup, random clutter, clothes in a heap or a stain on the ceiling (I am embarassed to think how long I lived with that once upon a time!), or do you look at something that needs fixed, that could be easily fixed and that should have been fixed a long time ago?

Make the first thng you see something beautiful, or happy, or funny - a favourite card, a flower, a photograph which makes you smile or feel grateful. Or create a little still life with all of these, and it might only take ten minutes.

Start your day happy. Whyever not?

Geranium Ann Folkard with it's lime green leaves and graceful habit is another I woul not be without.

..you will have are the ones you have with yourself.  When you waken, before you even open your eyes, what do you say to yourself?

Is it Oh no, it's Monday! or God I'm late again or perhaps you say, like Piglet I wonder what's going to happen exciting today.

Is your self-talk negative or positive? It is interesting to observe whether it might be setting the tone for the day.



I like to think of ways of making the day more enjoyable, more fulfilling, more beautiful regardless of, or even in spite of what is scheduled.

Notice what you think when you waken up tomorrow!

..with an alarm clock.  A simple old fashioned one with a pleasant sound,  which I am rather fond of. I set it for seven in summer and eight in winter. I don't set ot on Sundays. I very often waken just before it goes off.

All too oten I waken long before it goes off. What is it about three in the morning?!

It was quite by chance that I photgraphed my little clock at ten past ten, but it reminded me that I once read that clocks for sale are always set at this time because it looks happier than say twenty past eight. Hurrah or amalogue!

What wakens you? Could it bee nicer?

Sometimes crtises make you want to rethink things. My own and my family's health crises have recently put me in that frame of mind.

I think it was Tony Robbins who said that the biggest problem is that people think they shouldn't have problems! The notion that a crisis is also an opportunity seems a useful one and I want to explore that idea.

Keeping it smple I thought about how I start my day.

How do you waken up?

Naturally, after a sound sleep and in good time for whatever you want to do?

No, me neither! Or rarely...

Just one warm sunny June day and I fall in love with my garden again.. It's rough around the edges, there is lots undone but it is lush and abundant and full of life and birds and bees and butterflies and today it felt like a little bit of heaven.

Wildly pretty and romantic on a day like today!

Sometmes rose-tinted spectacles are the only thing to wear.

Whyever not if they make you happy?

..and interesting in its way but summery?  11 degrees (51.8 F) when I left home. It did brighten up a bit on the way back but was still chilly.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if MaryB and Cathy could send us some sunshine from Texas and North Caroline?

Wishing you some sunshine this weekend..

Am givng up sugar rfor a month.  Squished raspberries on hot toast is just as niice as jam!
 

I like to pretty up the greenhouse for midsummer, and it is a good place to sit out of the cold north wind! Where is summer?

Mackintosh at The Willow has now been taken over by the Natonal Ttust for Scotland. The tearoon in Sauchiehall Street in Glasgow is a lovely place to meet a friend, and the wonderful thing about it is it is not a museum - it is being used as was intended and everything in it is a work of art of such originality and skill that it is breathtaking. Even more astonishing is that it opened in 1903, just 2 years after the death of Queen Victoria.

..I retreat into nature and my own small world. That's how I am. Others may leap into the fray to try to chage tings and I can admire that. We need good people who do that.

Buttercups and orchids and the blackbd's song. Someone has to admire them, and today it is me!

What looks like a little light within the buttercup is actually the reflection of the candle flame on the table, such is the brilliant gloss on the flower petal. Fields of buttercups are one of my favourite sights in the countryside just now.  You will have to imagine thick buttercups with some very handsome jet black cows feeding on them as, laden with shopping, I couldn't get off the bus to photograph them..

I hope you are lucky enough to have fields of buttercups mear you or that you can make a trip into the countryside to see them. There are quite a lot in my back garden meadow this year.

..at The Burrell Collection is excellent

 and on a sunny day the interiors are beautiful. Never tire of it and will be back to see tis exhibition again.

..(flourish is my word for the year) Joie de vivre has to be cultivated, and la doce vita has to be created! By me.

Occasionally at lucky times these just happen, but mostly they require my attention and effort. I do flourish if I can have a little of them each day.  The garden is flourishing, friendships are flourishing, and some precious relationships which sometimes flourish in times of adversity..

Can you think of an English equivalent of those two expressions - joie de vivre and la doce vita - other than direct translations?

Forgive me if posts are a bit erratic this month. Late or even missing. There's a lot going on!

Happy June everyone,

..bring out the Romantic in you?

I seem to often wake at sunrise which is now very early (4.41 today) even though my bedroom is quite dark , but first a  quick answer to MaryR's question about what we did on our island holiday.  Walked every day except one when the winds were over 40mph, bird watched, explored lots of different beaches, sunbathed one afternoon, visited the little museum and the pottery, had a meal at the hotel and coffee and cake at The Yellow Hare, took lots of photographs, shopped for food and cooked (my friend is a very good cook), talked a lot... did some crosswords and in the eveinings watched The Chelasea Flower Show.

Relaxing and restorative, a perfect country holiday.

What is your ideal country holiday?