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. 'Superhuman effort isn't worth a damn unless it achieves results. After months of want and hunger, we suddenly found ourselves able to have meals fit for the gods, and with appetites the gods might have envied Difficulties are just things to overcome, after all.' (Ernest Shackleton, Antarctic Explorer, b 15th February, 1874) . . Ernest was of the notion that 'optimism is true moral courage.' Surviving challenging times and overcoming adversity is just fuel for the journey. To be tested need not be seen as a negative in life - being tested keeps the brain kicking and the heart ticking. . . Hold these challenges lightly, it won't always be like this. Persevere, chin up, keep moving forwards, mini steps every day. . . Let's choose to be optimistic. 'Those who wish to sing, always find a song.' . . . . Wonderful image from the fabulous @minh_ngoc 🐔🐔🐔and 💐💐💐 from @floretflower featured in @voguemagazine 📸🐣🥚✨🧙💞👀 . . . #YouCantMakeAnOmeletteWithoutBreakingEggs xxx. 'The voice of love seemed to call to me, but it was a wrong number.' (P G Wodehouse, d 14th February, 1975) . . On the train back from London last night, I watched as a young lady in a brown duffle coat tossed a magnificent bouquet of two dozen tall red roses into the luggage compartment above her seat. Her nonchalant carelessness piqued my curiosity.... 🤨 . . . Happy Valentine's Day everyone, especially to those who keep getting 'a wrong number'! . . #HopeSpringsEternal 🙄 . . . . . . . . . Fabulous Friday Flowers for you 💐 from the wonderful @sallyhambleton . 📸💐💌💘💌👊😘. 'Trifles make the sum of life.' Charles Dickens b. 7th February, 1812) . . I've just landed in Dorset after an epic journey down from Scotland. Hats off to anyone using Great British Motorways on a daily basis. You're a better man than I am Gunga Din! . . Leaving shortly to view trifles at a local country auction, the Christmas money from my father burning a hole in my pocket. I've spotted a rather nice grandfather clock, not quite as grand as this one in the fabulous home of @violetburns ...rather more rustic, with a floral painted dial. I used to have one, and miss the slow and steady tock-tock for company. . . Will share on stories later and you can tell me what you think - to buy or not to buy! Should just be able to squeeze it in to a wee nook in the McCottage... . . . Have a super weekend, any tips for Dorset pootling welcome.... I usually don't make it beyond Wimborne... 🤦 . . . Thank you @houseandgardenuk for the 📸 by @simonbrownphotography and ✍️ by @liz_elliot_hg ⏲️😘🙋❣️👊. 'No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. No need to be anybody but oneself.' (Virginia Woolf, b 25th January, 1882) . . Two years ago today I was on a trolley being wheeled to theatre through the dimly lit corridors of Oxford Hospital. . . The open heart surgery didn't quite go according to plan. . . I was very sick .. didn't think I was going to make it.. Months later I lay in bed, still very poorly, as the lilac tendrils on my daughter's wisteria beyond the window slowly opened to rich papal purple. . . Never forget how far you've come. How strong you are. How brave you've been. And if you're going through it now, it won't always be like this. Nothing stays the same. No need to hurry. No need to sparkle. Just do you. xx . . #BestFootForward . . . . . Wonderful wisteria from the fabulous @taniacompton 💜💜💜📸. 'The snowdrop and primrose our woodlands adorn, And violets bathe in the wet o' the morn.' (Robert Burns) . . Fancy a Haggis Pizza and a six pack of IRN-BRU Meal Deal - just £4 from the local Co-op? 👀 . It must be Burns Night! . . . Gentle snowdrops quivering on the river bank this afternoon, harbingers of Spring, but according to Carole Carlton in 'Mrs Farley's Pagan Whispers: A Celebration of Pagan Festivals and Sacred Days', not to be brought into the house before St Valentine's Day, any unmarried females will remain spinsters... 👰❌. 'Wait a minute, maybe I can do anything.' (Janis Joplin, b January 19th, 1943) . . Food for thought on the eve of Blue Monday, supposedly the most depressing day of the year. . . Dr Cliff Arnal came to the conclusion that the third Monday in January was the day when, (taking into account; weather, debt, salary, Christmas lull, and failed resolutions), most people book a holiday. . . Don't let your Monday be Blue. Acknowledge the things in your life for which you're grateful, and mull over what you could do to light the way forward, to mix it up a little. . . Doing things for others, connecting with others, taking care of your body, something to look forward to, learning a new skill, all proven to lift the spirits and lead to more fulfilled living. . . . Mantra for the week ahead: . YOU ARE WHAT YOU SETTLE FOR!! 