I've been coming across some interesting sayings recently...

I spent the morning worrying about the state of the world, but at noon I got out the card that shows a clock face at 12 o'clock and the words 'Today is just getting started!' and I reset and did some gardening, took some photographs and cooked meatballs and potatoes in a garlic and lemon sauce.  (The world carried on in it's mad way ...)

So beautiful.

..appeared today. One of the joys of the wild garden is that different things happen each year. Orchids arrive in different numbers and in different places.

It was the wild orchids which encouraged us to just let some of the grass grow and mow paths through it.

(My best tip if you do this is to mow the edges. This way it looks intentionl and not just like neglect!)

Smoked peppered mackerel fillets, beetroot, a good squeeze of lemon juice. Best accompanied by a chilled glass of wine and eaten outside. I sometimes add a crumbling of fetta cheese.

..I will try to just be.:-) 

..which has stopped sugar cravings altoghther! I am not very interested in celebrity diets, but I am impressed by people who live simple healthy  and long lives, as in the Blue Zones and Pioppi in Italy.


People who don't go to the gym and take supplements, but eat real food and plenty of it, and who walk and do soe manual labour most days. Peple who fetch and carry and help each other - it's all too easy to just sit and press buttons or give orders to  to Alexa and have everything brought to the door!  I find some of the technology wonderful of course. I am not against it but I do want to stay grounded and real and keep things simple when I can. It satisfies something in me which I can't quite explain.

Real coffee with cocmut oil, turmeric, cocoa and connamon, a hadnful of nuts, an apple and a square of dark chocolate.

..in the garden.

Breakfast in warm sunshine.

Prettying up the greenhouse.

A handsne new planter.

I love these colours in it.

dinner outside,

with my sweet robin for company.

..of one's own choosing. Some changes are imposed upon us whether we like them or not, but when that happens I like to remind myself that I can choose change too,  I can make changes for the better. 

I can change the picture on the wall, change a habit, change my clothes, make  changes in the garden, change the ring tone on my phone, change the furniture,  change my mood by going for a walk in the rain, change my mind..

A visit to the hospital changes my perspective and leaves me humbled. A little child in the eye clinic, the kindness and patience of the staff, the professionalism and skill, the volunteers who run the tearoom with cheerfulness and efficiency - the whole place is impressive and my problems seem less.

What will you change today and aren't we lucky to have so much choice?!

..change the room.

 You lift me up when I am low - kind  and wise words from all around the world - it blows my little mind! Thenk you so much.

I was chatting to my lovely grandaughter who lives in the sunny south of France, and bemoaning the fact that it was raining. 'Go for a walk in the rain Grandma, it can be lovely' she said. I did, and it was.

I got togged up and set off. I had a nice chat with a neighbour, walked to the hotel and had a coffee, took some photographs...just moving myself always works for me. What works for you when you feel low?

 I had actually forgotten that plant was there! It looks amazing with the lime green foliage of geranium Anne Folkard.

As I have often said, beauty sustains me.

 ..is the only constant they say. A sudden change in the weather had waves crash over our car on the ferry - and we were third from the front - as I came back from emergency laser treatment on my eye after a sudden change in my eyesight.

Acceptance is nt giving in, it's finding the courage to face change, don't you think?

Such a contrast to the previous post!  :-)

So many sunny days! It's been a joy.

and the first rose.

..fifteen minutes at a time.

Fifteen minutes gardening,

fifteen minutes in the hammock.

I use a timer and I can work for a few hours like this!  It began years ago when I developed  such painful arthritis in my shoulders that I feared my gardening days were over. After some physio and acupuncture on our wonderful National Health Service, I found that if I paced myself like this I had no pain and could still work in the garden. Excersie and good nutrition play their part, as well as not overdoing it,.

Just spent a lovely week ding this, but today there is rain - and midgies!

In the glorious spell of weather we have been having here in uk, I notice that especially in late aftternoon/early evening there are some wonderful cloud formations.

I often have my head in the clouds, but I love actually being up there among them. I had to understand a bit about them when I was learning to fly a glider (I wasn't very good at it - I really just wanted to look at the view). I've enjoyed the view from all sizes of planes from an Airbus to a seaplane and loved them all, though my favourite is probably ballooning which is the nearest thing to a  flying carpet - magical!

Do you like flying?

..at 4.22am. A cup of tea while watching the dawn.

A virtuosic perfomance by Nicola Benedetti, conducted by the 'effervescent' Maxim Emelyanychev was the last concert of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra's season, and the atmosphere was electric! I never fail to be astonished by Benedetti's total mastery of her instrument. She is at one with it.

Next season's programme looks good...

Loved this chance shot of the robin.

Busy in the garden and with other nice things, I hink I will just be posting every few days for a while. To be honest, as my sight worsens, it takes a lot longer than it used to to publish posts and photographs, though I sttill feel I have lots to say... Who knew I could ramble on for 15 years!!

I hope you will  bear with me, and thank you so much for reading. x

..is owned by the people who live there. See the community website  here.

A lovely place for a simple holiday and in glorious weather it's a little paradise. One restaurant (very good, best to book), one cafe, one shop, one small campsite, cycle hire and  a lovely woodland garden to visit.

Beautiful beaches and just enough information..

The apprentices in the gardens are encouraged to be creative.

The ferry is very small and in high summer you can have a long wait. We were very lucky to get there as the day after we arrived the ferry was off and a rib was used to get the scholchildren home. Island life!

I really enjoyed the hour long video of Christopher Lloyd and his gaeden on the above website, but it does feel like a bygone age. This garden and that of Beth Chatto were the least commercial of the famous gardens I got to know and I loved that about them. They were all about the plants and the personalities of their creators.

They do both have tearooms and shops now, so maybe they feel very different in character. Has anyone been to either recently?

I'm off to explore a garden on an Inner Hebridean island - will report back!

It was like a message from another age.

I oredered some seeds from Great Dixter, the wonderful garden of the late Christopher Lloyd.

The seed is like dust. It is of Beth's Poppy.

It came in a modest little packet with a design based on some famous topiary in the garden.

Even nicer, it came in a handwritten envelope with a real stamp, all of which gave me a real sense of connection with the garden (which I visited several times when I lived in Oxford). In these times of automation and robotics, it was lovely to have a sense of the person who patiently collected the seedss- it could only be done by hand - and perhaps another person sitting and quietly writing my name and address on an envelope...  I found it quite touching and I thank them for it.

I am talking home decor here! I used to say there was enough distress in the world without deliberately 'distressing' furniture, but of necessity I have joined the shabby chic fraternity. It may well be outdated but it's all I can manage right now.

My kitchen worktops are painted with Fired Earth Malm - a colour I absolutely love. Not a very practical finish and it needs repainted quite often.  As you know I don't see very well, so it's a bit hit and miss but I think I can get away with it if I call it shabby chic and ignore my perfectionist tendencies! Life is short. :-)

..and a Country Living magazine moment.

Will you create a Country Living moment for yourself today?

What will it be?

..on the Clyde..

The book group took a two ferry trip to Kilcreggan on what turned into a warm sunny day.