Happy Easter
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Just a few small branches of the balsam poplar scent the room. You have to pick it just as the leaves are emerging, as, unusually, it's the leaves which are fragrant. I love the delicious smell and can detect it from the back door although the trees are about 100 metres away.   Apple, pear, plum and cherry, and oh those magnolias! This one in a churchyard in Norwich, sparkling in spring sunshine. I hope that wherever you are you are getting good weather. Meals outside with my robins for company, gardening from early till late, the kiss of the sun lifts my spirits.  ..of things. I am always moving my things around. A visitor to the house once said 'little still lifes everywhere!' I am in good company. Matisse, even when ill in bed, would have someone move an item on the manterlpiece one or two centimetres to the right or to the left until he was satisfied with the balance of the arangement. Mostly my arrangements are by design but sometimes they are by happey chance. A friend brought me this seed pod from Malawi and when I opened this page of my current daybook I was struck by how beautiful they looked together. Changing thins often keeps them fresh for me.  ..of the scent of hyacinth. I wonder what prompts the flower to pump out it's scent. It's not always there. Is it the temperature or the light levels? I have a single hyacinth in a glass beside my bed and woke this morning to a delicious waft of that unique perfume. The timing was beautiful. I think it actually woke me up, and it lasted right through the breathing exercises I do while still in bed - 20 minutes or so, just washing over me, heady, intoxicating. How beautiful was that?  Do you have a favourite floral fragrance?
..but I am not sure that the boids lile the stylish new bird feeder. They are not using it much althouogh it has been in place since Tuesday... ..  I am doing another Your Best Year Yet workshop on Satuday 8th in Dunoon. Would love to see you there! ..I am feeding three robins and a hen pheasant with two broken tail feathers.
They are camera shy. I had my own little festival of candlelight! Quite romantic even by the second day without power.    Snowdrops by candlelight - magical. But I have to confess that by the end of the fourth day I was pretty fed up. I now have to deal with the freezer. Aaargh! In other news..It would be fun to see you at the workshop in Dunoon this Saturday. Details and tickets here. I am very touched by all your comments recently - thank you for your concern. It is lovely to be here again, getting back to normal. I hope all is well with you.
I hope everyone is okay after the storm which caused a lot of damage here though not to the house thankfully. The first 24 hours without power were fine - I lit lots of candles, set up the little cmping stove and slept on the sofa in the sitting room keeping the woodburner going all night. I had wine, I had chocolate..   The village was cut off - falling trees brought down not just the cables but many poles and I knew teams would be out working all hours, and that the village had emefgency plans for such events - I live in a forest after all. These things happen. All my preparaations paid off but a power pack for my phone had not arrived so I was without contacts/radio/podcasts/distractions. Once the wild noise of the gales died down the 14 hours of darkness felt strangely peaceful in a way I have not experienced for a very long time. I found myself thinking about what life must have been like before electricity. My great grandmother travelled across America with three chilfren in a covered wagon and I thought about what that must have been like for them. All the foldable garden furniture is in the shed, I'I have lifted the pots off the porch, tucked the bins in close to the wall, I have emergency lights and a camping stove, baskets of logs, a flask to hand, lots of food...A glass of wine and half a packet of the new favourite biscuits have been consumed. A long hot bath and bed. Prepare for the worst and hope for the best they say. Refresh.  Your Best Year Yet Question Ten - How can I make sure I achieve my Top Ten goals? A beautiful day, mild and sunny. It felt very gentle after the gales and the frosts.   There are some fine trees along the shore path, but the erosion of the tides (it is a sea loch) make them vulnerable and the gales blew some right over.   A beautiful early evening sky to end the day. I early I think that may be Venus above what I think of as the Italian tree. It reminds me of trees in very early Italian paintings.write down your goals for each role.. Your Best Year Yet - choose no more than eight roles and decide on your goals for each role.. ..are being counted.    The pre-Christmas gales blew down some sizeable trees in the forest across the road from my house, and the old fence stood no chance, but I realise this is nothing at all when I see the tragdy of the wildfires and the devastation in the war zones. It breaks your heart, doesn't it. and the relentless wind has roared round the house for 48 hours now.  As time went on I lit a candle.  The wind blew the bins over and the top came off the recycling one and the papers blew all over the garden. It nearly blew me over too when I went out to deal with it.
It got dark early and I lit a few more candles.   I was glad I had filled a flask this morning.  I decided to just light all the candles  Just as I lit the last candle, the electricity came back on! Truly!
A very large tree has fallen across the road. I am filled with gratitude for all the people who are out there sorting things in such dangerous conditions. I hope you are all warm and dry and safe. This lovely wintry interlude is coming to an end with a thaw today and rain forecast. I have so enjoyed just coorying in and staying home, venturing out to take photographs, bring in logs and feed the birds. I have given myself the luxury of keeping the stove burning overnight - so gorgeous to come down to in the mornings. I have indulged my romantic side, with rugs and candles, red wine and hot chocloate...whyever not?   Can you create a little romantic holiday feeling for yourself this winter, if not for a day ot two then even for an hour or two? What would you include?
As I say, whyever not? Some frosts are more glittery than others. My photographs don't capture the brilliant sparkliness of the frost on the table, but you can perhaps make out the amazing ferny patterns..     Still frosty hard tonight and as I close the back door I hear an owl far up the glen. I wonder what it can catch on a night like this when surely all small creatures are sheltered deep in nests and burrows. I wonder too where my robins sleep.
One fine jug, one good painting - stillness inside reflecting the stillness outside.  I have so enjoyed the stillness of these last few freezing days. There has been no wind, the ground is hard as iron and yes, water like a stone. I've been in the night garden stargazing, I've fed and watered the birds and carried in baskets of logs and done very little else and been not in the least bored.  I've loved the simplicity of it and savoured the stillness.
..at home.   And at my second home. I'm sorry I can't credit this stunning photgraph of Yotk which a friend sent me today. It gave me such a pang of homesickness! I am so lucky to have made homes in these two beautiful places. I absolutely love them both. I wrapped up well and went out to photograph the delicate frostproof blossoms of prunus autumnalis and within moments the robin was there, ecpecting food. Bitterly cold, no wind and another starry night forecast. No luck seeing shooting stars so far. Have any of you been lucky?      ..took some good photographs!  chaffinch in a frosty hedge ..literally. This one log gave a little firework display for almost half an hour this eveining! Very hygge.  Liz's lovely story of the robin and Dorathy Wordsworth (see yesterrday's comments) prompts me to tell, or retell, some robin stories.. Some years ago my husband called me to join him at the back door - I was at the front door. I said 'I can't, I'm feeding the robin.' 'So am I' he replied, and we realised that we had two tame robins. Read about Ross and the robin, which is probably where it all began. If it is autumn where you are, are you getting out your rugs and cushions ready for cosy nights in? I bought the scallop-edged cushion cover from H&M today. They do cushion covers and tea towels in beautiful quality natural fibres for very reasonable prices. This one is 52% recycled linen. At this time of year I find patterns and textures so conforting.   IRL (In Real Life) I took a notion to make a little wild wreath, which went through several iterations..    The weather got a bit wild too and I wasn't sure the delicate thing would survive Storm Ashley, so I repurposed it.    |
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