💪 . . . #BestFootForward . . . . Sunset this evening outside the McCottage... 😍. 'Spend your money on the things money can buy. Spend your time on the things money can't buy.' (Haruki Murakami, b 12th January, 1949) . . Noticed the teeniest tip of a tulip bulb poking through the cold sodden soil this afternoon. Which lifted my spirits considerably, I'm not very good during this post Christmas lull when the world has been washed in sepia. Did you know that sepia pigment is obtained from the ink of cuttlefish? Me neither. . I found a cuttlefish shell today on the beach after my swim. The water now so cold it makes me gasp and heave for breath. It also makes me very happy, exhilarated, alive. Time spent on things money can't buy. . How do you spend your time on things money can't buy? xx . . . Mantra for the week ahead: You're not rich until you have something that money can't buy... 🤑🤑🤑 . . . Thank you lovely @milliproust for this whimsical loveliness, sweet peas and cosmos to remind us of warmer, sunnier days... 🌼🌼🌼📸. First footing, or the "first foot" in the house after midnight on Hogmanay, is still common across Scotland. . . To ensure good luck for the house the first footer should be a tall dark handsome chap, bearing coal, shortbread, salt, black bun and a wee 🥃 . . Has to be dark haired, as blonds might be Viking invaders. . . I feel like the Duchess of Beaufort in this wonderful image, standing at the front door, waiting, waiting... still waiting. . . Could be April before tall dark and handsome wanders down the lane... 🙄 . Do you have any New Year customs, traditions, superstitions? . . Maybe not involving a Pierce Brosnan/Keanu Reeve lookalikey....? . . . . . Marvellous capture for @voguemagazine by maestro @simonuptonphotos 📸🥃❣️🧙🍾👯. 'If you are cold, tea will warm you; If you are too heated, it will cool you; If you are depressed, it will cheer you; If you are excited, it will calm you.' William E Gladstone, b 29th December, 1809) . . Just having a nice cup of tea and sit down, working my way through the remains of the Christmas Cake, (ie marzipan & icing #sugarrush 🤯) trying to remember what day it is, and what I'm supposed to be doing... 🤔 . . How are you getting on? . Cold/warm/depressed/excited...? Put the kettle on, tuck into a mince pie, and tell me all about it...! . . I'm alternating between very sad it's all over, my children off in different directions, and happy it's done for another year, flaked out in my pyjamas, making lists... 🤦♀️ . . . . . . . . One item on my list is to visit my friend @brownrigguk in Gloucestershire, Part I of my World Tour... ✈️🌍 this is his fabulous home... 📸❤️👍. 'Always on Christmas night there was music. An uncle played the fiddle, a cousin sang "Cherry Ripe," and another uncle sang "Drake's Drum." It was very warm in the little house. Auntie Hannah, who had got on to the parsnip wine, sang a song about Bleeding Hearts and Death, and then another in which she said her heart was like a Bird's Nest; and then everybody laughed again; and then I went to bed. Looking through my bedroom window, out into the moonlight and the unending smoke-colored snow, I could see the lights in the windows of all the other houses on our hill and hear the music rising from them up the long, steady falling night. I turned the gas down, I got into bed. I said some words to the close and holy darkness, and then I slept.' (Dylan Thomas, A Child's Christmas in Wales) . . Do you have a favourite childhood Christmas memory? . . I remember being taken as a child, maybe about 6 years old, to the Liverpool Fire Brigade Children's Christmas Party. All the engines were lined up, bright red, newly polished, in the courtyard of the huge gothic building. The children stood outside with the firemen, necks craned, as a huge searchlight scanned the dark rooftops for Father Christmas. We could hear the tinkle of sleigh bells, and a deep rich Ho Ho Ho, and there, all of a sudden he appeared, waving from the tallest chimney stack. One of the engines wound out a huge ladder, a fireman was dispatched, and Father Christmas helped down, carefully carrying a hessian sack full of presents. One for each of us.. . . I'll never forget it. Here's to making wonderful, magical memories. Please share yours... . . . Mantra for the week ahead: . . He who has not Christmas in his heart will never find it under a tree xx 💘🎄 . . . . Merry Christmas to the fabulous @sophieconran to whom this magical image belongs... 