Blog Archives

Simply..the worst thing....

31/7/2023

about getting older is that there are too many funerals. It doesn't take a particularly smart Student Of Old Age to notice this.

I struggle to find words on the loss of a very dear friend, but here are some words of wisdom from a greetings card (author unknown).

Healing is messy.

It's feeling ok and feeling it all, all over again.

It's one step at a time with no time limit.

It's bravery and resilience and endless tiny acts of courage.

Keep going.

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Simply..Robert Dash....

29/7/2023

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The American artist and gardener Robert Dash was featured in an article in the magazine Gardens Illustrated written by Rosemary Verey many years ago, and his use of primary colours in his garden inspired me to make our red gate.

I hope you enjoy this short film about him. My favourite line is 'I paint because I have no tail to wag.'

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Simply..love agapanthus....

28/7/2023

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Simply..North Points....

27/7/2023

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Here are just a few of the many North Points we have made over the years. It's a fun thing to do. Why not give it a try the next time you are out for a walk? You just have to use whatever is around - berries in the Botanic Gardens, fallen leaves or petals - I rather wish I had photographed them all.

The top photograph is I think the first one . I made it with my daughter on the shores of a lake in the Lake District.

The second was on a pristine beach on Islay with friends.

The third on a far from pristine beach at Rhu on the Firth of Clyde - so much blue plastic! I should add that I am lucky to live near clean beaches.

The last one is a South Point made in New Zealand.!

Oops! I may have got some of my memores and photogrraphs mixed up there....sorry..

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Simoly..an idle day....

26/7/2023

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Isn't beachcombing the most beautifully idle thing?

After an early start with an electrician finally fixing the solar panels, I was so relieved I just took off for the beach.

Play in progress. I am trying to make a North Point on the drive.

I wrote this post while listening to a lively discussion on the programme The Moral Maze called Is Idleness Good For You? (BBC Radio 4 20.00)
It was very very good for me today! Loved it!

When did you last have an idle day? Or even an idle hour? Do yu think it might be good for yuo?

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Simply..the servant....

25/7/2023

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This is The Studious Servant by Theodule Ribot, about 1871

It made me think of the Villhelm Hammershoi paintings in Copenhagen I mentioned in this post

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Simply..well deserved....

24/7/2023

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I was so pleased that The Burrell Collection won the Art Fund Museum of the Year award! I was there today and It's wonderfuli

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Simply..a summer feast....

23/7/2023

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We abandoned hte beach barbecue option because the weather forecast was so bad, but in fact we had a lovely sunny day with a warm breeze, so we had some of the meal indoors and some outdoors. Perfect.

I baked - Victoria sponge with strawberry jam..

I cooked ratatouille, the eggs were hard boiled to go with prawns in mayonnaise, lettuce and dill open sandwiches (I have been into open sandwiches since Copenhagen!)

A bowl of hot soapy water to wash up as I go.

Everyone brings a dish to share, and we drank Bellinis - I love family lunches. I also love sitting round a table together.

Do you like to entertain?

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Simply..retirement?

22/7/2023

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I think the first clear plan I made for my own old age was a long time ago when I began noticing that some clever and capable people I knew were having to give up their careers because they had reached a certain (arbitrary) number of years, and they were not happy about it. I remember thinking that I didn't want someone else telling me when I should stop working. I became self-employed and freelanced. A lot less income, a lot more freedom! For me , it was the right decision and I have no regrets.

But we are all different...

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Simply..at last....

21/7/2023

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A sweet pea! Fifteen plants and barely a flower. I don't know why.

Today was an unexpectedly lovely day and I put off the shopping to spend the whole day in the garden.

Bruschetta and a glass of Merlot for lunch. Simply delicious.

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Simply..contemplating....

20/7/2023

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My new category is about old age. I have always been a bit coy about my age here on the blog, paartly because I realise that I am more often than I like to admit ageist myself, in the sense that I make assumptions about people based on the number of years they have been on the planet! Crazy really, not to mention morally reprehensible. So I guess I didn't want to risk being on the receiving end of this kind of thinking. (No offence, dear readers who never think ageist thoughts!)

What to call this category then? I thought of Fit For Old Age, or Older and Yet Older :-) but settled on

Simply..A Student of Old Age

I love learning and plan to learn as much as I can about this fascinating subject, and given that I have always claimed that old age is ten years on from the age I happen to be at, I have plenty of time to swot it up!

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Simply..the morning bright....

19/7/2023

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,,with golden light, hath waked me up from sleep. At 5.30. I seem to be becoming a lark!

Are you an owl or a lark? And do you think it is possible to change?

The beauty of the early morning was worth geting up for. A cup of coffee and a Haydn cello concerto loud in my headphones made a magical start to the day.

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Simply..thinking....

18/7/2023

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..of starting a new category here on the blog.

Am thinking about what to call it.

The hammock, I find, is a very good place to think...

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Simply..back briefly....

17/7/2023

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to Copenhagen.

We visited the Herschsprung Collection. I think it was the day we used the Hop Off Hop On bus, or was it the day we walked 20,207 sterps?

