the colours of the leaves are glorious.

Enjoying quiet, ordinary days. Do you find there are times when ordinary is enough?

I could not resist the colours of these flowers, reduced from £8 to £2.

The pumpkins had soup written all over them, but I did resist - on day  five of a horrid cold I just didn't have the energy!

and I am having a very lazy day.

..to rake up ad compost. Good exercise.

Hundreds of new tiny toadstools.

The eating outside season is coming to a close. Comfort food and a glass of wine in the autumn sunshine is a special treat.

With my special guest. I hope you are enjoying the season too.

The smell of quince fills the room in the mornings .I do love it.

Figs with a drizzle of honey and balsamic vinegar and a scattering of chopped nuts. Delicious.

and a vintage moment at breakfast.

I am taking a short blog break and wishing you simple joys for all your senses and a lovely weekend.

A bit odd to illustrate Choosing the Human with a photograph of a bird, I know. My little breakfast  companions and I have been thinking about the idea of technology taking over from humans and  we think we will start a campaign
 for Choosing the Human option where there is one - at the supermarket chackout for example. Eye contact, a few friendly words - nice for me, and he or she may really like and need that job.. 

What do you think?

..is the ultimate result of all ambition said Dr Johnson. If you are a bit unwell there is no better place to be. I've had a very quiet and reflective time, enjoying my own space, having long hot baths, doing only the basics, resting a lot, healing. Waiting. Accepting.

Merely a cold and a cough, I feel for people with more serious illnesses and count my blessings  and the many comforts of home.


Feeling much much better I am happy to say, and hoping you are all well!

I spent the morning worrying about the state of the world, but at noon I got out the card that shows a clock face at 12 o'clock and the words 'Today is just getting started!' and I reset and did some gardening, took some photographs and cooked meatballs and potatoes in a garlic and lemon sauce.  (The world carried on in it's mad way ...)

So beautiful.

After the city buzz of Edinburgh, my lovely Tai Chi class helped me to slow down and accept the slower country pace.

I was tempted by the gorgeous bouquets of  colourful flowers  in the city, but a bit put off at the idea of carrying them on and off three buses and a ferry, so instead when I got home and before I took my coat off I went out and picked some branches of birch to fill two big jars. They are so very pretty at this early stage and the quiet and calm in the late afternoon light were soothingly beautiful.

I am so lucky to bee able to experience both the city and the coutry.


What pace will you be going at today?

..are still looking fabulous.

..is much underrated.

July has been about super healthy eating, and August is going to be about unclogging (decluttering).

Out with the university flies and all the garden design plans, drawings, client notes and phtographs I made over a decade or so. It's called 'identity clutter' apparently and is even harder to deal with than shoes! Any tips most welcome..

Just to let you know I plan to post just twice a week or so during August (with apologies to those of you who read the blog as part of your daily routine).

..with an alarm clock.  A simple old fashioned one with a pleasant sound,  which I am rather fond of. I set it for seven in summer and eight in winter. I don't set ot on Sundays. I very often waken just before it goes off.

All too oten I waken long before it goes off. What is it about three in the morning?!

It was quite by chance that I photgraphed my little clock at ten past ten, but it reminded me that I once read that clocks for sale are always set at this time because it looks happier than say twenty past eight. Hurrah or amalogue!

What wakens you? Could it bee nicer?

Sometimes crtises make you want to rethink things. My own and my family's health crises have recently put me in that frame of mind.

I think it was Tony Robbins who said that the biggest problem is that people think they shouldn't have problems! The notion that a crisis is also an opportunity seems a useful one and I want to explore that idea.

Keeping it smple I thought about how I start my day.

How do you waken up?

Naturally, after a sound sleep and in good time for whatever you want to do?

No, me neither! Or rarely...

(Almost) no sugar and definitely no News and I feeI like a new person, or rather, as if I am coming back to myself.

Is there anything you could give up that would make you feel better, both physically and mentally?

..but I seem to have run out of words! 

So I send you this, with love.

I blithely called my bog Live Simply, Simply Live. The first part is aspirational, the second a resolution.

It's a fact that life is not simple. I suppose what I am really doing is taking conscious steps to reduce the complexity of my own life to a level I can cope with. Finding that sweet spot where life is full of interest but not full of stress.
It's a balancing act.

