      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!
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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.  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?  Liz recommended A Table For Friends by Skye McAlpine, so I looked it up and it got me thinking of happy times to come and of how much I love having family and friends around the table -eating, drinking, chatting and laughing, lingering over coffee, talking till late .... Laura is going to buy me the book for Mother#s Day. I will look for some new ideas. Something about the pictures in the book sent me upstairs to look out this bright yellow tablecloth, and I added alarge dish with an extravagance of candles. Home is where it's at at the moment, so let's make it fun whatever way we can.  Flowers in the lamplight. Does it for me every time. What does it for you? And have you got enough of it? If not, whyever not? Go treat yourself! ..include snow - just enough to transform everything, sunshine - just enough to make the snow sparkle, snowdriops - beginning to open and make it worth a walk round the village, and saxifrage - waiting for me at the supermarket. They may not be up to the below freezing temperatures, having been coddled in vans and supermarket, so are in the greenhouse under fleece for now, but will soon be on the porch. Oh, and another S - the stars have been fabulous these freezing nights . A few moments standing under a starry sky give me a whole better perspeective on things....  I have read that human beings are wired for change, variety and novelty - some of us more than others I expect. I know I am! I need to see different things. So I ordered a pack of clip frames and looked out some favourite photographs and cards and sat them around...  On the stairs  On a stack of towels  On a wall where there is already a nail  On the kitchen counter  A chest of drawers  A shelf (thank you S) Inexpensive. quick and easy, and fun! Do you have ways of ringing the changes? Major part of my We will get through this kit! Like mnds from all around the planet - 6 - 700 of you. It thrills and astonsihes me. It gives me a focus each day, it flatters me that I am listened to (!) and the warm affection I experience here and the sense of yuo listeining to each other definitely heps me through. Living smply in an ever more complex world isn't easy is it? Thank you so much for reading.  On the grey days I have lots of light - candles, lamps, I don't stint on them. They lift my spirits and represent light at the end of this long tunnel. Here in the northern hemisphere daylight is extending too - so cheering. A question - has anyone used those 'silver plating' products which claim to restore worn silver? If so, would you recommend them? I have just been listening to our First Minister telling us, yet again, to stay home, and to not even think of travelling. Never has it been more important that our homes should be our sanctuaries - should comfort and sustain us and bring us joy. So I am continuing to think about how my home can help me through the pandemic....good progress has been made in 'putting my house in order' which is what I set out to do in the first lockdown, imagining that it might last a month or two. Thanks to FlyLady (whom I heard about in the unlikely place of Leo Babauta's Zen Habits - which is like an ultra cool version of old fashioned Fly Lady) The house is clean. With Marie Kondo's help it's pretty uncluttered and organised. I was lucky enough to get some decorating done during the easing of lockdown, outside repairs are being done and the outside is being painted in the spring. So something positive has come out of this period. I have flowers and candles, art upon the walls, heat and light and nothing to complain about, but what my home needs most is people in it, and that I can't have! Like all of us I am finding this tough. So the next most important part of the 'we will get through this kit'; is undoubtedly video calls - Facebook, Zoom, WhatsApp. I so enjoyed your comments yesterday - sausages and Sibelius, too much chocolate, slowing down and dressing up, and lipstick under the mask - thanks for sharing!  That Atlas of Great Britain makes it look like I am planning to travel! (It's an old photo...) Decor that is wintry but not Christmassy...  I like the neutral colours after all the bright red and green  A garland of white foxes!  There is a tiny Santa on his sleigh in this little painting (but he is on his way back home).  The first daffodills thrill me.  Hot plums, toasted flaked almonds and cream. the necessity of lockdown against this terrible disease. The stories of hardship and heartbreak can be overwhelming, even for someone like me lucky enough so far to be relatively unaffected. So it's one day at a time, and today is the twelfth day of Christmas so time to take down the decorations. Doing that and cleaning out the fridge for a fresh start took most of the day (work expanding to fill the time available I suspect). I took a walk too in beautiful sunshine - it was warm enough to sit on a rock on the beach for a while.  Isn'tit lovely to receive a thank you card, or letter/call/text... I am thinking about how to decorate the rather bare house for the rest of winter now. Daffodils bought at the supermarket will help and I have just remembered that I always say at this time of year that when I take the decorations down I notice how badly the rooms need decorated - not this year! They are freshly painted (September) - SO NICE! ..is how I am going to end this blogging year. 'Is your glass half empty or half full?' asked the Mole in Charlie Mackesey's book The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse. 'I think I'm grateful to have a glass.' said the boy.  I have a glass - a very pretty charity shop find...  and I am very grateful that it is full of Brandy Alexander! (A friend and I 'met' for cocktails last night.) I will raise a glass at midnight tonight to all my friends here and say a deeply felt THANK YOU for helping me through 2020. ..are my extravagances! You can get away with a lot on the housework front if you have candles and flowers I always think... I do spend on them, but I also grow and make my own. My favourite scented candles to buy for winter are St Eval Orange and Cinnamon, and White Company Fir Tree. I stock up with M&S tealights if they are on offer. and £2 pillar candles from Morrisons supermarket are very good and long lasting. Have you ever made candles? I've only made my own wax candles once but it was worth the effort, and the ice candles were easy to make with children and spectacular on the doorstep when guests were expected! (They are easier when made with a large and a small paper cup.) Winter is special and, although it will be different, I am going to try to make Christmas special too.  From the window this morning Oh, this is a hard one. To make amends you first have to accept that you were wrong in some way. Then you have to have the humility to say so to the person you wronged. And think if there is a way a way of putting it right. As I said in the list only you can handle this one. But to clear it from your conscience might set you free....which means forgiving yourself perhaps.  Snow!  Could not resist this throw from Next. You know that I love it when you talk to each other in the comments, but I just want you to be aware that Weebly doesn't know how to handle it and the replies can get all out of sync. Don't let that put you off! I adore flowers. There;s no such thing as too many as far as I'm concerned and I have posted hundreds of photographs of flowers in the house. So much joy! But also on a deeper level, beauty that sustains me. Do you have flowers in your house? I grow them, paint them, buy them and pick them from the fields and shore and hedgerows. I can be as thrilled with a tiny branch in a jam jar as an extravagant bouquet, and love both. Lately I have been buying a mixed bunch from the supermarket and dividing it into small posy glasses (shot glasses I bought ten of them for 50p each in a Habitat sale once upon a distant time). One sits by the kettle, one by the bed, one on the bathroom window ledge, one under the sitting room lamp...with a twig or two from the garden a £3 bunch can go a long way.!  They are the first thing I see when I open my eyes in the morning. A little spark of joy to start the day. What could be nicer? Will be thinking about you tomorrow PennyL. ..than candles and cosy socks! Its as least as much about family and friends, and could feel a bit hollow without them. (I currently can't see four of the people closest to me.) Who could ever have imagined that it would be illegal to be with them?  Still a quiet pleasure  Still comforting Now we have Friluftsliv (even harder to pronounce than hygge.)
I had a lot of fun with hygge, this one I'm not so sure...but maybe this is the challenge I am looking for?  l live in Loch Lomond and The Trossachs National Park which is a rugged landscape with a lot of commercial forest, much of it planted in the 1930's with wood intended for pit props in coal mines. It must be difficult to grow a crop which takes so long to mature that the world has changed by the time it is ready! Many acres became forest park although wood is still harvested, mostly for pulp. There are lots of circular walks and trails, and deciduous edges of a wide variety of species.          |
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