FLOWER FRIDAY

I decided to do some decluttering in one of our hall cupboards this morning, but have to say I didn’t do it that quickly because I kept reading things that I found - but it was very enjoyable.  I tend to keep all the cards that people send me, so it was good to read messages from our Swiss friends, and several Blip friends.  I thought particularly of Raestelle, a Blip friend, who sadly now has dementia, so hasn’t been on Blip for sometime, but we used to send cards and gifts to one another and she was always so encouraging and kind to me when I first started blipping.  And there are other Blip friends who send me cards and bookmarks - these are all along the radiator shelf in the hall - and I love looking at them and remembering the people who sent them to me.

Then there were the old calendars I had made - of our family, and how good it was to see photographs of them from several years ago and also the one I made after our holiday in Switzerland.  So why, you may ask, do I keep all these things?  Probably the same reason you keep all your different mementoes - to remind you in the difficult times that you had good times not so long ago and hopefully, before too much longer, we will all have good times again.

I know that all the “decluttering queens” say we should get rid of stuff that doesn’t bring us joy, but the fact is that these cards and calendars do bring me joy, at the moment, so they will be staying in the cupboard for a while longer - and if I pop my clogs before I get rid of them, then those who are left will have that job!

Mr. HCB was busy in the garden again, as usual, so I had a wander round and found that three of our Japanese Anemones were flowering with more buds to come.  I took them using the portrait mode on my iPhone and then just cropped them and thought they looked beautiful this morning.  We brought these back from Wales a couple of years ago, and this is the first year they have really bloomed well - again, these remind us of a lovely weekend spent visiting friends up there.  

I decided it would be a good morning to sand down the table top on my kitchen trolley, so after I had finished wandering in the garden, donned a mask and “fired up” the sander that a friend had lent me.  I quite enjoyed the experience and now need to go and buy some Danish oil to make sure that it stays looking good - see extra. 

This afternoon will be spent trimming the edges of the lawn, then Mr. HCB will cut the grass and perhaps we will both move some more stones after that.  We do enjoy working out in our green gym, but it will be good when we can just sit in the garden and enjoy it, without worrying about the work that needs to be done.

“I like working amongst ‘creative clutter’. 
     It gives me a sense of activity 
          and achievement.” 
Fennel Hudson : A Meaningful Life - Fennel's Journal - No. 1