I've completed my 30 day challenge! (See here.) Have you? I missed about 4 days. I do it at night and several nights I was out and once I just forgot.

I now have 96 words of Italian - that's about 90 more than I had on day one. I have reached level 5, earned 22 lingots (whatever they are), kept up my strength levels on Basics 1 and 2, phrases and food, am 15% fluent....and can be polite and order coffee.

Useful.

Fun.

I think I'll keep going..

I gave up on Busuu as they kept trying to sell me stuff - emailing and blocking the free part of the course,  and stuck with Duolingo and BBC Languages Italian (archived but still useful).

Have you tried learning a language online?

Or anything else?


And for my next 30 day challenge...

Actually I can't decide. I had thought of working for half an hour a day on the things on my To-Do list that I never get around to. Doesn't sound much fun, but the sense of achievement at the end of 30 days would be HUGE.

I'll sleep on it....

Buona notte!

 

I simply don't want  -

more food than I can eat
more clothes than I can wear
more books than I can read
and more things than I can properly look after

 Am getting there!

How about you?

I simply do want - more colourful days like today! I know it is asking for the impossible, and that we in UK are a bit obsessed with the weather, but I feel so good when I've spent the whole day outside in the sun, and like Oliver, I want more please! Sunlight definitely activates my happiness glands.

I hope you have had a colourful day......

It's ridiculous how happy it makes me when the weather forecast is for a poor day and they get it wrong!

Today was warm and sunny and we sat in the garden and reminisced about the garden at Ashtree Cottage in Wiltshire which we visited many years ago. It was a delicious dream of a garden and Wendy Lauderdale and her husband Len were friendly and hospitable, inviting us to have coffee with them - we talked for hours on a gorgeous rose-scented day just like today. This was where I bought my first plant of erigeron karvinskianus (the daisy shown in the last photograph on this post) which Wendy said 'sprinkled itself about' - a perfect description.

We really didn't imagine then that we would one day open our own garden to visitors.

The forecast for tomorrow is for a good day - I hope they've got it right!

For hot sunny days in summer I tend to go ever more minimal, reducing ornaments, pictures, cards and candles to the bare minimum - light and cool, fresh and barely there.

So although I am wearing three layers, thick tights and a big scarf today, I thought I'd just pretend anyway....

Maybe August will be summery?

..with a pen and on paper. Such a nice sensation with only the faintest noise of a very slightly scratchy nib.

Elbow room and space to think, pause, reflect. sip tea, gaze at the rain in the forest.

I wrote several letters today and yesterday at my quiet spot by the bedroom window, one curlew reading every word, the other feigning disinterest.

I can't walk past this window display in the city without gazing in and wondering about the history of all these sewing machines (and the waste of them all just being used as a window display).

There are about 8 windows like this! At least 1000 machines.

It seems a bit tragic somehow, and the fact that the shop sells ripped clothing for stupid prices makes it worse.....I wonder if their other branches have similar window displays.

It makes me a bit sad....

This city café is always good for a little laugh....

..in a favourite old jug.

 
Cath asked how I approached the kitchen Kondo.

The answer is gently.

The kitchen is Barry's domaine. (See this post Cooking As An Act Of Love) and I knew I had to try to be tactful.

Firstly I agreed that he could make all the decisions about what to keep and what to get rid of, but we also agreed that out of date anything would be binned - a fresh start every now and then (ie every five or ten years!) is a good idea. The other guiding principle was putting like with like, as you are then more likely to know what you've got.

Duplicates went, one or two weird packet mixes, stale fancy teas, a few items from 2013 and even 2009, the odd basket and serving dish that was seldom used. Every shelf got wiped over and I lined them all with fun bright paper from Ikea or Tiger. The fridge gets cleaned out about once a week (thank you Fly Lady) and the freezer has yet to be tackled....

I think a special meal would be an appropriate celebration when we finish this category, don't you?

Here is the picture of the rose - covered in buds of white, scented flowers! (See yesterday's post.) I shall post another when the flowers come out fully...I photographed it at noon in bright sunshine (Yay!) and the shot doesn't really show how glaucous the foliage is.

Vanity I know, but I've always thought it would be a wonderful thing to have a flower named after me.

