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Eric Edmeades, who created Wildfit, claims there are eight needs of the human body - air water sleep energy movement sunlight non energy nutrients touch I think it will be interesting to consider how my own needs are or are not being met.. Did anyone else watch Yuja Wang on tonight's Prom from the Albert Hall? Mind blowing! And the outfit! Wow,
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This is The Studious Servant by Theodule Ribot, about 1871  It made me think of the Villhelm Hammershoi paintings in Copenhagen I mentioned in this post
I was so pleased that The Burrell Collection won the Art Fund Museum of the Year award! I was there today and It's wonderfuli   ..of starting a new category here on the blog. Am thinking about what to call it. The hammock, I find, is a very good place to think...  ..there are no words. Just feelings which can't be expressed n a blog post, so I posted a simple picture last night.
I had been to a funeral yesterday which happened to be on the anniversry of another death. It is important and beautiful to celebrate a life and equally important and necessary to mourn the loss, but I don't think both can be done at the same time without messing up my head! Neither can they be rushed. The heart sets it's own pace. The mind follows. If I am wise, and let them have their way. 'Too blessed to be stressed.' Maria.  NB I really like it when you talk to each othr in the comments but Weebly can't seem to cope and the replies recently got all mixed up. Sorry about this glitch! What do you want the month of June in the year 2023 to be like for you? Sometimes lovely things happen to us, but sometimes, I believe we have to nake them happpen and the first step is probably to know what it is you want! Would you like your June to be exciting? Or sociable or preoductive. Perhaps you would likfe it to be relaxing and you long to have some time alone, some time to think. Or you may seek adventure, or determine to finally do something you have been thinking about for a long time. How about getting pen and paper and a nice drink and sitting down for 15 or 20 minutes to imagine what your ideal June 2023 would look like? Then you can ponder how you could make at least some of it happen at least some of the time.. ..was a very good month. I focussed on dealing with things which were becoming urgent because I had been ignoring them - repairs, paperwork, unfinished projects etc and although I didn't manage to keep up the pace I began the month with, I did get a lot done. I had lots of visitors, which I loved. Our day trip around Argyll's Secret Coast ended with a lovely dinner at Portavadie Marina  How was May for you and what plans do you have for June? A bank holiday yet miles of beautiful beach with perhaps a dozen families and a couple of happy dogs on it. It's especially nice when visitors get perfect weather for a swim! Ostel Bay with a view of Arran.  ..on Argyll's Secret Coast. More tomorrow..  Yesterday's photograph reminded me of one of my late husband's favourite poems Glory be to God for dappled things Gerard Manley Hopkins. And from poets to painters - if you live near enough to Harrogate don't miss the wonderful exhibition by my friend Caroline Bailey. Caroline lives and works on Skye and paints brilliant landscapes and the most lively and vibrant flower still lifes. You can view the exhibition here. This is the first time I have referred to Barry as my late husband - an odd expression is it not?
Sometimes they do! I had a notepad on which each page was headed Dream. Plan. Do. I really liked that notepad. I'm very good at the dreaming bit. Can do the planning though much of it is tedious..nearly done. And ready for the Do. Will report back next week. Meanwhile what are you dreaming of right now? What steps will you take to make it come true? Perhaps there is one little baby step you could take today?  Where did that come from?