Simply Live on the other hand is simple. I  deternine to live every sngle day I am given. Really live it, mindfully, by choice. It would surely be churlish not to! Shameful even, since I have been given so much.

Sweet peas and the full moon (through the bathroom window).

Simply magical.

It has finally dawned on me why I often leave things until the last minute.  I have recently realised that I actually enjoy the pressure of having to do things quickly, in a rush, against the clock. I like the adrenalin rush!

In my busy working life bringing up a family, working full time and studying, deadlines were frequent and I often rushed around madly meeting them.  At times it got a bit much but on the whole I enjoyed the fast pace.

Going at a slow pace in order to think about a fast pace and why I someitmes like it..need it even.

 I feel as if 2022 has left me with more loose ends than a bowl of spaghetti! And as if the time is out of joint and I have not yet processed enough of its happenings to be quite ready to move on. The communal trauma of the pandemic is I think still playing out, with everyone at different stages in their recovery and all of us trying to be kind and sensitive, but walking on eggshells. Many people are still vulnerable.

The world events - politics and war, strikes and royal rows - are far from resolved but on the persoanl front four of the people I love who have been in and out of hopitals since early December are all home - so that is wonderful!

I an enjoying January's episode of As The Season Turns, beautiful flowers and the new winter bedlinen in the guest room.

What are you enjoying this January? Are you full of optimism and new plans?

I think I need another week or two to catch up..

My word(s) have found me!

I have enjoyed listening to Michell Obama reading her book The Light We Carry in which she articulates what this motto means to her and her family.

It's a kind of shorthand for their values which she lists -

Hang on to our integirty, always try harder, think more, tell the truth, do your best by others, keep perspective and stay strong.

We invoke it any time we feel we are being tested as a reminder to steady ourselves...

I envisage using it  when feeling low or frustrated or, heaven forbid, cynical. (Have you ever known a happy cynic?) I  imagine it giving me a little lift, even a centimetre higher could make a diference at times, don't you think?


Has your word for 2023 found you yet?

My word for 2022 served me well.

It was lovingly.

I found it particularly useful if I didn't really want to do something.

Instead of doing a chore grudgingly, I found if I reminded myself I could do it lovingly it changed my attitude entirely and I could do it not only with good grace, but with pleasure.

I'm considering using it again, or maybe I will go with minimal, or perhaps cherish. Still thinking. Are you? I know Lynn has settled on healing which is a wonderful choice.

Dawn this morning captured by The Blairmore in the next village along the shores of Loch Long. My visitors and I had a lovely lunch there today.

I woke very early the other morning and the deep silence and beautifuul light reminded me of a lady I once visited in a remote part of Sweden who led a truly simple life.

Liselotte lived alone in a cabin in a meadow on the edge of the forest, by a lake in which she bathed and washed her clothes. She used only natural soap, careful not to pollute the water. Drinking water came from a well, and the house was lit by candlelight. She served us tea on the prettiest old fine china, and we saw a moose on the far edge of  the meadow.

I felt as though I was in a dream.

I think she lived here only during the summer months, but she seemed to be utterly content with her simple life.

Do you think you could live this simply? I'm not sure I could.

Maybe for one summer...

Simplifying my life was and is perhaps as much about what I don't have and do as much as what I do choose to have and do in my life.

I'm not claiming anykind of high ground here, this is just what works for me. I don't have a microwave, a dishwasher, a tumble dryer, a coffee machine, a television, exercise equipment, or many gadgets, which it seems to me often just take up space and time to maintin them adds up too. And they can be very noisy. I dom't have a car either, but that is not from choice, it's because my eye condition (AMD) means I can no longer drive. I do miss my car!

The only thing I want to be all-singing-all-dancing in my house is me.

:-)

There are also things I don't do. Twitter, facebook, Instagram - they all take up time I would rather spend on other things. I watch and listen to very little news. (I sometimes wonder who decreed that we should get so caught up in all the worst things that are happening all around our world on a daily, or even hourly basis?)

We are all different! What works for you?

 
It's ineresting to see that Miss Minimalist is still going strong - 300,000 books sold! And The Minimalists are also looking back over 12 years. What innovative career paths they have had.  Blogs, YouTube, podcasts, Patreon, live events and tours. They have given so much of their work free - but it's fascinating that we still love books so much.