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Sempervivum fantasy
I used to think that life has to be crystal clear and sharp, with obvious edges and unambiguous shapes. Yet gradually I’ve learnt that life can also be fuzzy, with undistinctive curves and curious colours, and still be nice and enriching. One simply needs to grow to appreciate some aspects of the existence…
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Decisions, decisions
When you start reading a book, do you always finish it? Or do you sometimes put it away because you don’t like or understand its contents? I rarely stop reading a book as I always expect it to lead me through its plot to something revealing, satisfying, interesting, thought-provoking. I even read in English the whole unabridged book Les Misérables by Victor Hugo although I did not understand lots of its contents as the vocabulary was too uncommon, I was so stubborn to make it to the end. And when you start pursuing an activity and you are not as good in it as you would like to be, do…
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Memorable sunset sky
People quite often take and share photos of notable skies with beautiful clouds, impressive colours, melancholy mood… Some of the photos are really impressive but on the other hand, quite a few were not able to transport the magic of the moment into the two dimensional picture where the observers intended to hold the wonder. Don’t understand my words as criticism, it’s just a statement of a fact. I know what I’m talking about as I made the same effort many times when trying to capture the uncapturable. Most of those photos ended in a bin, just the disappointment stayed of not being able to seize the beauty. Despite my…
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Let your creativity lead you
Do you at least sometimes create just for the fun of it, without expecting success and words of praise? Do you sometimes feel a need to express yourself no matter how amateurish the result would be? There have already been so many pieces of advice told regarding this topic… You’ve heard them surely: “Don’t let yourself get discouraged by others, don’t compare yourself with others (especially with those skilled ones), listen to your creative needs and satisfy them mindfully…” All those nice and well-meant words may be hard to swallow when you don’t believe in yourself, when you don’t find your skills good enough. Who wants to hide their creative…
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Winter has not said its last word yet
In our neck of the woods, winter has not said its last word yet. After some warm and sunny days that we could enjoy last week, this afternoon snow once again covered our roofs, yards and gardens. That made me think of winter sceneries rather than spring flowers… Overwhelmed by that mood I was browsing the photos I captured in January and found one I liked and wanted to process one day. So here it is, inspired by this April snow shower…
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Winter moments
This week has been chilly and snowy here and to see the landscape covered in snow and frost has been a lovely sight to behold. We hurry through our lives so many times but there is stillness as well that’s worthy of enjoying.
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Task substitution
Planning is a great thing, don’t you think so? But what if you plan a task and then instead of doing it, you choose another one to fulfil. What if… … instead of doing laundry you cook a cake?… instead of dusting you organize your stuff?… instead of proofreading an important contract you call your mum? Just because you don’t feel like doing the planned task? Not motivated enough or trying to postpone something you know you need to do but are not especially eager to fulfil? So not to waste time entirely by just being lazy and trying to calm your conscious you choose to do something useful in…
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End-of-year reflection
I won’t let the cat out of the bag when remarking that the end of this year is on its way to arrive pretty soon. I’m sure many of us have been pondering over this ending year, how unusual and challenging it has been, and wondering what the next year will be like. Who knows… But I’m sure, even if some days are messy, there are also opportunities to smile, notwithstanding occasional bleak outlooks. I believe in hope… I’ve already discarded this year’s diary of mine and while doing that, I noticed the remarks I started that diary with. I reminded myself that I needed * to use our treadmill…
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Thoughts on maintaining order
When we got stuck at home during the corona crisis, I decided it would be a good time to remake our rock garden. We created it long time ago and throughout the years its weaknesses became evident and it got somewhat neglected. With my husband helping me doing the most challenging work, the reconstruction was finished in about four months and three weeks ago I planted fresh cuttings from some of the old plants. The cuttings settled well, faster than I expected, and even started to grow. But with them, new weed appeared, spread quite quickly and needed to be removed to keep the earth clear. So I’ve done the…
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Cold and rainy
Last night it was raining heavily here, the rain woke us several times when beating against our roof lights. And not only brought the night the rain but also a change in temperature when it dropped a few degrees lower in comparison with previous warm days resulting so in a wet and cold Sunday. Well, despite the noise, we were happy about the rain as the weather has been very dry lately and the level of ground water is very low here. Abundance of water is one of my dreams now, who would have thought! No more taken for granted. And as everything outside was soggy, I decided to discontinue…
