Spring Mindfulness

Spring has long been my favourite time of year. Since I discovered nature walking in August 2019, it has become even more special. I hope I will be able to continue to enjoy Spring for as long as I can. Below are my Star Heart Dolls dressed for every season of the year: Spring Joy, Summer Bliss, Autumn Reflection and Winter Comfort.

Celebrating a decade of blogging (5410)

I chose five significant London places to visit to celebrate my ten years of blogging (5410). They were chosen to celebrate various ideas I have been exploring with my writing and creative work.

1. Covent Garden

Covent Garden is a vibrant and inspirational place. It features a handmade craft market, street entertainment and places to refresh yourself. It can be noisy and busy, but provides a rich and free London experience. 


2. Tate Modern



 

Tate Modern has been our favourite art gallery to visit over the past twenty years. It is superbly located by the Thames and the Millennium Bridge. Art and craft is very important to our lives and wellbeing. I particularly enjoy the surrealists.


3. Greenwich Observatory

 
Greenwich is quite a journey for us, so we don't go there very often. Even so we have seen some marvelous star shows in the observatory and also enjoy the time and space museum and the park and the river. It fits in well with our interest in stargazing, the planets and space therapy.


4. Kew Gardens

Me and my dad both worked in Kew Gardens and my dad's ashes are scattered here. It has featured in this blog on a number of occasions for a number of reasons and holds a special place in my heart.

5. Regent's Park





I have visited Regent's Park a number of times over the years, mostly to visit London Zoo. My daughter attended the Friendly Spider programme here in 2018 and we have since explored different areas of the park. There is a Japanese Garden in Regent's Park which is very handy for visualizations in our bed time meditations.

Ten Year Blog Review: Part Four

This is the last part of my ten year blog review, covering the years October through to December.

October : retirement and pastimes

When October comes around I often think about my craftwork ideas and especially ideas for more knitting, which I find particularly therapeutic. This is one of my favourite pictures of my craft stall.

November : animals and fairytales

I often feel I don't take as much notice of wildlife as I should and I am acutely aware of this when November comes around and I feel obliged to think of animal orientated blog posts. A cat called Maddie adopted us in 2016 and that has made animals feel a bigger part of my life. Above are pictures of various cats who have made it into my creative work over the years.

December : dreams and space

I love that December's theme is so escapist. I painted this 'Weirdscape' picture back in Spring 2016.

Ten Year Blog Review : Part Three

This is part three of my ten year blog review, it covers common themes that have concerned me in the months of July through to September, with accompanying inspirational pictures

 July: education and travel

A continuing theme in July has been my travels around Europe in my late teens and early twenties, they formed the basis of a musical play called 'Another Day, Another Place'. This picture is a collage, including many of the postcards I collected on my travels.

August : work and identity

My job as a librarian has informed several of my blog posts. The above picture is about my reading habits throughout my life. You can view more about my interest in books and my book reviews on GoodReads.

  
 September : childhood and spirituality

I was a Sunday school teacher for about a year from around 2010 to 2011. I focused mostly on virtues and St Paul's ideas about the fruit of the spirit. Above is a picture of my virtue matching game.

Ten years a blogger

I started writing my blog in 2013 and published my first blog post in November, it was my ambition to keep it going for at least five years, ten years would have been even better. So I am very pleased to have reached my ten year anniversary. The purpose of this blog was to showcase my creative endeavours, but my most popular blog posts have been about exploring Stoicism, discovering mindfulness and encouraging people to vote. Blogging is sometimes advocated as a way to ease anxiety and promote mental health. I can attest to it playing its part in my own mental health recovery journey which is why I have produced these 'Just Blog' mindfulness colouring doodles.

Ten Year Blog Review: Part Two

This is the second part of my ten year blog review. The following three pictures show what my themes have been for April through to June.

 April: family and parenthood

My first serialised short story on Wattpad was 'The Need Fairy', which has April's theme of  family and parenthood.

 May : groups and inspiration

The image for 'The Shadow People' was inspired by another serialised short story on Wattpad 'Wise Women's Words', the story revolves around a women's reading group.

June : nature and seasons

Photos of Ruislip Wood have appeared several times on my blog. I used several of my daughter's photos to illustrate stoic quotes. You can find them on my MindfulnessPlus Pinterest page.

Ten Year Blog Review : Part One

I started this blog in 2013. I thought about what its contents would be for six months before putting on my first blog post in November. The following three pictures show what my themes have been for the first three months of any year.

 January : Music and Solitude

A continuing theme for January has been the piano and music concerts I took part in mostly through the years 2010 to 2018. They gave me a sense of achievement at the time and also encouraged my daughter and her friends to perform in public as well.

 February : romance and poetry

I sometimes talked about my old poetry group 'SubVerse' and our continuing quest to explore the 'poetry of surrender' in February. My interest in these matters lay rather dormant until I discovered Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, mindfulness and finally Buddhism, which I have found to involve quite a bit of surrender; to uncomfortable feelings, the present moment and the emptiness and impermanence of life.

March : technology and games
 
I have talked about 'Duchess Doom' quite a bit in March and other months, it is a serialised short story on Wattpad, very much about technology and games.