I know I did not plant yellow in with the pink. I have been enjoying listening to the book of this name on BBC Sounds (still available). Especially episode two which is about Erasmus - a hero of mine. I was lucky enough to be an Erasmus student, studying in Sweden and Venice , one of the ten million who benefitted from this wonderful European exchange programme, sadly a victim of Brexit. Erasmus lived a life of travel, reading and friendship - which sounds as good a way to live to me in the 21C as it was to Erasmus in the 15C and 16C.  Who are your heroes from history? And why? My daughter worked with a group of people to house and support a family of Syrian refugees who had spent 12 years of their lives in a refugee camp in Egypt. When the woman of the family was asked how things were going she said the small ordinary Scottish town where she now lived was 'paradise'. I found her comment so touching, and humbling and I wanted to share it with you. Is it possible that many of us live in paradise - we just don't notice it? Afer a winter of buying flowers I love when it's time to pick my own These are February Gold though they mever appear in February here.  I have watched the harrowing film Mr Jones and have been thinking about how fortunate I am to be able on the whole to pick my own surroundings, my own thoughts, my own pastimes, ideals and values. To have so much freedom of choice is not to be taken for granted I think. One stormy day some years ago I stood watching the ferry coming in. It took some time to dock as the water was choppy and the wind was strong and I chatted to one of the stewards - an older man who always wore a hat which had corks on strings around the edges of the brim. The weather forecas was uncertain, and so was I and I confided that I was not sure whether I should get aboard or not. 'What if the ferries are cancelled and I can't get back?' I asked him. 'Well' he said cheerfully 'You'll have a wee adventure!' I got on the ferry. He's long dead, that kindly man, but I often hear his voice.  A new word for me. It means the warmth of the winter sun, and that is what we have been enjoying here for several days now! Thank you to crossword wizard Lynne for this happy word.   Are you my robin? A wonderful visit today to the Burrell Collection and the chabce to learn more about Chivalric Love and the Romances of the late medieval period through the fabulous collection of stained glass and tapestries. This is Princess Cecily of York, who at a time when the daughters of the aristocracy were treated as commodities, appears to have married for love. More tomorrow...  My grandaughter sent me this for the anniversary of Barry's death. What a sweetheart! Grief, I've learned, is really just love. It's the love you want to give but cannot. All that unspent love gathers up in the corners o your eyes, the lump in your throat, and in that hollow part of your chest. Grief is just love with nowhere to go.' (attr. Jamie Anderson) If this is true then I will use up that unspent, leftover love on life..I will be in love with life. I am in love with life. So far in my exploration of my inner romantic I have been entranced by beautiful flowers, soothed by the log fire, relaxed by romantic music, swept away by romantic films, enchanted by watching the sunrise, delighted by my daily chocolate (I kept that up for two weeks, then scoffed the rest one evening!). Thank you for the suggestions of music and films some of which were new to me. You have added to the romance of my February. I wondered if I could find enough romance for 28 days, but there is still the romance of travel, and food, of clothes and of the home to think about... Are you exploring your inner romantic? Or your inner poet/diva/dancer/adventurer/writer/drama queen/whayever? You dont need to move to some la-la land, you just need to make sure you give a little time and thought each day to a part of yourself that doesn't usually get e xpressed. That can be an adventure in itself. There are so many kinds of love to celebrate, including memories of love..  Love to those of you who are grieving. Buing yourself flowers can be romantic A little act of courtship? The start of a secret love affair with yourself? (A neglected part of yourself perhaps?) Romance, like beauty, is very much in the eye of the beholder I am sure. Extravagance feels very romantic to me. I can remember as a child the first daffodils coming into the local shop and my Mum saying No, we would have to wait until they got cheaper before we could have some. I can remember walking away from them, feeling them calling me. I must have been six or so. Do you buy a bunch with your weekly shop? I used to get home and before I did anything else, find the right vase, arrange the flowers and put them in the middle of the table. Then I would unpack the shopping and try to make the house live up to the flowers!  A teeny-tiny romantic gesture with morning coffee today. The supermarket daffs are just £1 a bunch here in uk just now. Buy three and give one to a friend.
Or order some scented narcissus from the Scilly Isles or Carnwall. I sent some as Christmas presents this year. I am spending very little on flowers this month but I am having a bouquet for Valentine's Day. One of those ones I almost swoon over before thinking How can anyone pay that for a bunch of flowers? Well, I am paying that for a bunch of flowers this February! So if the sky falls in that day you will know it was me ... Will you buy yourself flowers this week? I adore flowers. I always have them around me. I buy them for myself, gift them, am gien them, paint them and grow them and photograph them..They are the ultimate in romance for me.  They thrill me and you will find hundreds of photographs of them under Simply Beautiful, Simply Grow and Simply Home.  If thou of fortune be bereft And in thy store there be but left Two loaves, sell one and with the dole Buy hyacinths to feed thy soul.  An early watercolour of poppies  flowers and cake!  keeping it simple  wild flowers everywhere  Tiny posy, big impact  romantic midsummer  romantic February |
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