Linchpins of our Lives....

Hi there everyone. Well, here we are in the month of February, and, my goodness, I am so glad to see the back of January. I am well aware that I say this every single year. You would think by now (and at my advanced age!) that I could come up with a way of dealing with that dreaded month .... but, no! Every month I moan about it (and I'm not really one of life's moaners - truly I'm not!!).

Anyway, here we are in the month of February, and the days are gradually getting longer. Oh, deep joy!  For some reason, this month always gives me hope.  I think it's because the garden is very slowly starting to awaken, with the pretty snowdrops everywhere, and daffodils starting to appear once again in the garden. 

I was casually thinking about life the other day, as you do, and thinking just what WAS important in our lives. I think this dreaded Pandemic has really focused our mind on that. Whilst lots of different things bring us joy and give us moments of happiness, I think most of us would agree that the linchpin of our lives are family and friendships.  I think the absence of hugs over the past couple of years, has been a really big thing. Thankfully, I am now getting hugs from the family again, but I've noticed that even very good friends are much more reticent to hug each other at the moment, which is quite sad. 

This next photo shows a nice cosy scene and the image after that is a pic of my Summer garden. 

I hope you are all looking forward to brighter days once again - although many of you, of course, will have Autumn approaching, and the shorter days - and so the Seasons come and go. I am just thankful to be able to enjoy another year of looking forward to Spring, to hear the birdsong and to see the garden bloom once again. 

I wish you all many happy and joyful moments in the year ahead, and I hope you will feel loved. 

Autumn Gently Creeps In ....

It's that day again....yes, Friday!  I came across this quote by Oscar Wilde this week, and I thought it was very appropriate right now ...

Summer does seem to be collapsing quite quickly over here in ye merry olde England!  I'm still hoping for an Indian Summer, as my friend from Wisconsin arrives next week!  

It will be lovely to see her again. With all this modern technology, it is so much easier to keep in touch with family and friends who live long distances away, but you can't beat actually sitting right there with them, laughing at silly things, and generally putting the world to rights. It would be lovely if you could all send some positive vibes this way, so that we are blessed with some good weather while she is here. Thank you!

But we started off talking about Autumn....these two pics taken in my garden last year sum up the season very well, I think. There's always this wonderful light in Autumn, when everything  seems so crisp and clear. 

Going back to the Oscar Wilde quotation at the beginning of this Post,  there is another one that is a favourite of mine, and I actually have it on a little plaque here in the home ...

Most of my long term bloggy friends, know how much I love quotations, and I'm always looking out for new ones. Pinterest is a wonderful source for doing this. Sometimes you read a quote, and you just think, 'yes', that's exactly it!  

I'm sure most of us love taking photos, be it of our family, times spent with friends, our gardens, places we have visited, or just anything that takes our eye.  This quote fits the bill exactly, for we truly are capturing a moment in time and, of course, these days most of us carry our phones with us, so there is no excuse to miss a magic moment!

Well my friends, I'll wind it up again for now. I'm sure I will be taking lots of photos over the next couple of weeks to share with you later on!  It's quite fascinating I find, when you are taking a friend to places  you've known all your life.  Because they have never been to those places before, you suddenly see locations  in a whole different light.

Enjoy your weekend and be safe. I'll leave you with the following ....

There's a new Featured Post up today.  Just click on the link at the top of the column on the right hand side - it's all about the bigger picture. 

After writing the above post, I have discovered that today is the Autumn Equinox - don't say that I'm not ahead of the game!! 😊😊

Any images today that are not my own, are courtesy of Pinterest.com

The Bigger Picture....

Hello again to you on this last Sunday in June.  I'm pleased to say that the heatwave we had here is over, and we're back to the cooler temperatures that we're used to. It was fine for a couple of days, but then it got a bit too much for me, I must admit, although I'm sure there were others that were loving the hot temperatures, especially the lovely Summer evenings that came with it, where you could stay outside until dusk.

I have to be honest here, and say that the idea for this blog post came from a friend, Penny Gadd, who writes a very interesting blog, entitled Autumn Leaves.  Thank you for the idea, Penny!  Quotes today, as always, from Pinterest.com

 

I was sat in the garden the other day, with one of my daughters, bemoaning the fact that the garden wasn't looking as good as it could. Too many weeds had suddenly appeared. As soon as I cleared one patch, they would appear elsewhere. Shrubs needed to be cut back, the gazebo's needed painting.  My daughter told me that I was a perfectionist.  I suppose that could be true - I used to be able to spend hours out in the garden, making sure it all looked lovely. Unfortunately, I'm not able to do that any more. Well, to be honest, I don't WANT to do it any more. It's all become a bit of a chore, which is not what it's supposed to be. 

 

So here's where we come to the title of my Post today. Am I worrying unnecessarily about this?  When others visit, do they see the garden through my eyes, or do they see the bigger picture and admire the profusion of roses, the pots of coloured geraniums, the perennial plants waving in the Summer breeze, with the view of the fields beyond?  In other words, as I have mentioned many times before, am I sweating the small stuff, instead of seeing that bigger picture ?!  Answers on a postcard please! 😊😊.

So I have decided that I must just do what I can, and what doesn't get done will have to wait for another day, and I will try, once again, to just live in the moment...

 

On another tack, I think we must also  be gentle with ourselves if we don't feel awesome every day.  We are going to get days when we feel a little out of kilter with the world, but that's okay too. This too shall pass ....

 

 

On a lighter note, this is the best advice we can give ourselves - a quote from Elizabeth Taylor, another lady who I greatly admired...

 

That's about it for today then.  May you find many blessings in the week ahead. Look after yourselves out there ❤️

A Couple of Perfect Weeks.

Well, hello to you all once again. It keeps coming up on my Facebook Notifications that the people who 'like' and follow my Blog, haven't heard from me in a while, so would I like to write something - if I could think of something entertaining, then, yes, I would love to write something!

 

Having put that exclamation mark there, it reminded me of something that a teacher in my Creative Writing Class told me, many years ago, and that was, that I tended to use too many exclamation marks!!! (Surely not...).  She said that the sentence should speak for itself, without the need for my scattering of these punctuation marks 😊. I'm sure she was absolutely correct in what she said, and I do try to refrain from not using too many of them. I think that part of it, is me trying to convey my enthusiasm to you!

Anyway, it has been a rather busy but very special couple of weeks, with the occasion of my 70th birthday, followed immediately by Easter. 

 

I read somewhere that on entering your 70's, you are entering the sunset of your life. Well, I hope to have many more beautiful sunsets before I shuffle off this mortal coil. (See! I would have inserted an exclamation mark there, but I refrained from doing so).  

 

 

I did have a truly wonderful family and friends orientated birthday, celebrating in Ibiza (just a week before) and again when I arrived home, with lots of long, leisurely lunches, many by the sea, which I love. I must say that I do count my blessings every day for the love of my family and for the gift of my very special group of female friends, who can always be relied upon to provide fun, laughter, support and encouragement. 

 

 

Once again, I always feel that I should apologise to my Facebook friends, as they will have already seen the photos that I'm featuring today. 

 

So then, as you can see, I'm still here, albeit another decade older, but still up for being silly at times and wanting to enjoy every day that I am blessed with. A quote from one of my Facebook friends rather appealed to me, so I am including it here. Amen to that!

 

As part of my birthday celebrations, my number two daughter and I went to a beautiful performance of Madame Butterfly last evening. This reminded me of  when I last went to the Opera, and my Featured Post features this visit today. Just click on the link

At the top of the right hand side bar. 

 

I hope you're all doing well, wherever you may be, and, as always, thank you so much for taking the time to read my meanderings ❤️