I especially wanted to see the works by Willhelm Hannershoi which I had only seen in reproduction. He has been likened to Vermeer. The enigmatic images of empty rooms, the back view of figures, or light coming through a window intruiges me and I liked this text which was displayed beside the few paintings by the artist. Is he painting silence? Loneliness? Cerainly introspection, particularly in his self portraint.

IMAGES OF THE SOUL

Can you paint what cannot be seen? Can you paint pictures of souls? At the end of the nineteenth century, many artists tried. They opposed naturalist art, which they saw as superficial. Today we call them Symbolists. Vilhem Hammershoi's pictures exude silence....the perfect picture must be a symbol of something deeper.

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Simply..too wet....

16/7/2023

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..to cut the privet hedges, so they have flowered beautifully. Who knew the humble privet was so gorgeous?

Thank you for reading, and for your very interesting comments on yesterday's post!

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Simply..what's in a name

15/7/2023

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old
older
aged
old age pensioner
dottage
elderhood
long in the tooth
old timer
no spring chicken
elder
silver surfer
mature
woman of a certain age
retired
the wisdom years
senior citizen

Rsspectful? Derogatory? De ferential?

What would you like to be called when you are old/if you are lucky enough to get old/now that you are old?

I've decided I shall be A Student Of Old Age.

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Simply..meadows....

14/7/2023

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The dominant wild flower in my garden is a hawkweed (hieracium) known as Cat's Ear. It only opens in sunshine whch is a pity.

We spotted a few wild orchids in the early days and simply let that patch of grass grow to become a 'mini-meadow' and I found it so much more interesting than a conventional lawn (and so much less work) that I extended the uncut areas. I strim them when they get too meassy, about the end of July, thoroughly raking off the cuttings, and thereafter cut them regularly with the mower set high.

It looks pretty awful for a bit after the first big cut, and it looks rough inthe winter but I like that it changes each year. This year there is a nass of bird's foot trefoil. Flocks of finches love when it all goes to seed.

I am calling the back garden 'rewilding' and feeling very on trrend!

NB If your soil is rich you may get many coarse grasses and docks and it might take few years of raking off all the cuttings so as to impoverish the soil before you get the wild flowers. You can grow wild flowers quite easily in plugs and pop them in to speed up the process.

Whereas a conventional lawn can look good all year round a meadow changes all the time and really only looks colourful for quite a short time, but for me the benefits outweigh the lack of tidiness and in the countryside that doesn't matter as much as it might in an urban environment.

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Simply..reverse order....

13/7/2023

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I cut the grass before breakfast the other morning as rain was forecast, hem ate, then I showered.

The interesting challenge in the design of the garden at this time of yyear is managing the wild parts. I use mowing at different heights (differential mowing). I love mown paths through long grass. My tip for meadow areas is to always have a mown border to them. This makes clear tha it is intentional, not neglect! The contrasts are aesthetically very pleasing to my eye. It's a more Scandiavian than British style of gardening I would say.

The little square I call 'lawn' as opposed to meadow is quite hard to keep weedfree, but again I love the contrast.

My mower cuts at 3 different heights and it can all get quite complicated to manage! I notice the blackbird keeps to the short mown paths, follpwing all the loops and curves.

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Simply..how come....

12/7/2023

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little triangles of cloth can make us feel happy?

I smile every time I come round the corner of the house and see this.

Simple!

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Simply..the jazz cruise....

11/7/2023

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Trad Jazz as we sailed aroud the port area. Lots of people live on the water in Copenhagen - houseboats, converted warehouses and modern developments both sophisticated and simple, many with a boat tied up at the end of the garden. Thunder and lightning was forecast but the sun shone all evening. It was good fun.

More Trad Jazz in the city with a good humoured crowd in the rain. They sang Give Me Sunshine, then Singing In The Rain then there was one great loud clap of thunder.

If you know Copenhagen you will probably agree with me that it is superefficient and orgainised (everything seems to work!) but tempered with charm and humour. A really friendly place.

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Simply..the Vikings....

10/7/2023

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My imagination was gripped by the dramatic display in The National Museum of Denmark of the longeest longship of the Viking era yet found. There were links with hme - the Vikings are known to have sailed up Loch Long - and a beautiful little casket found in this one is thought to have been made in Scotland.

How exciting to have been the archaeologist who found it and the silver ingots, jewellery and coins!

There were lots of flowers to come home to.

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Simply..fantastical!

9/7/2023

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Our Saviour's Church in Christianshavn must surely have inspired Hans Christian Andersen to write fairy tales.

My own photograph is not as dramatic as the postcard anove, which I couldn't resist. I absolutely adore this spire.

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Simply..the architecture....

8/7/2023

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..in Copenhagen is so varied. Ultramodernn and dramatic developments on the water, hidden old courtyards off the main streets, old streets covered over become art galleries, the elegant restraint of Neo Classicism and buildings which look as though they have been embroidered! I could have spent a week just looking at the buildings and at how the Danes live..

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Simply..cool....

7/7/2023

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and very intense.

Our first concert was in Brorsons Kirke. Tord Gustavsen played solo, without pause, for one hour and twenty minutes. The man is a genius but we were seated on beautiful-to-look-at very hard chairs!

A review said

This is the chill-out as a state of grace and it can go as deep as you like. Sublime.

To me it felt like living inside an abstract painting.