A chance seedling rose which appeared in my garden may be my opportunity!

It is a white flowered Rosa glauca. Here is one of its parents -

This is rosa glauca with its single pink flowers. The new shrub (photographs tomorrow) has the beautiful glaucous foliage, and corymbs of white flowers - very like the flowers on a rambler grown by my neighbour......

There has been some! About every third day and between showers....

You just never know with a garden and the weather. Cutting back the wind damage in the lupin bed made me see that this area needs an overhaul. I'm thinking white daffodils, a white campanula lactiflora, and the white silene I am growing from seed and have just pricked out, and I'll divide and replant the lupins.

Gardeners are optimists!

This afternoon and evening were beautiful....

Going swimmingly, in the swim, keeping one's head above water, in at the deep end, treading water, in deep water, out of your depth - there seem to be many swimming metaphors in life.

At the pool I'm practicing being literally in deep water and learning to feel safe in deep water. A childhood incident left me fearful all my life of being out of my depth.

This week I went into the pool part way towards the deep end and swam towards the shallow end. The first time I did it I felt panicky and swam like mad towards the shallow end and safety! My heart was thumping and I could hardly breath....but I did it and was rather pleased with myself.

After a few more times and a lot of mental preparation I could slide into the water, look around underwater to get my bearings as I floated up to the surface (which seemed an age the first time), take a breath and think about my options...I won't say I enjoyed it, but I can say that I can see that it could be fun. I plan to gradually go in further and further up the pool. I will let you know when I start from the deep end!

I owe my new-found confidence to this video by Ian Cross, and to my patient husband who is an excellent and keen swimmer. I signed up for lessons but had only had two when the instructor had to cancel through illness so now I look at the Swimming Without Stress videos before I go to the pool.


Baby steps/strokes, not trying to do too much too soon, less is more, mindfulness, slow, considered, at my own pace, not minding what others think, calm, so happy to be fulfilling this long-time wish, relaxed (well, soon I hope!). I try to see ways in which I can be like this in the rest of my life, out of the water as well as in...

Don't you just love learning?

Not even a poppy! They germinated then disappeared. And two sowings of night-scented stock failed to even germinate.

Woe, woe.

Here are last year's sweet peas. And here the poppies.

The front garden is looking beautiful thankfully, or I would be weeping into my wine, but the Met Office have issued weather warnings for heavy rain and winds gusting up to 47mph for tonight, so whether it still looks beautiful tomorrow?

We've battend down the hatches and wired the greenhouse door shut...

Ah, summer!

 
At the risk of sounding clichéd I am learning a lot about forgiving myself while Kondoing.

That wee boat sitting in the garden was a mistake. (Too heavy to get down to the loch so rarely used.) Saving all those pots from many years ago in Cyprus was a mistake. (Not frostproof and algae won't scrub off them and so they don't look good.) 

Although I don't make a lot of mistake purchases I have wasted more money over the years than I care to think about. Maybe I can't get that money back, but I can think harder now before making an impulse buy....and congratulate myself on all the good purchases I made on things which still give me joy.

Stopping writing at this point I looked around the room....there are only things in this room which bring me joy, It's wonderful!

I've stopped trying to justify such purchases by finding new or different uses for them and can simply say 'I got that one wrong, I don't want it now, I can let it go...'

It is so freeing being kind to myself this way.

Forgiving myself and moving on.

I do my best to recycle/gift forward/etc but occasionally I just bin something. There is not much point in giving myself a hard time over the very few things I do bin. Knowing there will be even fewer of them in future I can feel OK about this. We have quite a good recycling centre here so someone somewhere down the line will find a use for it, or if it is biodegradable it will eventually go back to the earth from whence it came.

We're almost finished in the kitchen and it was easier than I thought it would be....

And the boat which has been sitting like a reproach in the garden for such a long time, sold for the same price we paid for it, via a free postcard in the Co-op!

Yay!

How are you (Kon)doing?

Today was sunny and warm - gorgeous, and I spent a delightful half hour lying in the hammock watching a little family of goldfinches feeding just a few feet away from me. There were four fluttering babies and one adult and I noticed the adult fed for quite a time on the linseeds then seemed to regurgitate them to the noisy youngsters which all mobbed it until it flew off to get some peace, only to fly back again a minute later. What a demanding family,

Curious, I googled 'goldfinch feeding young' and up came this excellent little three minute video.

