George's Hollyhocks

George lives opposite.  My bedroom window looks directly out onto his front garden.

How lucky am I?

xxx

Little Pleasures

Oh how I'm LOVING this glorious weather!  I LOVE that I can get up in the morning, pull on as few clothes as possible, slip on my (new) flip flops (LOVE!) and that's it, done.  No make up, no faffing.  I am in my element!

I LOVE to have my first cup of coffee out in the garden.  I am an early riser and wouldn't miss my first blissful and uninterrupted hour of quiet for the world.  The early morning haze, heavy with promise of yet another beautiful day.

I have an old belfast sink just outside the back door and it's full of lemon-scented geraniums.  If I gently bruise the leaves between my fingers, it releases the most wonderful fragrance.  One of our favourite restaurants in Zakynthos last year had huge great planters full of them all around its perimeter.  If I close my eyes, I LOVE that the smell takes me right back there.

I'm LOVING snipping a few roses for a pretty bedside posy.  The bush is positively laden this year so there is always plenty to spare.

I am LOVING the song I Can Change by Brandon Flowers.  When it comes on the radio, I turn the volume right up and swirl around the kitchen like a loon!

I must tell you about my new toy!  I LOVE it!!!  It's a hand-operated wool winder which I bought from Amazon.  It reminds me of a 1970s Fisher Price toy to look at but my goodness it's fun.  It takes just seconds to wind an entire ball of yarn into the most pleasingly neat little 'cake' and I've even used it to unravel some crochet.  Uh oh, I can feel an addiction coming on!

It's far too warm to crochet with wool at the moment so I'm LOVING working with cotton.  I've always been quite hard to please when it comes to finding a cotton I enjoy crocheting with but I must admit to being quite taken with Rowan's Handknit Cotton.  It's not at all splitty and doesn't feel as coarse or 'stringy' as some.

♥ ♥ ♥

Please never underestimate the value of your own small pleasures, my friends.  Life is fragile and, at times, downright difficult.  Last week, I was so terribly sad to learn that Wink, writer of the beautiful and hugely inspiring crochet blog, A Creative Being, had taken her own life after a battle with depression.  Rightly or wrongly, my own sadness quite quickly turned to frustrated rage and I shared my feelings over on Facebook and Instagram.  I wrote ...

I'm sorry if this offends you or makes you uncomfortable but I'm so incredibly angry and I need to vent. Depression is a nasty, nasty scourge. It claims far too many lives. How dare it? There is still a taboo which surrounds depression which pisses me off. It is NOT a sign of weakness. It is NOT a guilty secret. It is either a chemical imbalance in the brain or a very natural reaction to adverse circumstance. I was diagnosed with clinical depression at the age of 18. It's tried its best to floor me but I'm not having it. There is far too much joy in life and I refuse POINT BLANK to let depression spoil it. I take medication and have done for nearly six years. I am whooping its ass. I have a feeling that creative people are more susceptible so I urge you, with every inch of my being, seek help if you are struggling. You are too beautiful and precious to let depression bring you down. I will be ‪#‎wearingflowersinmyhairforwink‬ and sticking a middle finger up to depression.

This is something I feel very passionate about and so, after some thought, I decided to share on my blog too.  Of course, I don't have all the answers but what I can do is talk quite openly about my own experiences.  If we all do the same, we can banish the ridiculous shame and ignorance that surrounds depression.  And it really is ridiculous if you consider just how many of us are affected.  Life is wonderful.  Please don't let depression fool you into thinking it isn't.

xxx