Category:

Simply.. elevate the bliss....

3/7/2021

What a wonderful expression Sheena (see yesterday's comments). It's why we drink tea from our special cup and saucer rather than a chipped mug, wear lipstick under our mask (loved that one), spend time looking at Instagram or Pinterest, or Country Living magazine, and play dreamy music at breakfast. Did anyone enjoy Kylie Flavell's channel by the way? It's why I prettied up the greenhouse again (I know at least one of you has a new greenshouse. I hope you are having fun with it!) A little bit of frivolity or escapism ..lovely. Especially in summer. Especially this summer.

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Simply..a dear friend....

23/6/2021

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..came to stay for Midsummer. We had not seen each other for 17 months, during which she had gone through some terrible times.

The weather was gogeous. We hugged, we talked, we ate, we drank. We decorated the greenhouse, we snoozed in the sun..

The moon came up..

We talked tlll mdnight

It was relaxing and restorative and healing and fun!!

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Simply..someone said....

20/6/2021

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..Until death, it's all life..

yay moment in Venice

I am celebrating Midsummer and the fact that I am alive!

Happy Midsummer Day.X

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Simply..last year....

16/6/2021

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..on Midsummer's Day..

A similar plan for this year, but with one important difference.

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Simply..a little summer ....

14/6/2021

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..vitality.

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Simply..that joie de vivre....

4/6/2021

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Is your joy in living, your enthusiasm for life returning? It is so obvious with hindsight that the missing element was contact - physical human contact with others. As I catch up with family and friends, and we hug and get around the table together it comes home to me. And the joy comes back as we eat and talk and laugh and cry.

'The retrospectoscope is an endlessly useful instrument' said a professor, whose name I have forgotten, in the early days of the pandemic.

What do you see looking back?

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Simply..Today....

1/6/2021

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..is the first day of the rest of your life I told myself firmly this morning. So get on with it!

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Simply..blog posts....

31/5/2021

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..may become shorter and/or erratic as I try to tie up the loose ends of my ever busier life! Blgging, gardening and painting and seeing friends, not to mention the odd lazy hour in the hammock are my happy experiences as my world becomes ever more colourful...

Mainly green and yellow but with great explosions of colour to come.

May your days be rainbow coloured.

And happy.

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Simply..freedom....

29/5/2021

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Freedom makes me happy. Have we ever appreciated it more?

Have you given some thought to what make you happy?

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Simply..happy sleep....

23/5/2021

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After a day of warm hugs with my lovely daughter I had the best ight's slleep I have had for weeks, if not months. Slept right through, no nightmares.

As part of my new Happinesss Project (see yesterday's post) I decided that sleeping better might restore my joie de vivre.

I can get to sleep ok, and I can waken at my preferred time of 7.00. I use an alarm but often waken just before it goes off. But it's the wakening at 3 am that is the problem and for a number of weeks when I did get back to sleep I would have nightmares. Horrible nightmares. This was happening even on my lovely rrelaxing stay on Colonsay.

I had to fix this.

Going to bed earlier didn't help. I already had a nice bedtime routine, my bedroom is calm and lovely, I avoided watching the news before bed. A friend suggested I try a herbal sleep tablet and I used it just three nights and I think I may have broken the pattern.....

But hugs are better!

What works for you?

I try to make the guest room peaceful and pretty and look forward to having guests again!

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Simply..a treatment, perhaps a cure....

21/5/2021

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..for my PPSD.

To treat what I figured is my most worrying synptom - the loss of joie de vivre - I have decided to revisit Gretchen Rubin's The Happiness Project.

I know I have lots to be happy about. There are lots of little sparks of joy, but it's as if they rarely burst into flame anymore.

As ever my inner critic asks Isn't it selfish to think about your own happiness when so many people are suffering? Gretchen Rubin also asks this question and reminds me that studies show that happy people are more altruistic, more forgiving, generous, helpful, charitable, have better self control and are more tolerant of frustration and are more able to make other people happy. I have often thought that the only guaranteed way to increase the happiness in the world is to be happy myslef, so on that basis I will embark on a new Happinesss Project.

Will you join me? What is there to lose after all?

When I first used this book I did it over a year, took what was useful to me from it and it was a big (and rewarrding) exercise.

This time round it will be a mini project. I am listening to the book on Audible and finding it amusing and entertaining. I am jotting down ideas that I think will be useful to me. The first ones are about energy and vitality...

I think this angelica is having a Yay nonent!

PS Turns out I had a Yay moment myself today! The huge happiness boost of a hug from my younger daughter - the first in 15 months. Sending you virtual hugs and hoping you get real ones very soon.

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Simply ..identify the problem....

20/5/2021

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The cause of the condition I am calling Post Pandemic Stress Dusorder or PPSD is of course Covid 19. (See yesterday's post for symptoms). A highly contagious virus has swept the world with frightening speed. I think part of me is still in shock! It has changed our lives in ways we never could have imagined, and never would have wanted.

How have you reacted?

Someome said they went into 'neutral' which is probably a very useful strategy for coping, but a year is a long time to be in neutral. Another said she lived in her own head. It's possible to have too much time to think. I dampened my feelings a lot and that might be why I am feeling that I have lost my joie de vivre somewhat.

Books will be written about the subject. But not by me! Adam Grant's post in the New York Times describes 'Languishing' - a very apt word for how many are feeling. (Thank you Angela for that.)

Is there a treatment? A cure? That's what I am thinking about now....I am so eager to move on.

Tomorrow - my new project.

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Simply..PPSD....

20/5/2021

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I am suffering from PPSD. Post Paandemic Stress Disorder (I just made that up!).

Are you?

