I did find a bargain! Cotton, quilted and fully reversible - reduced from £50 to £31. For the chillier days to come.
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I did find a bargain! Cotton, quilted and fully reversible - reduced from £50 to £31. For the chillier days to come.
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You know I like a bargain.    Didn't know whether to laugh or crry!
Managed to say no to this one. . Put it under Simply Laugh. ..in the garden. A very pleasant 20 degrees. Some light weeding and thinking, as gardeners do, of what I will grow next year. Sweet peas Gwendoline and Anniversary, wave series petunias in lime and lilac, lots of gypsophila Covent Garden.. All the meadow areas in the front have been cut and it feels very spacious and calm. There is a little robin which is becoming quite tame.  Even when they are dying the dark coloured flowers are seductive.  They are attractive, and interesting, but I think my summer love aafair with the deep dark tones is over. We are not truly compatible, not at the deepest level... My heart is always drawn to the light. ..who said -
I go for a walk in the forest of Fontainbleau. I get green indigestion. I must get rid of this sensation into a picture. Green rules it. A painter paints to unload himself of feelings and visions. It can lift you up, it can pull you down. It can overwhelm me. By the time I had viewed Duncan Shanks' work in the Scottish Gallery , I could barely cope with the exhibition of Barbara Rae's work in The Open Eyey Gallery yesterday. It has taken me most of today to recover! When I first visited Monet's garden it took me several days! Have you ever had this experience? ..but a good one. I was too tired last night after a day in Edinburgh to write a post. Sorry! Here is a video they were showing in The Scottish Gallery of the painter Duncan Shanks who was my tutor at Glasgow School of Art. The exhibition is very good and is on until Saurday. Grace asked if my flirtation with rich colours in the garden this year might become a love affair. I am very passionate about colour, in my painting and my garden. Which colours do it for you? Rich, dark, sultry, vibrant and zingly, pale and ephemeral, delicate or bold? Which ones create that little spark of joy? A tiny quickening of the pulse... Which ones do you fall in love with? ..from the sublime to the ridiculous in my flower arrangements recently you will have noticed...  I've had a kind of flirtation this year in the garden with the dark colours, the rich, deep sumptuous velvety shades...  petunia Magenta and clary  sweet pea Matucana  sweet pea Matucana  chocoate cosmos (really does smell of chocolate!)  blue clary  rose Timeless Purple, agapanthus in bud and sweet pea Matucana ..and yet simpler.  Thank you all for sharing your five things which made you smile! Loved them, and am filled with delight to think how many more smiles you created when everyone who read your comments smiled too. A tiny bit more happiness in the world. Wonderful. X Can you list five things whch made you smile today? (If not be sure to look for five things tomorrow!)   Here are my five. The sun (always makes me smile), the sunflowers, the warmth on my back as I gardened, the flock of birds rising up out of the long grass when I opened the front door (finches I think), a video call with a friend who was still cheerful even though it was pouring with rainn where she was. We do need cheerful people around us and things which make us smile. It's also a lovely thing to make others smile. A gift of sweet peas does the trick. I have nver had so many!
Twenty five tulip bulbs for £5 seems really good value from Morrison's supermarket. Coudln't resist.  Sarah Raven bulbs are excellent but expensive (I shall still get some!) but on the other hand she gives a lot of free nformation in podcasts and videos. I was a bit releived to know that she too is having problems with peat free composts. Her theory is that they contain harmful chemicals from manures used to enrich them. Unfortunately she had no answers other than to test different ones. Expensive, time consuming and not very practical for most of us. She also gave a tip about dealing with ants in pots which is to scatter crushed mint leaves on and around the pot - am trying this out and will report back! ..is somewhat curtailed due to rain, but gardening continutes between showers. I am so lucky to have both. It's been a long journey from a tenement flat in Glasgow with two window boxes! Today I picked the most luxuriant and sumptuous bunch of flowers I have ever picked from any of my gardens.  With so much warmth and rain the roses were floppy, their bloms facing the ground, so I thought I would cut them to enjoy them better, and also to prune them a bit in the hope that later flower stems will be sturdier. The clumps of agapannthus are so big now that I can afford to pick lots without diminishing the effect in the garden. I doubt I could afford to buy this from a florist! Thank you to Sheena and to Lynne who identified these gorgeous flowers I photographed in Shetland. They are argyranthemum Grandaisy series and I hope to grow them next year.  ..was definitely not suitable for star gazing last night!  The night before I was out there , wrapped up cosy with my mug of hot chocolate though the only moving thng I saw was a satellite. Today it has rained non stop - but I am trying not to complain about rain any more - as my garden is still green. I hope, if you needed it, you also got some rain. Walking to the ice cream shack, I came across some umusual beach furniture.!   Did you see any shooting stars? A brilliant moon and a thin layer of cloud meant I did not see any last night, but perhaps tonight.. If you have listened to La Leendertz this month (you can hear her podcast here) She says of August- If you are able to take time off, the days spill into each other in a haze of nothing much  There is a suspension of expectation and activity in August  and it is good to see  how little you can get way with! I do hope you get some time off. Don't forget tonight you may see shooting stars..  Like many guest rooms I suspect, laundry and odds and ends land there. But it took less time than I expected to tidy and dust this simple room, put out fresh towels and flowers, and a selection of books to please my visitor,         We've had temperatures of a very pleasant 21 - 23 degrees and a gentle breeze, so the extra blanket was certainly not needed! All meals outdoors and short slow walks to Coronation Wood and the ice cream shack on the beach have been the order of the days - wonderfully relaxing...just what you want for summer guests.
 The painting is Dreams of Flying and is a much deeper and intense sky blue than it looks here... Pianist Vikingur Olafsson says of Bach Bach is always a good idea. Whether you are feeling happy, sad, whatever it is, he makes things better. I would add especially when played by Olafsson, and when played loud! Opera and cake got me out of this morning's lethargy and dismay at yet another dull weather day. I watched all the episodes of Take Me To The Opera, and made a cake for my visitor who is coming to stay this week. I had to taste it of course to see that it is ok. (It is.) What gets you out of a low mood?  |
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