Mood Boards Can Work

I started a mood board back in April.  I had a vision in my head about how I wanted the house and garden to look and feel but was unable to explain this vision to my husband.  It has really helped him to understand what my goal is and if he shares the same one too!  Fortunately we seem to be on the same track with a little compromise.  I had bought some Hibiscus Trionum seeds to add something different to the garden.  I put up a picture of what they should look like on my mood board.

 As you can see from this picture, I now have them flowering in my garden.


I have mentioned on here before that I love Indian hand block printed cotton quilts.  I already had two that were throw sized but wanted a double sized one.  I printed off a picture of the exact quilt I wanted and bought it!  You can see it in the photo below.

I need to make some adjustments to my board now tweaking some original ideals and adding some new ones too.  I really believe that there is value in mood boards helping to stay focused and work towards a goal.  You can have a mood board about anything.  My next one will be on my creative goals.  Have you ever tried creating a mood board and did it help in achieving the outcome you wanted?

Orchids

I'm not much good with houseplants.  There never seems to be a room environment suited to their individual needs - not enough light, too much light, too cool, too warm etc; until I was given an orchid as a gift back in April.  I left it in the humid steamy kitchen and watched it thrive.  I've since bought another orchid and invested in proper orchid food.  Apparently orchids can thrive for years in the correct conditions and even get by with a bit of neglect.

I can see collecting orchids as a new obsession only my kitchen is too small to house them all!  I was also under the illusion that orchids were very expensive plants.  They can be expensive on line but they are very reasonable in the supermarkets in the UK right now.  The one above was £5.00 and covered in blooms.

Forget bunches of dead blooms!  Treat yourself to a living potted orchid.  They give so much for very little in return.  I am in love with them!

Jersey Tiger Moth

My garden has suffered in this hot, dry spell.  The grass has died back and flowers shrivelled in the scorching sun.  What has been doing well however are the insects and wildlife!  I now think I like insects more than I do flowers - much less maintenance! 

In the past few weeks I have spotted stag beetles (so scary when they fly!), many types of bee, ants and the dreaded flying ants, loads of butterflies moving too quick to be properly identified, a huge dragonfly, a personable toad, swifts, blackbirds, magpies, robins, foxes all making more regular appearances than usual.

Today something caught my eye as it quickly fluttered past my head.  As it settled on a leaf, I managed to quickly get in the house and grab my camera.  It stayed very still whilst I captured its beauty and then the Jersey Tiger Moth departed up and away towards the sky until out of view.  Such a little moment but a treasured one.

Resurrection

I left this blog on a whim and I have come back on a whim!  I missed this space.  It was very quiet over at my new blog with sometimes just two ghostly visits a day! So there is no goodbye from me but a big new hello instead!  My late Nan never like the term 'goodbye' and would always finish up a phone conversation with cheerio for now.  She hated the finality of goodbye. I know it isn't the best of times to come back with a blog as the blogging world seems to shut down for summer.  Well, I am bucking the trend and jolly well blogging regardless!

In April I quit my job.  I gave it a year but was truly unhappy.  Just before the interview I knew I didn't want the job. Because I wasn't really bothered about it I relaxed at the interview and even joked around a bit (well they did say they wanted someone with a sense of humour!) I was shocked to receive a phone call later that day to be told I had got the job!  I started work within weeks and each weekend I was going to quit but decided to give just one more day, week, month....... until I had been there a year.  Now I am back to square one without an income, which is the only part of the job I miss.

Today is cool and cloudy and I love it! The incessant, unrelenting heat and humidity had gone on for weeks and it broke yesterday.  I am so much more productive in the cooler weather and don't feel as though my brain is being fried!  I may get out in the garden later and have a bit of a tidy.  The grass doesn't need cutting as I now have hay instead!  We could really do with a good downpour.  I miss having green grass.

Oh, one more random thing, last week a drone flew over my garden and then stopped to take pictures of me hanging out the washing.  How scary is that?

To Every Thing There is a Season

Ecclesiastes 3 King James Version 

3 To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

² A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;
³ A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;
⁴ A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
⁵ A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
⁶ A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
⁷ A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
⁸ A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

A time to bid adieu to the Linden Grove Blog:
A time to say thank you, a time to be grateful;
A time to be bound, and a time to be free;
A time to be seen, and a time to hide;
A time for hellos, and a time for goodbye.

Thank you for reading over the last ten years.  I hope that the blog contributed in a positive way to your life and perhaps provided some food for thought?

Cheerio!

Update 22 May 2018

If I am not out in the garden at Sybil's Plot, I will be at my hobby blog PolyHobbyRous and you can access it here!

Edited 6 May 2018: I have re-activated my gardening blog Sybil's Plot.  I am getting back out in the garden again after the protracted winter and looking forward to growing a whole new range of plants and sowing some tropical seeds too!  I would be delighted if you could join me over there.😉🌱🌴🌺🌿🍓

Staying Positive Under a Cloud

I have been embracing positive thinking for a while now.  I do find it difficult but I try to look for the positive in every situation.  It is hard.  Some days I find it almost impossible.  The odds seem stacked against me in all that I do.  I know that the weather hasn't helped my mood this year as the grey skies seem unrelenting.  This spring holiday I managed to get into the garden for one day to cut the grass and it has rained ever since.

Yesterday I had a chance meeting with an old friend.  I was so glad to see her.  She is one of those people who make you feel good about yourself.  She is quietly confidant and encouraging and a supporter of chasing dreams.  Our time together was brief but enough to fan the flame of my hopes and ambitions for a while longer..........

In the garden the soil is cold and even the weeds are struggling to thrive.  Looking at the positive - the snakes head fritillaries are doing nicely and have increased in population since last year.

Art Tags

I have been watching art videos and creating intensely this week.  I am trying to cram each day with learning and making.  Most of the time I hate what I produce but I think that most 'arty' people know they have an inner critic - the trick is to pay no attention.  I long for the day when I am proud of a painting or drawing that I have done rather than finding all its faults.  I am hoping that experimenting and going through the motion of 'doing' rather than passively watching tutorials will eventually pay off.

The watercolour tags above where fun to make but straight after I made them, I disliked them! They are loud and colourful and I am not!  Maybe I was expressing a side of my personality yet to emerge? 

Anyway, as I said, I did enjoy the process of making them even if I am not in love with the end result.  I will make them again but in a toned down colour palette.  After all, practice makes progress.