The symptoms are a kind of malaise, feeling not depressed, just a bit low. A lack of energy or enthusiasm as in not getting your hopes up too much. In case you get disappointed. Again. A friend cancelled an outing, the weather forecast said warm and sunny and it was cold and wet, I was planning a long awaited trip to the city and they reinstaated restrictions......and so on. Nothing too serious but a kind of weary resignation was my response.

A loss of joie de vivre might sum it up.

Those are my symptoms, yours may well be different if you think you have this condition that is.

I write from an area with three cases and zero deaths and can begin to think 'post-pandemic'....

The wisteria has lots of buds this year.

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Simply..reclaiming the space....

15/5/2021

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As I reclaim the studio space I also have the feeling of reclaiming my life!

Do you feel like this too? It feels like a big moment. Perhaps it is space in your head you need to reclaim. Byron Katie might ask 'Whose business are you in? What are you about right now? Is it time for a new start, a new beginning? As we wait for the government to tell us who we can hug and when (!!) is it time for a reset?

If you could change pne thing about your life, what would it be?

Now could be the time.

It's exciting to remember that we can choose to make a fresh start now if we wish.....

We still have that freedom. We just need to claim it.

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Simply..celebrating....

28/4/2021

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Mindful of sorrow, I am nevertheless celebrating. Both the dark and the light are important.

The sparkling light in the image sent by LizN - thnak you so much! - is brilliant. It's by Fanny Brate, and very reminiscent of Carl Larsson but with more light. Wonderfully skillful painting. After all, how do you paint light? Only by painting the shadows.

The book was a gift with a subscription to Country Living magazine decades ago, and it reminds me to make a little effort to celebrate all the small things. As I have often said, it would be churlish not to.

What can you celebrate today?

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Simply..the new normal....

22/4/2021

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What is your new normal like?

Mine so far is - slow.

Slow enough to listen to the robin and the wren, the pigeeon, the oystercatcher and the woodpecker, and I think I heard a cuckoo call the other day.

Slow enough to notice the scent from the balsam poplar which is a couple of hundred metres away, and the skimmia (phhotographed).

Slow enough for a gentle walk with a friend in the sunshine.

A pause for refelction before thinking how to proceed.

It feels as if the world has been chastened, which is a strange notion I know....

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Simply..tired....

17/4/2021

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..but so very happy after two buses, two ferries, a 5k walk and a picnic with my daughter and son-in-law today.

Have you had any family reunions yet?

So very special.

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Simply..making plans....

16/4/2021

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..with some hope of them being fulfilled.

After yesterday's noisy post (I bet you could not resist mving to that music!) a quiet time to make a list of all the exciting things I am going to be doing. .

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Simply..giddy with excitement....

13/4/2021

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A Yay moment, as restrictions here in Scoatland are eased earlier than expected!

I can see my fanily.

I can see the friend I have not seen for a year.

I can go on that much anticipated holiday with friends.

The gallery want some images fo the exhibition.

I feel as though I am getting my life back!

I so hope things are improvving with you too, wherever you are.

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Simply..Easter....

2/4/2021

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Simply..doodling....

30/3/2021

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..can someitmes help me think..

Although paradoxically, it's best if you don't think while you are doing it! Not always an easy thing to do.

I did this a few weeks ago in an idle moment, mind in neutral, just enjoying the feel of pen on paper.

Looking at it today, I interpret it as an image of how tlie world felt just then.. pretty convoluted. Is that little dot out on the right hand side me, looking at it all, or is that me in the line flying off the page - trying to escape perhaps? Or am I in the middle of that dark tangle surrounded on all sides by barriers and chaos? I wonder if all those spots could be viruses.

And where's 'normal'?

You may be relieved to know I feel much calmer now, maybe because, as well as being fun, this was kind of therapeutic....

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Simply..sometimes....

25/3/2021

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words fail me.

Not often!

Putting out a candle on the doorstep in memory of all those who have died of Covid was so very enotional. I felt as if I faced the enormity of it, and it was like a blow to the chest.

I can't see the neighbouring houses, and very few cars pass, so only the forest saw my candle and that heightened the loneliness and isolation which has been the worst part of the pandemic for me and for so many.

Recovering, counting the days, gardening like crazy and enjoying the daffodils and the wonderful blog friends who keep me going! Thank you for being here.

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Simply..one year....

23/3/2021

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Simply..a wave of gratitude....

18/3/2021

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A wave of gratitude swept over me as I lay on my back on the picnic quilt in hot sun today, gazing at this summery sky.

Like sweetness, we must take our delight where we find it and I am looking forward to reading J B Priestley's Delight which is new to me.

Can you think of something that delighted you today?

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Simply..Don't think. Do.

17/3/2021

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So says Alfie to Bella in my faourite happy film This Beautiful Fantastic. He also says You can speed read but you can't speed garden.

My minimum one hour a day through March is proving the point, but I am really pleased with the difference so far. I think I am happier because I have made a commitment to it. I feel less like I am in limbo.. And the date for the Stay At Home order to be lifted is now 2nd April, not the 5th. Little bits of good news and little bits of progress - all good.

Have you found ways of getting out of 'limbo'? If that's how you have been feeling...

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Simply.. elevate the bliss....

Simply..a dear friend....

Simply..someone said....

Simply..last year....

Simply..a little summer ....

Simply..that joie de vivre....

Simply..Today....

Simply..blog posts....

Simply..freedom....

Simply..happy sleep....

Simply..a treatment, perhaps a cure....

Simply ..identify the problem....

Simply..PPSD....

Simply..reclaiming the space....

Simply..celebrating....

Simply..the new normal....

Simply..tired....

Simply..making plans....

Simply..giddy with excitement....

Simply..Easter....

Simply..doodling....

Simply..sometimes....

Simply..one year....

Simply..a wave of gratitude....

Simply..Don't think. Do.

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