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..of power-hosing! A decades-old Habitat bench repaired and restored. I am so pleased with it, and it has been fixed in exchange for a petrol strimmer which was sitting in my shed, too heavy for me to use.  
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I picked a huge bunch of buttercups from the road verge, and felt vaguely guilty (you're not supposed to pck wild flowers, right?)  Next mornng the council came along.......I wonder if the man with the machine felt guilty?  I would never pick flowerss which are raare, but it is so easy to make us feel guilty, don't you think? About evereything! Are you feeling guilty about anything right now? Is it really warranted? Guilt is a fascinating topic.. The bench and chair have been power-hosed and treated with Cuprinol 'Silver Birch ' stain. I am looking for deep magenta scented roses to go either side...  ..there are bluebells too. I am so lucky to live in this spot.  ..there's a lot going on. As long as the weather holds it's walks with friends and tea and scones or even lunch in the garden. Joy.  A new scone recipe - flour, cheese, milk and soda! Quick and easy though I'm not sure I like the texture as much as my other recipe...... Have you tried lemonade scones? Flour, cream and lemonade.       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! 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. |
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July 2021
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