Nine for a seasonal lunch..

And more fun than I intended with the baking! I borrowed a mixer and couldn't detach the beaters which were of course covered in the cake mix, and raised out of the bowl..
'I wonder if it only works when it is switched on?' I thought....

and switched it on! I can't believe I did this! We had to change our clothes and clean the kitchen down - walls, cupboards, floor.

I'm laughing now (but I wasn't then).

The children transformed this...(spot the robin!)

..to this zany character with wild tomato eyes and leery gummy grin!
 
Two year old Scott calls it a 'Punkin' - a name which will probably stick in the family now.

Have fun tonight....

I have been following Fly Lady's instructions on housekeeping for nearly two months. I just click on Today on the web page and do what it says.

So easy.

So effective.

In fact it is mental work that I am doing. I'm reducing stress, finding more leisure time, taking things big and small in my stride, and lightening up..

All this clearing and decluttering is going on in my head too, giving me the headspace and even more importantly the energy to deal with quite a backlog of stuff both physical and mental.

The minimalist thing was quite superficial until now.

I'm only now seeing that.

Because i'm seeing more clearly.

The F L Y in Fly Lady stands for Finally Loving Yourself....there's more to this than meets the eye!

A little bit of silly - amusing though and cleverly choreographed!
 
Click here for 25 ways to tie your scarf (Thanks Julia!)

How I respond to messages like these varies a lot....

Oops! An error has been made.

Sorry, not responding.

The website declined to show this webpage.

Uh-oh. The server couldn't find the page you were looking for. Bummer.

It depends on my mood. I can get really cross and talk back to the computer (shout even) or just shrug or wait or try something else, but the last one, which has only appeared once and which I have mentioned before, did make me laugh out loud.
 Do you have any other examples?
 And how do you respond?

There are not many bunches of shop bought flowers..

that don't look better with a bunch of birch twigs added.

There's a sharp intake of breath each morning as I draw back the curtains - the rowan tree is so beautiful!
 
I've been having my morning cuppa at this window lately to make the most of it.

There is a tradition in Highland Scotland that the rowan tree brings luck (luckan rowan) and keeps evil at bay (particulary witches!) - this is my neighbour's tree, but I think it probably protects us too. It is sorbus sargentiana, a very handsome specimen.


(Shhh...today I looked at the box of wrapping paper and Christmas cards - just a quick look, and just so that I know what I have got, then back to the out-of-the-way cupboard....)

I have too many clothes.

Nice problem.

Nice new coathangers from IKEA led to another sort out. I worked out how many full hangers fitted the hanging space  nicely (32) and decided that is how many things I will have in my wardrobe this winter.

As I changed over the hangers I engaged brain and made some decisions:-

Mistake....forgive myself and let it go.

Can't wear....for whatever reason, let it go.

Don't wear....for whatever reason, let it go.

Don't want to wear....no-one says I have to! Let it go.

Doesn't fit....let it go.

I feel happy in it! Lovely, think of why, and I'll know what to look out for in future.

It suits me! Yay! As above.

Is it right for the season? If not, store somewhere else for now.

I now have some to store, some to give to the charity shop, some to go to textile recycling, a core of good things and space for one or two new!

A good evening's work.

And next trip to the city I'll have a much clearer idea of what I need.

Enkianthus campanulatus is the shrub by the bridge at the entrance to Benmore Botanic Gardens, just half an hour from home.

The avenue of sequoiadendron giganteum - Wellingtonias - takes your breath away. Those tiny figures are only about two thirds of the way along which gives you an idea of the scale.

I love the ghostly colour of this long needled Bhutan pine, pinus wallichiana, and the beautiful texture of the rough bark.

On this sunny Sunday the glades of green, the varied patterns of the bark and the golden leaves of sorbus alnifolia made an idyllic view.

 












And the reflections in the pond!  Nearest is acer palmatum 'Osakazuki' and beyond cercidiphyllum japonicum, also known as the Katsura tree.

This looks very similar to Sorbus hupehensis (but I don't know yet how to tell the difference..)

I think this copper beech, fagus sylvatica atropurpureum, was probably my favourite this visit - such richness and variety in the colours.


