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.

 I had actually forgotten that plant was there! It looks amazing with the lime green foliage of geranium Anne Folkard.

As I have often said, beauty sustains me.

..at 4.22am. A cup of tea while watching the dawn.

On my recent trip to the city I visited Kelvingrove Art Gallery, coinciding with an organ recital which soumds amazing in this great space.

But inspired by the book Thunderclap by Laura Cummings I wanted to revisit the good collection of Dutch painitngs in the gallery.  This is one of my favourites. Neither the artist or the sitter is known. It is titled Portrait of a Girl aged 15 and was painted by  a followe of Nicolaes Eliasz in 1633. Such skill!

I always visit her and wonder about her life.

Off for my face to face getogether with my sisters...

Another way I still enjoy my books is to put a 'coffee table' book on this side cupboard  (don't happen to have a coffee table) and turn a page every morning for a week or two. This book has stunningly beautiful photographs of our world.
 
A positive way to start the day.

Most of the books of this type that I have were bought for very little in remainder book shops. Do you have any books that would serve this purpose?

..and all the beauty in our world.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Thank you Mary in Washington DC for this gorgeous photograph!

..led me to The Woodland Florist in the small village of Kirn on the shores- of the Firth of Clyde. What a lovely find!

Exquisite, unusual flowers, delightful cards and small gifts - a little woodland wonderland. It was such a treat and I will definitely be back. I am already planning to buy myself some Valentine flowers there.

Gently beautiful things are hapening all around us. It behoves us to notice.

Green shoots are appearing like magic, six planets are lining up in the sky. Somehwere nearby a baby is taking it's first steps. Don't miss any of it.

My favourite robin photgraphs.  Here and here,

I expect robins are the most photographed birds in the uk.

Please ignore the very strange comments on the first post - the mysteries of the internet are often completely beyond me!!

My friend showed me how to edit a photograph so that the subject looks spotlit. Shining a light on all things good and beautiful..

You in your small corner, and I in mine.

Thenk you Sheena for the exxcellent photgraph of the Ruby-tailed wasp. Given that you werre up a ladder when you you spotted this amazing insect, you did brilliantly to get such a good shot!

Have any of you evver seen one of these?

In all my decades of gardening I have never seen one and was very surprised indeed to read that they are not uncommon in UK. Apart from the ruby tail can you see the irridescence on the head?

Even through the cloud layer the Hunter's Moon was bright enough to send moonbeams all over the garden. From a mere 222,056 miles away!

It was too rainy at moonrise to get the full effect of the supermoon, but I woke at three and contemplated it accompanied by a cup of tea and a slice of cranberry and pumokin seed toast. Funny the things that make one happy.              

Enjoy..  (Thank you Gwendoline.)

Lilke me, they just need a bit of sunshine and like Oliver, I just want some more please!

I am living in a beautiful state of .........

I often start the day by completing this sentence. Today I am living in a beautiful state of accepting change.

What about you?

The everyday is often exquisite when you pause to look. (Thank you for that nice phrase Grace.) The pretty brown eggs on the blue tray - I'd never seen a blue egg tray before - delighted my eye when they were handed to me and as I put them down on the table to attnend to something else I noticed how lovely they looked beside the campanula. When I brought them into the kitchen there was no room on the counter and I recalled a perfect little basket which has been languishing in a cupboard for ages just waiting for such eggs...and the linen cloth completed the  natural scene.

Wherever you are right now, why not take a pause and  find the everyday beauty that surely surrounds you..

..and a very fine beach almost to ourselves.

A peaceful walk at Ostel Bay today.

..is one of the ccategories I will be posting under for the next few weeks, as well as Simply Eat, Simply Fitter, Simply Move and Simply A Student Of Old Age.  I will aslo do an update on Simply Seeing..Or Not which I have not written about for  a long time.

That should keep me busy!

I am SO energised by the retreat.

(Depending what device you use the Catergories should be on the side bar, but if you are reading this on your phone the quickest way to gett to the categories list is probably to go to comments and scroll dowm.)

In spite of the fonecast we had some lovely weather. We sunbathed one afternoon. I did not expect that.

This beach is four minures walk from Samalaman House where we were staying.

Homes modest..

and grand.

Nice spot to barbecue your fish?

..is really quite exotic, almost glamorous when you look closely..

I accidentally knocked it's beautiful head off when trying to clear weeds from around it (I am a clunsy gardener now, unable to see clearly what I am doing). I felt bad about it but like to think I have redeemed myself by honouriing it with a close up and publishing it here, knowing that many people all around the world will marvel at its beauty!

I looked at yesterday's photograph and thought what utterly different worlds the three parts of it represent.

The World of the Imagnation. Oil paint on canvas - created from inside someone's head (mine in this case), a fantasy, a fiction of a kind, unique.

The World of Nature. Narute which sustains us all. In the wild are these exquisite things food for some creature? Or do they just exist to be stunningly beautiful?

The World of the Internet. On this small neat device on my table in my quiet house on the loch in Scotland, I communicate with hundreds of people  on our planet from Texas to Japan, from Switzerland to New Zealand. I have no real  idea how.

My mind is truly blown!

I may have to go and lie down in a darkened room  :-)

There is so much that is beautiful in our world.

I find this website inspirational and beautiful. I suuggest you scroll down to the video. What do you think?

I noticed the building featured in this post only because my bus stop had been moved. I looked it up on the way home and thought I would like to see inside and took the opportunity on that day out in the time between the two concerts. As we walked in - it is the headquarters of the Bank of Scotland - a man stepped out from behind a very inposing desk and asked if he could help. When he realised we were not there on business he began discreetly walking us back towards the door, but when I said I was interested in the architecture it quicky became clear that her knew a lot about the building and its history, and we had a lovely conversation. (He called the building 'she')

Sadly, the feature I especially wanted to see - the atrium - has been floored over. It no londer exists

 
I have found a book called Fragments of Glasgow with photographs of many old Glasgow buildings, which I think I may have to have for Christmas!

..and a moonrise over the mountain. So beautiful.

And no rain!