..but so very happy after two buses, two ferries, a 5k walk and a picnic with my daughter and son-in-law today.
Have you had any family reunions yet?
So very special.
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Have you had any family reunions yet? So very special.
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 ..with some hope of them being fulfilled.  After yesterday's noisy post (I bet you could not resist mving to that music!) a quiet time to make a list of all the exciting things I am going to be doing. . Thank you Grace for leading me to this! Oops! If this will not play a notice will say Watch on YouTube - if you click on tht it should play....sorry about that.  A Yay moment, as restrictions here in Scoatland are eased earlier than expected! I can see my fanily. I can see the friend I have not seen for a year. I can go on that much anticipated holiday with friends. The gallery want some images fo the exhibition. I feel as though I am getting my life back! I so hope things are improvving with you too, wherever you are.       On the theme of beautiful things we can buy for very little money, it is astonishing to remember that in the 1630's a single bulb of a tulip such as this might cost 100 times a skilled man's annual wage! I can buy a bunch of them for a mere £3. I am so spoiled! Homebound still, my domestic life has never received so much attention but that seems quite appropriate as my ambition during lockdown was to 'put my house in order'. A lot has been achieved, most of it of the boring but necessary variety. Fresh snow on the hills and early frost on the grass, plus bitingly cold winds has meant less gardeining, so here I am sharing my favourite bowls with you and hoping you are not getting too bored loking at more things! If I don't get out and about soon I will be photographing the cupboard under the sink and boring you with it! (I promise I won't.) But maybe you too are reviewing your home and its contents and enjoying the things around you in a new way?
 Wood and laquer. Thank you Claire!  Metal from IKEA  Makes a beautiful ringing noise when struck. Very Zen.  Melamine from Habitat.  Bought for £5 in a shop in York which was closing down. In looking over some of my favourite things I see ome - that my friends know I like bowls, and two - that many beautifully made objects can be found for very modest prices. After watching this film this morning (before washing my hair or making the bed - such is lockdown) I realised I have a nice collection of bowls, which probably started with these Bernard Leach soup bowls. I bought a set of six of them when I was 19 and working as a waitress for the summer in a hotel in St Ives.. They have been well used! I had done some pottery at Glasgow School of Art but I wasn't any good at it. It did however give me an appreciation of ceramics which I have always enjoyed.     I didn't set out to make a collection, and none of them are expensive (although the Leach ones might be expensive now! The last time I saw any of them was in a glass cabinet in the Victoria and Albert Museum.) Two of the best ones came from IKEA. The quite large and very elegant one above has a crackle glaze, a subtle oriental looking colour and was made in Portugal for IKEA. I love it. Do you have a 'collection' of anything in your home that you particularly enjoy? A reverence for things is what I think I first liked about Marie Kondo's appproach to tidying, and in this film about Japanese Tea Bowls I get a sense of that. Also in this film of a Danish potter Paying Honest Attention. The Goldmark Gallery are especially known for ceramics and prints and they have a brilliant collection of films - hours of education and entertainment if you are tired of TVand Netflix! Another favourite of mine is this one about Matisse, who became more and more courageous as he grew older. These films are longer than the Philip Mould ones. Today I have watched several as it has been so cold with lashing rain. I've been very cosy, having brought back out the winter throws. I hope you are cosy too.  Enjoy the things that are around you says Philip Mould in one of the short films I linked to yesterday, so I have been moving things around a little, and bringing things out of cupboards to enjoy again. Do you make changes as the Japanese traditionally do, with different objects for different seasons? I think I appreciate them all the more if I have not seen them for a bit, or if I put them in a different location, or a different light. The little glass cube with the twirly stems has been on the top of a high bookshelf for years! Have you any forgotten things which you might enjoy again if you move them into the light of day?   I am sticking to tulips and pot plants (see yesterday's post). I am greatly enjoying Philip Mould's second series of Art In Isolation short films from his beautiful home.  Thalia
Brilliant sunshine all day, but freezing and with a strong wind carrying the odd flake of snow.
