|
by listing the ingredients needed for some delicious holiday food. I am going to make this this week. Tonorrow I will check what I have got - ingredients for recipes, wrapping paper etc, stamps and cards, and I might get the decorations box out from the cupboard under the eaves... Nice things to do on grey wet November days. What will you be doing?
1 Comment
I loove that the exquisite facade of Mackintosh's Willow Tearooms has been so beautifully restored. It is hard to beleive it opened in 1903. One of the delights of the city.  I also love that I can walk out of my front door into this..  I am so lucky to have access to both. Town or country? Do you have a prefernece? Woodsmoke..I do love this smell.  The ceazier the wider world, the more I relish creating order and calm in my narrow domestic sphere. A stack of freshly laundered towels, a linen cupboard all in order, a newly defrosted and organised freezer, well stocked, a pretty table setting and a home cooked meal. I have control in my little world and it feels good! Are you in charge in your home and is it your sanctuary where sanity can rule? (Even if it isn't always tidy.) Does that feel good to you too?    The view from the sofa..  A friend who lives on one of the islands was coming for lunch, but the weather was so bad (Cowal had 50% more rain than usual in October) that the fierries were on amber alert, so the visit has been postponed. I was of course disappointed but as I had cleaned and tidied and baked and cooked I decided to light some candles, put my feet up and further conemplate yesterday's post. I dug out the candle ring I like in winter and picked some ivy from the pot at the front door to decorae it.   I sampled the home made biscuits and lucnhed on the courgette, pea and mint soup
with German ryebread, and the hot plums in spicy syrup with Greek yoghurt and toasted almonds. I listened to As The Season Turns - always delightful - as the rain lashed and the gale howled. As they say, it's an ill wind... As I locked up tonght I looked out over the lcoh and saw the moon rise.   The 'mist' is my breath in the cold air. Add the sound of an owl from across the bay.. So atmospheric! ..in my own cupboards, I came across this. I stitched it some decades ago (it's not my own design) and it's been in a box of odd things ever sinde.  I found a little frame and put it on the shelf for a bit.  I like it. What do you have in some forgotten drawer or box or cupboarrd that needs to see the light of day?
I bet there is something!    You may remember we used to have ywo very tame robins here, and that last winter I ttried to tame a new one. I seemed to make no progress. The robin flew away whenever I moved and seemed extremelyy shy. Could this be the same one, now older and bolder? It flew past me on the porch and in the open door (the first day of autumn was warm and sunny) and investigated the study and the bathroom before settilng on the top of the door for a full five minutes! The more I am told winter is going to be miserable, the more determined I am to have a great winter (brings out the defiant streak in me!). I am going to be warm this winter. Stacking the wood has already warmed me once, and I will take a weekly walk in the forest and collect kindling from the forest floor.   I will enjoy all the subtle shades of the season in little collecyions of natural things, like a school nature table. All for free.
I think I will try to write a Superhygge post each week of autumn and winter - all your ideas most welcome! ..stacking wood.  So anything that makes it a bit more fun..  Another load arrives torrorrow.
Do you have a favourite city? Mine is York (Venice is a close second). I taught in this wonderful building  and lived in this one. Yes, really! I can hardly believe it myself. Barry was resident custodian and we had a beautiful apartment furnished with antiques from the Noel Terry Collection.  This was my shop Quilters Patch with my great friend Maggie.  Every visit to York is a real nostalgia trip - so many wonderful memories . I count myself very lucky indeed to have lived there.
..makes me so happy! So does coming home after a little trip. The silence and the beauty move me to tears of gratitude.     I haven't lit the little moon light since Barry died six and a half years ago. Maybe this winter... PS After I posted this I realised with a shock how badly the gable end needs painted! Another job before winter. I feel most alive when I am learning. You? I am also thinking about when I feel most myself.. Meanwhile as the season turns I have bought a new pillowcase with just a hint of autumn about it. (Croft range from John Lewis.)  Walking to the ice cream shack, I came across some umusual beach furniture.!   Did you see any shooting stars? A brilliant moon and a thin layer of cloud meant I did not see any last night, but perhaps tonight.. If you have listened to La Leendertz this month (you can hear her podcast here) She says of August- If you are able to take time off, the days spill into each other in a haze of nothing much  There is a suspension of expectation and activity in August  and it is good to see  how little you can get way with! I do hope you get some time off. Don't forget tonight you may see shooting stars..  Like many guest rooms I suspect, laundry and odds and ends land there. But it took less time than I expected to tidy and dust this simple room, put out fresh towels and flowers, and a selection of books to please my visitor,         We've had temperatures of a very pleasant 21 - 23 degrees and a gentle breeze, so the extra blanket was certainly not needed! All meals outdoors and short slow walks to Coronation Wood and the ice cream shack on the beach have been the order of the days - wonderfully relaxing...just what you want for summer guests.
Sunshine! At 4.30am  And at 4pm.  A beautiful day.
Two buses, two ferries to get there, the same coming back and sometimes when the weather and the rather complicated timetables work out, it's a breeze. Ardentinny to Clynder to a friends's house for lunch and a look round her magnificent garden. We all love the little girl Doon The Watter statue and it brings back fond memries for many Glaswegians.  There is a good bus service from my village to the town.  Anc CalMac run a passenger ferry to Gourock.  Weather permitting in winter...  Could be me!  The even smaller Kilcreggan Ferry  The weather imprroved as the day went on.  We are pretty well served by public transport here. ..to do on a very wet June day, but put on my waterproofs and pick the first sweet peas - such a strng scent!  Bake some Mary Berry scones..  And settle down to watch the tennis.  Harmony Tan! Spectacular!
From extreme heat and sunshine to relentless rain today - heavy rain, a moderate breeze and 13 degrees. However, the Scottish rain does produce a lush leafy green landscape and the first couple of days after I came home from holiday weather of continuous sunshine and 31 degrees, we had a couple of gentle days and I felt very fortunate to have a beautiful place to come home to, with the meadow at its best. Tsunamis and hurricanes, torndoes and flash floods and wildfires! Really I should not be calling this post extremes! Extremely grateful is what I should be for our climate here in uk - but we do like to grumble aboout our weather. It's a national pastime.  I loved Carry Farm. And I adore the image on this page of their website. They somehow manage to be both homely and sophisticated at the same time. No hype. Low key. Small scale. Caravans and eco lodges, hens arund your feet, donkeys and rare breeds, a sailing school, quality craft work, real coffee. The woods around full of primroses and bluebells.        A young Dad and his two small children passed us here - they were putting up a tent for the night on this bit of machair. |
Categories
All
AuthorAn artist seeking a simpler life - (but not too simple!) Archives
November 2022
|
RSS Feed
