A nice task today.
  I enjoyed the sell-out reading by author, poet and Makar (Scottish poet laureate) Jackie Kay in the lovely venue of the restored Victorian Pier in Dunoon today. Wonderfully moving and very, very funny Next the Film Festival. There is a lot going on in this wee town these days! (If you can get BBC Iplayer here is a link to Jackie Kay on Desert Island Discs recently.) For many years we were in the habit of creating North Points when we visited somewhere new but were never particularly systematic about recording them - but here are a few (and I must make a note to myself to keep up this little fun tradition starting with this mini one made of fallen fuchsia flowers today). See here, and here and here  We change the clocks back an hour here in uk this weekend. Hibernation instincts revive (if that's the right word!) I am looking forward to reading The Idea of North by Peter Davidson. More about north tomorrow.. Swiss Rose mentioned in a recent comment her ambition to see the northern lights or aurora borealis. You can receive alerts from this website when activity is likely here in uk, but it is very frustrating if like me, you have a mountain (the one right in the centre of the header photograph) between you and the northern horizon. Most of the activity is visible close to the horizon and I see photographs of marvellous effects from just over the mountain the day after a red alert.... Have you seen the aurora borealis? ..who can laugh at ourselves for we shall never cease to be amused. :-) Apart from BBC Radio 3 (sanity in a mad world!) I've been listening to Hans Rosling on How Not To Be Ignorant In The World, Seth Godin on the subject of Cable news and Elizabeth Gilbert's Thoughts On Writing. Have you any recommendations of people/websites/blogs/magazines/books/programmes with something interesting to say? And that you trust? ..and grown. In anticipation of spring I want to share tulips from the garden in recent years.. 
 
  ...to change. We all have to do it. Sometimes to changes we choose, sometimes to changes we have absolutely no choice about. As well as his love and support, one of Barry's best gifts to me was the gift of time to paint. He quietly took on most of the work around here - the gardening, some of the shopping, all of the cooking, the driving around with paintings to galleries...and more. Since he died in February the harsh reality is that I have less than half the money and more than twice (or thrice!) the work, and it is taking a lot of adapting, accepting, accomodating, and adjusting to ... It is hard. But not impossible. I am inspired when I look around me and see many people manage change with courage and determination. Perhaps you are one of them... I am checking my paints. Definitely time for a new tube of French Ultramarine  Overheard from a three year old on the ferry today - I spy with my little eye, something beginning with BLUE!  You are lying on your back on a summers day. Everything around and earthbound fades to the edges as you watch those birds soar and for a second - you are that bird! I loved that painting. I wish the new owners joy in it too! I think it was Fly Lady who said you can do anything for fifteen minutes. Gardening in the rain can be quite pleasant. I am aiming to garden for fifteen minutes a day whatever the weather is doing in the hope that by spring it will be sorted! Here I am preparing the ground for some tulips..   Better late than never with the half-hardy annual Thunbergia alata, Black Eyed Susan. It was meant to flower with geranium Rozanne which is in the same pot, but long over. Lovely though. Busy, bracing - there is always a buzz about Whitby and the drive over the high empty moors from York is a delight in itself. Smells of kippers and fish-and-chips, cries of gulls, fishing boats coming and going..        I like this quote from Julia Cameron's book It's Never Too Late To Begin Again - The quality of our lives is in proportion, always, to our capacity for delight.    I was extolling the virtues of the real thing in yesterday's post, but these utterly artificial tulips charmed me.
I found the card in Lotte Inch Gallery in York, and it delighted me, as did the website of its designer. What has delighted you recently?           Real music in Betty's and on the street, real coffee, real food, real friends, history made real at every turn, real charm, real luxury in ancient buildings for the price of a cup of tea - treating the commercial world as a museum (a suggestion I think by architect Frank Gehry) I had a wonderful week in York, my favourite city.... Do you have a favourite city? PS On this grey drizzly morning I have just ordered some deliciously coloured tulips from the Sarah Raven Sale. . ..houses with my artist friend in York. City for me, country for Elizabeth. Have you ever swapped houses? Back in a week! Meanwhile I think this is worth a second look, don't you? (Scroll down to Smiling Face.) And the fuchsias still look fabulous.  The light in Autumn can be very soft here in Scotland....I was busy planting twenty or so white foxgloves when I noticed this. Gentle early evening light and a hint of decay..  I was a little burned out by the end of September..  I was doing my hygge thing with candles on the table and flicking through the calendar to make arrangements with a friend when.....the end of September went up in flames! I think I remembered everything I was meant to do.... ..slowly lifted, to reveal a beautiful day.  |
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