What is the first thing you do when you come home after being away for a bit? Apart from putting the kettle on..

I love to take a look round the garden to see what has happened while I've been away and to pick a bunch of flowers for the house. The cosmos are about eight feet tall for some reason this year and the helianthus, Silver Queen I think, are fresh and light though most other things are going over. I thought this was a surprisingly summery looking bunch for late September and although I say I don't like pink and yellow together (a Christopher Lloyd favourite) I do like this. Flowers and candles bring life back into the rooms.

In winter I try to buy flowers on my way home and I light the lamps and the woodburner as soon as I get in the door. (Unpacking can wait....)

I wonder if you will be as charmed as I was by this poetic post from Anita at Castles Crowns and cottages. (Especially for Free As A Bird Julia!)

Adult, child, gym kit, spares for day out...It's not my idea and I'm afraid I can't remember where I first saw it, but I thought it worth sharing.

The Black Isle (not actually an island!) is a rich agricultural area. The landscape consists of small woods and orderly fields with fine crops all gathered in when we were there, tidy farms with herds of good looking cattle. Not an area given to quirkiness so we did a double take when we saw this..

Liz asked about the little red triangle in the header photograph. It is there to mark a low doorway into Hugh Miller's cottage and struck me (not literally as I'm not very tall!) as very graphic. Here is the full picture -

Here are some other things we loved -

PS One more day to visit Cowal Open Studios. We loved Sandi Anderson's work and bought two fabulous prints today.

We're still having trouble with the internet kind of windows but I was enchanted with the little ones in the gable ends of so many of the cottages in the Georgian town of Cromarty in the Black Isle where we recently spent a few days. The first photograph is the house we stayed in. Click on the photographs to enlarge....

I seem to have 'lost' my Categories list from the sidebar! No idea how that happened, and worse, no idea how to get it back...

Do you have times when nothing seems to work? We still have no phone, and we have lots of things which only work some of the time - the CD player, the air conditioning in the car, the grill. Oh, and the internet! 

But it's still lovely to be home.

..to still be united!

I am climbing onto my soapbox for two minutes to say how happy I am that my country is still united. I am Scottish, I am also British, and while an Erasmus student in Sweden and in Venice I felt like a European too. It seems to me there is enough division in the world. It encourages 'them and us' thinking which, if you look at divided countries around the world, in turn encourages discord and conflict. I love that I live in a country where I am free to have my say and to vote.

OK, I'm getting down now.

Someone, somewhere tweeted 'No bombs, no bullets, one egg. Well done Scotland!'

And just look at these sweet peas!

If you are near enough don't miss Cowal Open Studios this weekend (although I'm not taking part this year myself...)

A window (Hah!) of opportunity in our now you have it, now you don't signal has arisen for me to let you know I won't be blogging for a bit.  The last two posts were written at 2 am and 3 am - I can't keep this up! British Telecomm, can't fix our line until 24 September and then I am away for a few days....

I hope you won't give up on me!

Enjoy the poppies, and eat well.

Out here in the sticks we have no landline phone, broadband is erratic - now you have it now you don't - and to get a mobile signal I have to go down the village to the end of the jetty, when the tide is out! But hey, the weather is fabulous.

BT have been making promises for three days now...

Mireille Guiliano's book French Women Don't Don't Get Fat has gone to the top of my favourite foodbook list because it is different and the most fun. See the list here. And for more Simply Eat posts check out March 2010 if you have time.

I am currently 'finding a new equilibrium', 'cultivating a new intuition' and 'manipulating how the five senses are meeting in what is put before me'

I told you it was different!

Do you have a favourite book about food? (Not necessarily a cookbook.)

To make you smile - spotted by my husband in York - a sign in a shop window which read

                                     Everything Full Price! Today Only!

EXTRA! in case I can't post tomorrow...Have you seen this? Sounds like truly sustainable energy. Quite exciting.

Here are some of the reasons why I like this book.

Firstly it is because it is as much about Joie de vivre and about it's subtitle The Secret of Eating for Pleasure as it is about staying slim (Clever commercial title though!)

Secondly because I've lost a few pounds while having chocolate, wine and delicious meals since I bought the book a couple of weeks ago!

Thirdly because, to my surprise, it has got me interested in cooking again.

Here are some quotes I like, and have copied into my notebook where for three weeks I'm recording what I'm eating:-

Learn to say no with an eye to saying yes to something else.

A balanced and time-tested relation to food and life.

Be the master of both your willpower and your pleasures

Quality over quantity.

Treat every meal as something special.

More tomorrow (broadband problems permitting!)

 
The chocolaterie are Caramiche and they do mail order....

And the influence for the amazing restraint on my part is from my new favourite book French Women Don't Get Fat. Have you read it yet? 
 

....with J K Rowling on the Scottish referendum

People before flags
Answers not slogans
Reason not ranting
Unity not enmity

(We are having problems with our broadband here - thus the late post!)

For last year's words belong to last year's language
And next year's words await another voice
And to make an end is to make a new beginning

T S Eliot

I do love this, and am dedicating it to Maggie and to Lynne and to anyone else who is starting over.  Thank you to Claire at Just A Little Less who posted it on her blog.

With not so many flowers for picking in the garden now I use these tiny shot glasses as vases most (for a post on vases see here). I bought ten of these for 50p each in a Habitat sale once. They fit our narrow windowledges, look good on the bedside tables, under a lamp or to pretty up the dining table with a tea-light or two.

It's been the best year ever for sweet peas - they just keep coming.

I got my new shoes. In grey - lovely and very useful, but not nearly as exciting as the fuchsia pink version which I could not find in my size anywhere.

The canaries have been spotted in the next village along the shore - three miles away.

I had eight days to myself and took some 'time out' just to do whatever I felt like doing, to think, to walk, and to ride the bus (which is where I scribbled down most of my Life List (see yesterday's post). Have you managed to get some time to yourself?

Sunny days and autumn in the air, but lots of things are flowering for a second time and the bramble harvest is amazing.

Oh, and I've found a new favourite book...

Thank you for the lovely welcome back comments, and for reading.

A random collection of statements I came up with when trying to assess who I am and where I'm at! (See previous post.)

In no particular order, and make of it what you will :-


I can't be an artist without headspace and a lot of alone time.

Can being a calm and peaceful person help the world?

Can butterflies be careful? There have not been many this year and I told one to be careful as it flew out into the open garden! I think I have a habit of asking unanswerable questions.

It takes courage to be free. It takes courage to be oneself.

I will probably always be shy.

Easy is not lazy. Easy is sometimes wise.

I played truant from school. No-one noticed (and no-one knew till now!) I sat on the top of the bus feeling anonymous and free.

Women have a lot of silent power. Maybe the silence is an important part of keeping it.

For better or worse, children are for life, not just for their childhood. In my case totally for the better, but I've seen some not so fortunate...

A hug speaks volumes.

I don't think I like Facebook.

Watching television sometimes feels like living at second hand. Living my own life is exciting and challenging enough for me.

Young people can be charming.

Many old people are an inspiration. My 100 year old friend Angus was among them.

I like public transport (above-ground public transport). It gives me thinking time.


Have you tried writing your Life List yet?