Tonight I watched the fantastic BBC programme Spitfire Women - it is on for a further 25 days on iPlayer.

What a generation that was!

Here's a little bit more about Egg..

Easy to tell these two apart!

And hands up if you don't like coriander...

PS I've now added all the links to this recent post..

..moment of the day was when I made real progress at the swimming pool. Suddenly I was co-ordinated, breathing easily and moving nicely and confidently through the water!

I am so excited!

It reminded me of the moment when I realized I could ride my bike - that my Dad wasn't holding the saddle and I was on my own and doing it and it was OK.

What was your best moment today?

Marathon is Marie Kondo's word, which I didn't notice the first time I read her book!

If you are interested in Marie Kondo do read this article from New York magazine. I think it really sums up her charm and what makes her and her ideas so  appealing to so many of us.

'...she urges a kind of animistic tenderness towards everyday belongings.'

I have just got the book They Left Us Everything by Plum Johnson back from a friend and am enjoying it just as much second time around. Read in conjunction with Kondo - it is like looking at both ends of the spectrum of clutter - I am struck by the truth of Marie Kondo's statements that by sorting your stuff you are processing your past, and resetting your life, although in the case of the author, it was her parents' things she was sorting.

They Left Us Everything is a very moving and honest memoir which made me both laugh and cry. Unfortunately here in UK it  costs upwards of £22! It was published by Penguin in Canada in 2014. I was lucky enough to be sent a copy - thank you Julia!

I have got rid of almost all the Not Joy items and the guest room, which had become a kind of clearing depot, now looks like a bedroom once more.

Hurrah! I can have guests again.

For me the best part of the day has always been late at night and in the early hours when everyone else has gone to bed, I know the phone won't ring, no one is making any demands on me, all is quiet and and my time is my own. Time to think, study, or listen to music.

What's the best part of the day for you?

Your interest in Romancing The Ordinary, the book by Sarah Ban Breathnac, (I have no idea how to pronounce that!) inspired me to re-order it, and I discovered she has written a children's book called The Best Part of The Day, which is about a bedtime ritual where you discuss with your children what they thought was best about the day just passed. I shall buy it for 5 year old Scott.

I have linked to an interesting page (scroll right down for it) on Amazon where the author discusses her previous books, how they were dismissed at first as 'women's books' (!) but became world wide best sellers.

By the way I just love the Simple Life Lessons From A Three Year Old posts on Simple Happy Mum.

If I find my day dullish I only have to put on my rose-tinted specs for a bit -romance the ordinary - or remind myself that I am not in Syria, or Greece, and I immediately feel grateful again...

Here are some of the sites and books which have been most helpful to me in my Live Simply Simply Live adventure.

I look forward to hearing what works for you!

There is an overwhelming amount of information and advice (and utter rubbish) out there, and I am very choosy about my sources

For Simply Eat I read lots of books and looked at lots of websites but these are the 'keepers' which continue to inspire: Zoe Harcombe, Mireille Guiliano and David Servan Schreiber (video here). Harcombe for great recipes and a three meals a day of real food approach, Guiliano for 'joie de vivre' and an emphasis on quality not quantity, and Servan Schreiber for his intelligence and taking the long view.

Under Simply Home  and Simply Organise  the redoubtable Fly Lady and Marie Kondo have made housekeeping easier and more fun than I could have imagined! Quite an achievement.

Simply Move and Simply Fitter were my greatest challenges but I've found the Scottish Ballet exercise video and Swimming Without Stress (free videos).

Chris Baty makes me laugh and get on with it - I don't know if it changed my life, but it certainly changed my Februaries! See under Simply Write.

Under Live Simply Leo Babauta's Zen Habits and Byron Katie's The Work (the four questions and the turnaround) continue to be useful.
 
(I realize I have planned far too many links in this one post - forgive me if I add them later in the week......)

Last but at least as important as mentors are the readers of this blog - thoughtful, sensitive, encouraging and inspiring. Generous with ideas, ready with sympathy and kind words - for other commenters as well as for me, I could not do it without you!