Category:

Simply..your best year yet workshop....

10/3/2025

I am so enjoying teaching this workshop.

If you don't live near me and are interested, perhaps I could travel to you (you kow I love to travel). If you can fit a few people round your table, or if your WI group or book group would find it interesting...

Let me know in the comments and I will get in touch by email.

My two goals for the experimental session of the workshop at home recently were to find out a) if the author's claim that the process could be done in three hours was correct (that's Jinny Ditzler Your Best Year Yet) and b) whether with my impaired vision I could still teach/lead a group. I am happy to say the answer to both appears to be Yes!

To me, teaching is about sharing and I love to share my interests and enthusiasms and to teach things I believe in eg that everyone can learn to draw, and that you can create a beautiful thoughtfully designed garden without spending thousands. I do believe that if we make plans and set goals the good things are much more likely to happen.

Simply..signs of the times....

22/2/2025

Intruiging...

Simply..face to face February....

15/2/2025

..means extra trips to the city to meet friends for lunches and concerts. Weather is very very cold but sunny -so far so good!

Simply..never quit....

8/2/2025

..was the motto inside my fortune cookie at the Tai Chi group dinner. A demonstration in the village hall then next door to a wonderful Chinese inspired meal at The Blairmore.

Good fun and another reason to be glad I took up Tai Chi last year.

Simply..February....

2/2/2025

Some of you will kmow I have a history with the month of February, during which I often felt so low that I began to dread it. I think it was in 2011 that I saw how foolish this was and made the decision to make February fun.

For a few years I made it my Writing Month and I loved that, taking myself off on writing retreats in Buckinghamshire and fatefully, Venice (where my grandaughter and I got locked down for six and a half weeks (see March 2020)

In February 2022 I had Fit in February, in 23 Romantic February - that was lovely - and last year I did Colourful February.

This yeaar's plan is Face to Face in February.

In yesterday's comments Gwendoline described beautifully the limitations of communicating through screens. During the pandemic my sisters and I began weekly chats via WhatsApp, a habit we have kept up since. My first face to face project has been to plan several days together in Nairn - really together, in reality! You know I oftern say I like the real thing.

Do you have any February plans?

Simply..imagination....

21/1/2025

.. and fantasy and creativity - I've been thinking about how important these are to our wellbeing. It reminds me that there are realms of life other than screens/media/politics. The irony is not lost on me as I write this on a screen and know that you will read it on a screen :-)

Missummer Night 2023 - listen and look here.

I am doing a Best Year Yet workshop at the Burgh Hall in Dunoon on Saturday 1st February - do come along if you live near enogh! More details tomorrow..

Simply..escapism....

21/1/2025

To notivate myself to do the mucky job of cleaning the greenhouse I looked back to Midsummer Night last year.

A little fantasy is allowed, don't you think? At least once a year.

Simply..exhilarating....

13/1/2025

Even just watching this is exhilaratin! I can hardly imagine what it mustt feel like to actually do it. (Scroll down and press watch.)

Question Seven from Your Best Year Yet by Jinny Ditzler is -

Which role is my major focus for the next year?

Simply..more questions....

12/1/2025

You know I like a good question, so I was not surprised to discover from Gretchen Rubin's Four Tendencies Quiz that I am a Questioner. You might like to try it here.

Here are the next two questions from Your Best Year Yet -

Questin Five - What are your personal values?

Question Six - What roles do you play?

Simply..shining a light....

6/11/2024

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.

Simply..finding....

22/9/2024

..my true north.

A walk on the shore and a playful tweaking of the north point I made on the drive some time ago.

Simply..does June....

2/6/2024

..bring out the Romantic in you?

Simply..the little things....

26/3/2024

..can give you a nice warm feeling, and make you smile.

Yay! New socks!

Simply..24 hours in the city....

23/2/2024

..fills the well. A good dinner out, a walk in the Botanic Gardens, coffees and croissants and browsing in some very stylish shops.