For almost two weeks I have had what I thought was a bad cold, with headaches, and I was wondering why it was lasting so long. Two nights ago it occured to me that I had jugs of daffodils in every room in the house and that perhaps..... I used to suffer from hay fever but it had faded over the last few years to almost nothing at all. I removed all the daffodils to the studio and! the headaches have gone and I have stopped sneezing! I think I will just have to enjoy them in the garden. They are wonderful this year. Between Easter cakes and birthday cake (about three weeks) I intend to lose 5 pounds and be comfortable in my clothes again!   My sister bought me this pretty plate. It says Have your cake and eat it! If only we could..  Thank you all for the interesting comments on yesterday's post. It's good to share with, as Gwendoline put it 'sympathetic travellers' and it's fascinating to hear from different parts of the world. Transitioning to a more nornal existence will be different for each of us, but our feelings about it may be very similar. Today there is frost on the grass but full sun is forecast for the whole day and I will be out in the garden. There is still a lot of work to be done and I am clearing and mulching around each clump of flowers as they appear, so it's primulas, pulmonarias and daffodil Thalia today and I'll be having my meals outside. Wishing you all a happy Easter weekend. ..to take back the reins of your own life again? Or are you a bit nervous about making all your own decisions once more? Perhaps you have lost a bit of confidence, or things and the people around you have changed so much that you feel all at sea, or have lost your sense of direction. Here in Scotland the stay at home order is about to be lifted at last!!
I don't remember where I saw this, but I copied it down as it struck a chord with me - Sometimes you have to show your love for your own life with dramatic and affirmative actions. ..can someitmes help me think..  Although paradoxically, it's best if you don't think while you are doing it! Not always an easy thing to do. I did this a few weeks ago in an idle moment, mind in neutral, just enjoying the feel of pen on paper. Looking at it today, I interpret it as an image of how tlie world felt just then.. pretty convoluted. Is that little dot out on the right hand side me, looking at it all, or is that me in the line flying off the page - trying to escape perhaps? Or am I in the middle of that dark tangle surrounded on all sides by barriers and chaos? I wonder if all those spots could be viruses. And where's 'normal'? You may be relieved to know I feel much calmer now, maybe because, as well as being fun, this was kind of therapeutic....
Daffodil February Gold doesn't flower in February here, but waits till spring arrives. I love it's reflexed petals and I love having enough to pick for the house. My plan to garden every day of March worked really well until the last couple of days, when it has been so cold and wet that I retreated to te greenhouse, but the forecast is better for later in the week and I reckon I will have averaged the one hour a dy goal that I set myself. April will be even better! The shed is being repaired and I will get the power hose onto the paths and steps... I like when we change the clocks here in uk. It was still light at eight o'clock tonight. ..and fresh scones for Saturday morning brekfast.    Yesterday's photo was tle lovely prunus incisa Kojo No Mai which gets moved into a prominent spot when in flower. ..if you will, a tiny blue tit hanging on, upside down and by one leg to the last flower at the tip of this branch. I saw a photograph of just that on an RSPB site and wanted to use the photograph on the blog, but could not find it again. It seemed to represent how some of us are feeling, and it made ne smile. If the blue tit can do it, so can I!   I use this notebook as a kind of daybook. Part diary, part to-do list, part catch all for numbers and notes-to-self. It came from my favourite stationery shop Paperchase which is rumoured to be closing some of it's branches. Our high streets are going to be different when we finally get back to them.... I first visited Paperchase in London and thought I had landed in Aladdin's cave! Love it and hope it is still there when I get back to the city. Do you have a favourite store you are missing? words fail me.  Not often!
Putting out a candle on the doorstep in memory of all those who have died of Covid was so very enotional. I felt as if I faced the enormity of it, and it was like a blow to the chest. I can't see the neighbouring houses, and very few cars pass, so only the forest saw my candle and that heightened the loneliness and isolation which has been the worst part of the pandemic for me and for so many. Recovering, counting the days, gardening like crazy and enjoying the daffodils and the wonderful blog friends who keep me going! Thank you for being here. ..is what gets me out of bed in the morning. Almost the first thing I do is take a look to see what has germinated overnight,  These llittle specks will grow into four feet tall foxgloves, white with spotted dark wine coloured markings. Dozens of them. Isn't it amazing? Of course they may not turn out to be white ( I collected the seed from one which appeared in the garden last year), and they won't flower until 2022, and I will need a lot of space to grow them on, but that's all part of the excitement.... What gets you up in the morning? |
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April 2021
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