😘😘😘♥️. 'The cardinal virtue of all beauty is restraint.' (Elsie de Wolfe, b 20th December, 1859) . . According to the New Yorker, 'Interior design as a profession was invented by Elsie de Wolfe'. . . Elsie decorated for the Vanderbilts, the Windsors and the Fricks. She was married to Sir Charles Mendl, in name only by all accounts. They lived separately, and when Wolfe published her autobiography, her husband wasn't mentioned in it. 🤔 . . . Not sure what Lady Mendl would have made of this magnificent wreath from my lovely friend @blossomanddill , there's not a lot of restraint going on, but I think it's absolutely Fa La La La La Fabulous don't you..?! . . I'm just off to a drinks party, with my list of occupations ready for that 'What Do You Do' question.(see previous post). Not sure yet whether I'll be Biscuit Designer, Material Gatherer, or Don't Know. 🤪😂 . . . Have a wonderful evening. Tis the season to be jolly don't forget xx. 'Well, when I'm fifty-three or so I would like to write a novel as good as Persuasion but with a modern setting, of course. For the next thirty years or so I shall be collecting material for it. If any one asks me what I work at, I shall say, 'Collecting material'. No one can object to that.' (Stella Gibbons, author of Cold Comfort Farm, d 19th December, 1989) . . Some similar excellent advice I was once given, in response to: 'What do you do?' Is to say: 'I'm a poet.' It cuts most people off at the pass. . . . . . . . Here is a super room in which to collect material, write poetry, or dip into Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm. Have you read it? Highly recommended xx 😘 . . . . . . . Thank you @umberto__corrado for this festive photo. 🎄🎄🎄⚡📸. 'Sometimes, walking with a friend, I forget the world.' (Grace Paley, b December 11th, 1922) . . Just back from Christmas lunch with the October Club. I sat with Sarah and Nancy and Kate wearing my pink paper cracker hat, and ate far too much turkey, then trifle. . . I told them about the White Witch at the Stone Circle. The table hushed for a moment, and Sarah asked me whether that was the lady from up the Glen who drives a hearse. . . Then it was the raffle. I didn't win a thing. Followed by a long amble through the woods with my friend June. A robin followed us, from the start of the path by the Church, to the end of the walk by the Bird Hide (see stories). Chirping away, as though he was trying to tell me something... 🤔 . . Back to the McCottage to find a parcel on the doorstep containing a beautiful glass bauble and an old book of poetry. And now I'm lighting the fire, putting on the kettle and hoping you've all had a wonderful Wednesday... . . . . @photosofbritain thank you for this beautiful image... ❄️❄️🎄❄️❄️📸. 'little tree little silent Christmas tree you are so little you are more like a flower who found you in the green forest and were you very sorry to come away? see i will comfort you because you smell so sweetly i will kiss your cool bark and hug you safe and tight just as your mother would, only don't be afraid look the spangles that sleep all the year in a dark box dreaming of being taken out and allowed to shine, the balls the chains red and gold the fluffy threads, put up your little arms and i'll give them all to you to hold every finger shall have its ring and there won't be a single place dark or unhappy then when you're quite dressed you'll stand in the window for everyone to see and how they'll stare! oh but you'll be very proud and my little sister and i will take hands and looking up at our beautiful tree we'll dance and sing "Noel Noel"' (Little Tree, E.E. Cummings) . . This will be my first Christmas at the McCottage. The rooms are snug, (read miniscule!), and the ceilings low. Gone are the days of the 12 foot Normand Fir and wobbly step ladders. My tree will be little, (I've just been to the Christmas Tree Farm up on the mountain, see my story 🎄 x), but my spangle game is still very strong, and as for my Christmas Wreath... 💪👀 . . How goes it at your end? I'm yet to buy any gifts.. 🤔 Procrastination Central here... My children tell me they don't need or want anything, but I'm not falling for that! Any suggestions welcome, something a bit different, unusual, special you've come across and don't mind sharing.... Xx 🎅. When in doubt, chill out ... . . Her Majesty has the right idea. Feet up, nice cup of tea and a biscuit. Don't know about you, but I'm exhausted just looking at the amazing Thanksgiving preparations going on across The Pond. . . Wishing you all a lovely day xx 🦃 And I hope you find time to put your feet up xx 💐. 