Benmore is the western outpost of Edinburgh Botanic Gardens and as you can see, well worth a visit. (In springtime it has a spectacular show of rhododendrons.) Find out more here

Men are hoarders, except maybe Leo Babatua.

Discuss!


See here for the greatest hoarder the world has ever known....not what you might think.

I'm sorry I'm having trouble with this link - but you can Google - You Tube Behind The Cloud A Tour Of Google's Secretive Data Facilities...(I've given the game away now!)

'Cloud' sounds so light and fluffy and innocuous doesn't it....

I hope you had a fun weekend....

It's getting cold at night.
 
Time to bring out the quilts.

I'm the happy owner of this old one...


If you like quilts you will like this new website www.quiltersthreads.co.uk

If you like antique quilts you will love the October 15 page on their blog....

More quilts tomorrow.

I've added some new posts recently about Coronation Wood - work has begun in earnest (see top right).


(And, whisper it, today I contacted family to find out how many we will be for Christmas dinner!)

Yes CHRISTMAS!

There! I've said it! I usually say I don't want to think about it until December. It must have been that snow on the mountains a couple of days ago....so look away now if you just can't bear it.

I've decided to face it in order to decide how I want to spend it.

I want it to be a winter holiday. I want to relax and have fun, to go to at least two concerts, to be free to out if it snows, walking, taking photographs, playing with the children. Perhaps I'll go and see the lights and the sights, and the special exhibitions this year. And read lots of books. I'd really like to be ready by the sixth of December and have a whole month 'off' until Twelfth Night. Entertaining friends and family and having them to stay would be good. Oh, and being free to accept any nice invitations that come my way. I'd rather like to stay overnight in the city so as not to have to rush for the last ferry after a concert. I'll be kitted out and stocked up for possible power cuts, blocked or icy roads and any other winter emergencies....the freezer and the pantry full of lovely food, preferably (but not necessarily) home made, and all the ingredients to hand should I feel like baking or making sweets.

I don't want to start Christmas early, but I want to know that when I am ready to start it - put the decorations up for example, or wrap the presents - I have everything I need and don't have to make the thirty mile round trip to town to get things. No rushing this year. All the back up work done well ahead of time.

All this does require that I give it a little thought.. now.

Today I wrote the word Christmas at the top of a fresh page in my notebook. That's my small start.

In one of the drawers I'm decluttering I found these leaves..

With a candle and a few rowan berries they make a lovely and subtle table decoration. I think sometimes when you keep it simple you notice the subtleties more - the colours in this are very muted.

I love photographing things on the white glass table top.

The berries with their blush of pink and pink stems are Sorbus hupehensis...I think.




Now is a good time to press some leaves - just put them between sheets of newspaper and tuck them under a rug or a pile of books....

I'm still having fun clutter-clearing old cards. I look through a stack asking Will I want this on the shelf?  (see post 12 October) and this helps thin them down a bit! In other words if the card doesn't really appeal aesthetically, I read it, say it's time for you to go, and recycle it. It gets easier the more I do.

I bought these little card/photo holders years ago, because I couldn't resist the lovely colours. I use them a lot, not usually all at once like this, though it's rather nice. You can pop a card by your bedside, on the bathroom window ledge, by the kettle..and change them on a whim and in half a minute.

The holders are from Paperchase (I love that shop! Be warned, they have a sale on. I stopped myself from buying 30 pieces of multi felt deer table scatter..I mean do I need 30 pieces of.......in the middle of some serious decluttering?)


There was snow on the mountains today!

Was I tempting fate by talking of reducing stress on the computer I wonder...(see post 13 October).

I managed to lose my new website, Drawing for Non Artists. The sinking feeling when I realised what had happened is something I don't want to experience again anytime soon. Do you know that feeling?

However all was not really lost, though I did not know that at the time! It was retrieved by the clever folks at Weebly, thank goodness. After the initial panic subsided I realised that I could do it again if I had to, probably in half a day.

I was adding a new page to show drawings by some of my students both before and after tuition, which I thought would be encouraging for people who can't believe they could learn to draw, but would love to. Apologies if you tried to view the website in the last 48 hours. It can be viewed here now.

Have you lost things on your computer? Would you/do you entrust all your treasured photographs and letters and financial affairs to the internet?

..and try not to think about how I LOST my new website!

Don't ask.
 