Thursday lunchtime concerts at the University of Glasgow are wonderful (and free). Four members of the Dunedin Consort played some lesser known Bpieces on cello, viola da gamba, violin and organ. It was superb.

Watching the wet world go by

with a capuccino and an almond croissant.

Simply..apricity....

20/2/2024

My new favourite word. I only discovered it recently. It means the warmth of the winter sun. I

Do you have a favourite word by any chance?

Simply..a posh coffee....

24/10/2023

...and a plaintive song.The city is full of contrasts. That's what makes it so stimulating.

I had a psh coffee (in The Ivy no less). I was just being nosy really, but it was so glitzy and blingy that I could hardly find my way around with the lights, nirroors, glass, reflections and pattern everywhere. But the coffee was very nice and the ladies' room amazing.

When I came back out onto the street a middle aged violinist was playing a slow and poignant rendition of 'I Did It My Way' which cut to my heart. I always take coins in my pocket when I go to the city. The street musician was better value than the coffee.

One of the restaurants had pink plastic blossom all round the tables, and Christmas decorations all round the windows.

I bought a candle in The White Company and a notebook in Poundland.

Contrasts.

And an afternoon without thinking about the news.

Simply..while on the subject....

10/10/2023

..of free fun, isn't it fun to take a stick and draw on a sandy beach! Giant plants, directions to the North Pole, anything you like, the more nonsensical thhe better.

It will all disappear with the next tide. Pure lighthearted fun. Be sure to try it next tine you get the chance. It does you good to be silly now and then and we all feel less self conscious on a beach, don't you think? Do you feel you are allowed to be childlike on the beach?

When did you last have some simple fun?

This was the wonderful beach at Ostell Bay which we visited from Carry Farm and which looks out to the north coast of Arran.

Simoly..free fun....

9/10/2023

I use prunings to decorate the table. They may last only a day, but they do spark joy!

Simply..of course....

10/9/2023

..life isn't all vintage teacups and lying in the hammock, but you have to find your bliss, and make it happen.

In the midst of a busy work and family life it might be ten minutes hiding in the bathroom reading your book (been there, done that). What would your late-summer bliss be, and can you create it for yourself?

Find a way!

Simoly..an idle day....

26/7/2023

Isn't beachcombing the most beautifully idle thing?

After an early start with an electrician finally fixing the solar panels, I was so relieved I just took off for the beach.

Play in progress. I am trying to make a North Point on the drive.

I wrote this post while listening to a lively discussion on the programme The Moral Maze called Is Idleness Good For You? (BBC Radio 4 20.00)
It was very very good for me today! Loved it!

When did you last have an idle day? Or even an idle hour? Do yu think it might be good for yuo?

Simply..first attempt....

7/5/2023

Doh!

Simply..birthday self portrait....

6/5/2023

One of the lovely things about the aprtment we stayed in in Paris was its library of books on art and photography. I spent a few hours one afternon browsing them, especially enjoying black and white portraits.

At one point I tilted back in my chair and caught sight of myself in a morror and thought 'That's a photograph!'

Simply..April in Paris....

27/4/2023

..for my birthday..

Simply..keep forgetting....

21/1/2023

I keep forgetting to ask you if you would, when leaving a comment, say where you are writing from! It is lovely to know and fills me with wonder that we are all in touch with each other sharing our thoughts by pressing a few keys. Here are just some places on this earth I have gleaned over the years - Texas, Wales, Cambridgeshire, Glasgow, Switzerland, West Virginia, Edinburgh, Sussex, Dorset, Paris, Washington DC, Australia, Christchurch New Zealand..please add to the list!

I love this image on the snuggly rug I bought in Stockholm.

It seems to me that the Scandinavians can take a simple childlike image and make it sophisticated and grown-up.

How do they do that?

Simply..lipstick colours....

7/1/2023

In the forest today..