'To make a happy fireside clime To weans and wife, That is the true pathos and sublime Of human life.' (Robert Burns) . . Have just rescued a very sweet fireside chair, which has defo seen better days. . What do you think of this fabric? Too grand? The McCottage has ideas above her station! 🤔 . . . . . . Fabulous #chinoiserie from fabulous @brunschwigfils 📸👲🇨🇳🏯❣️👊. 'It will never rain roses: when we want to have more roses, we must plant more roses.' (Mary Ann Evans aka George Eliot, b 22nd November, 1819) . . Still waiting for it to get light here today at Posh Towers. The sky has been moody all day, with a brief respite at 4, when a perfect rainbow reached across the estuary and disappeared beyond the Cairn. . So a wee reminder of warm summer days and scented blossom... . I'm off to light the fire and make Scotch Broth did you know it puts hairs on your chest?! 😲 . . . Have a super weekend! Xx. 'I think it's so foolish for people to want to be happy. Happy is so momentary, you're happy for an instant and then you start thinking again. Interest is the most important thing in life; happiness is temporary, but interest is continuous.' (Georgia O'Keeffe, b November 15th, 1887) . . How's your week been? Time has just flown by here at the McCottage... Thursday evening, a talk about local folklore, Wednesday evening, new Easirobics class, (taken by Trish, an expert in Northern Soul, I stood at the back, hiding, nothing Easi about it! 🙄) Tuesday, Scottish Country Dancing, 💃 and Monday, my 2nd meeting of the Community Council, where rumour has it that an Offshore Wind Farm could be lurking... this might put paid to my sea swimming, which I'm still managing each day, despite the drop in temps, must be something to do with my subcutaneous layers... 🤔 . . It's been an INTERESTING week, which makes me, and Georgia, HAPPY. . . How about you, what's occurring your end? How's the Christmas prep going? 🤪 . . . . . . . Friday flowers for you from my lovely friend, @derletztewolf 📸💐💘😻 have a super weekend everyone, I'm off for a lie down in a dark room... 😴. 'For what it’s worth... It’s never too late, or in my case too early, to be whoever you want to be. There’s no time limit. Start whenever you want. You can change or stay the same. There are no rules to this thing. We can make the best or the worst of it. I hope you make the best of it. I hope you see things that startle you. I hope you feel things you’ve never felt before. I hope you meet people who have a different point of view. I hope you live a life you’re proud of, and if you’re not, I hope you have the courage to start over again.' (Attr. to F. Scott Fitzgerald, written by Eric Roth, for the film The Curious Case of Benjamin Button) . . Welcome November! . There are just two months left in this decade! In. This. Decade! You can change, or stay the same. . . It's never too late to be who you want to be. . It's tough, and challenging, and sometimes you'll wonder why on earth you've done what you've done, away from your comfort zone and the familiar. I'll help you, we can do it together, make the best of it. Let's start with a little list, what's important to you? What would you like to be doing more of/less of? I was so bogged down in 'doing life' I didn't really have a clue what I was all about, just reacting, ricocheting... This isn't navel gazing! Just a reminder that life can be lived differently.... xxxx . . Who or what do you want to be? . . . . Belated Friday flowers for you, dahlias in the lovely garden of @jennyroseinnes 🌸🌼🌿🌺📸. 'When a man looks at the stars, he grows calm and forgets small things. They answer his questions and show him that his earth is only one of the million worlds. Hold your soul still and look upward often, and you will understand their speech. Never forget the stars.' ✨ (Frances Hodgson Burnett, Author of the Secret Garden, d 29th October, 1849) . . Spent some time wandering this wonderful secret garden yesterday... 🍁 . By the time I got back to the McCottage, the sky was inky blue, and stars glittered and shimmered above the bay. I leant on the gate of the field awhile, a tawny owl hoo-hooing in the distance, and stared into the vastness. We are just a speck on a dot on a splinter in this incredible Universe... . So don't sweat the small stuff, and Never Forget The Stars xxx
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