Cosmos are very late here this year, but covered in buds and flowering still with a little help from tomato fertilizer. Despite a frost or two we're getting a pretty jugful every few days.

So Summery.

One simple change on my computer has reduced my stress level every single day.

On my Yahoo!Mail page Yahoo very kindly gives me news headlines every time I log on.

I always say to anyone who will listen that human beings are not designed to receive the whole world's bad news on the hour every hour 24/7 (no-one has ever agreed with this - I'm usually met by silence when I say it!)

It is particularly insidious and anxiety inducing when, as lately here in UK, the news is of a missing child, or a natural disaster. Each and every time you read the headlines (and you do when you are waiting..) it gets a little bit more awful. Knowing, expecting, dreading the headline that tells you a body has been found, or there are no survivors....

Once a day, and at a time of my own choosing, I like to keep up with what is happening in the world. Like most people I care about these things. If I thought that by suffering a kind of low grade continuous anxiety I would help the situation I would willingly suffer - but this scenario is going to play itself out whether my feelings are involved or not. I can have no influence on any outcome - unless it is happening in my part of the world in which case I would be out there searching too, and I can and sometimes do donate to the disaster appeals, but....

I've not yet figured out how to remove this unwelcome feature from the page, but I do have the option of having Top Stories, News, Sport or Finance. I chose Sport as it was the option I was least interested in, therefore least likely to distract me from what I am trying to do - which is deal with e mails.

What do you think?

 








One way that I re-use cards from my huge collection is to put one from the drawer on the shelf when I put fresh flowers out - I look for one which suits the flowers - in this case the card has both the colour of the vase and of the flowers....

..and a whimsical message which makes me smile.

I get to enjoy them all over again! 

(But I will reduce the number a bit, and remember that I don't expect anyone who gets a card from me to keep it forever, and that no-one's going to be upset if I recycle their card!)

For a month I have focussed on clearing the most visible clutter in the house, for just 15 minutes each day. I thought my home was quite clutter free but in fact when I looked at it dispassionately (hard to do!) there was lots of tucked away clutter (clutter being defined as anything I didn't use or love, or which didn't make me smile).

Now I'm on the clutter in drawers and cupboards. I have lots of this. I thought that out of sight was out of mind, but in fact it is all there in the recesses of my mind as well as in the recesses of the cupboards, annoying me and yes, stressing me, in a quiet and insidious way.

October focus is on paper clutter - I am flying through it!

(Thank you to Jill and Lynne whose kind comments about the drawing course on yesterday's blog made my day!)

The Northern Lights were beautiful, but not here sadly, though I did spend a couple of utterly peaceful hours in a cosy chair by the firelight, facing the window and contemplating the stars!

This morning however, when I peeked out the front door, I was met by the beauty of the first real frost of the season...

Booking has begun for the Drawing for Non Artists course www.drawingfornonartists.weebly.com  I'd be most grateful if you would pass this on to anyone you think might be interested.

Thank you.

I feel in control (as far as one can be in control in life - a photograph of an injured child in Syria in yesterday's newspaper threw me for the rest of the day).

The word control has a lot of negative connotations. Control freak is quite an insult! To be controlling is almost verging on evil....but being in control of your own life is surely a desirable state.

I must think of a better expression, one without the negativity. What about relaxed mastery? In command, in charge..(have been looking in the Thesaurus).

I remember saying to my speeding brain once 'Just a minute, I'm in charge here.'

It's a nice feeling. Comfortable in one's skin comes close to describing it.

Are you bien dans sa peau?

Am staying up hoping to see the Northern Lights.....

I'm heading this post Simply Organise, but it feels more like it should come under Simply Live. I'll try to explain..

I've been following Fly Lady's system for organising my home for a month. It's been the easiest month of housework I've ever done and the house looks and feels clean, warm, relaxed and happy. It's the relaxed and happy bit that excites me most. No more nagging voice in my head every time I look at a job undone. This was not a big loud voice you understand, just a little niggly one, but it was always there and I hadn't realised how wearing it was, how tiring.

The other major effect is that I feel as though I have so much more time. I DO have much more time!

I feel as though I'm taking living simply and simply living to a new level for me and it feels exhilarating.

....in similar vein, priest and writer William Ralph Inge said:

                                           What is originality? Undetected plagiarism.