Celebrating 10 years of blogging (5410)

It's been rather a stressful ten years, but maybe that's just life. My blog has helped to keep me going, but maybe it's time for a break. These are the five London places I hope to visit this year to help celebrate my blog turning ten.

1. Covent Garden
2. Tate Modern
3. Greenwich Observatory
4. Kew Gardens
5. Japanese Garden @ Regent's Park

Snuggle muffs for mental health

I was desperate for therapy in 2018. This need led me back to knitting and cuddly toys and eventually twiddle muffs. Twiddle muffs were invented for dementia suffereres. I call mine snuggle muffs, because they only have twiddles on the inside, the outsides are smooth and soft, I find this to be more comforting.

The Ghost Station

I have always found the London Underground fascinating, the deep tunnels, the map that isn't really a map but a diagram, the Labyrinth Art designs which all London Underground stations possess. Above is an underground poem I rediscovered in my great clear out at the end of 2018. Below are a couple of my own London Underground inspired designs.

Blue knitting challenge

In May 2018 my friend challenged me to make a number of knitted creations out of the blue wool, ribbon and buttons I bought in Uxbridge, these are the small selection of items I managed to produce.

Terminal Therapy

Over the past three years I have been sharing various therapeutic ideas with this blog. I have found the therapies quite helpful at some times and very helpful at others. Mostly it's mindfulness and meditation that gets me through my days, sometimes St John's Wort. Art and crafts, music and drama, reading and writing are probably the therapies I like best. I made up my mind a few years ago that writing, art and music were most important to me. That view hasn't changed.

Star heart and cross line dolls

I was in a bit of a crafting and doll-making frenzy from 2010 until 2016. I really enjoyed making my dolls but ended up with too many with limited opportunities to sell them. I was very much inspired by the beautiful dolls made by Jess Brown. I started with my contrary virtue dolls in 2010 and ended with my diverse Shepherd Bush dolls in 2016. The boy cross-line dolls came along in about 2014. I haven't given up on crafting, but have lost a lot of the energy I had for it. I don't know what the future holds for my craft-work or my craft stall.

Garden Therapy

    

In some ways garden therapy can be more accessible than forest therapy. Forests are wild, as nature intended, gardens are more under control, nature with human intervention, a bit more organised. One great thing about living in London has been my association with Kew Gardens. My dad used to work here, his ashes are scattered here, I used to work next door. We mostly visit it in the Spring and Summer. These are some of my favourite photos from our frequent visits.

   

Everyday is a mindful ACT

2018 was such an unsettling year, my need to find sustainability and stability through mental health, healing and therapy went into overdrive. I read dozens of Buddhist psychology and third wave therapy books and tried many guided meditations. They did work and I felt much better in 2019, despite continuing problems at home and work and with my menopause. 'Everyday is a Mindful ACT' features a selection of thoughts and meditations for every month of the year, a book a fortnight and twelve mindful colouring sheets (below are eight of them).

Travel Therapy

Sometimes it's just good to get away. My favourite week in my life was my week alone in New York. I like travelling alone to cities. I travelled alone around Europe. My first taste of Paris was on my own, it can be lonely, but if you enjoy your own company it's great. I love my own company and love solitude, but often I am accompanied by my mother and daughter, who generally need a holiday, so they come with me. Often we are just travelling around Great Britain, but that's fine, there's plenty to see here. It's especially nice at the seaside, but also our cities and countryside are good too. Holidays are great for gaining a new perspective on life, for practising mindful meditation, for doing something different, for just having a break from the norm.

A tale of three cities

From a young age I was brought up on the idea that London, Paris and New York were the most glamourous, happening cities in the world. That's probably not true anymore, if it ever was, but I think they are still, all three, worth at least a brief visit. These are some further thoughts on these three great cities.

London

I've been living in London for over 50 years. There is something liberating about a city. You can quite easily feel lost and anonymous, but people, food and shelter never feel far away. These days I seek solitude and freedom in the middle of a city, amongst strangers. Some of my favourite places and things to do in London can be found by following my London links.

Paris

I have visited Paris about five times in my life, first in 1990 and lastly in 2015. Over those twenty-five years, much has stayed the same. Paris is romantic and edgy and everything in between. I have fond memories of it. To find out more about me and Paris, please follow my Paris links.



New York

Possibly the best week of my life was the week I spent in New York in 2017, just before I turned 50. It was quite a tiring time, I was out sight-seeing from 8.30 in the morning until 8.30 in the evening. I saw everything I wanted to see and feel I don't need to go back. You can find out more about my 5B450 and NYC adventures by using the search bar and the link.

Eat Pray Love holidays revisited

 

I was attempting to go away at least three times in 2020, to Belfast, to Brighton and to Cromer. Needless to say planning any holidays in 2020 quickly became very difficult and what should have happened in one year, actually took three.

Eat - Cromer - August 2020

We were lucky to have got away anywhere at all in 2020, so the week we got to stay in Cromer was all that bit more special and I cherish that week away very much, even though we only had takeaway pizza to eat every evening.

Pray - Belfast - June 2021

This holiday was cancelled twice in 2020 so it was a great relief to get here in 2021. It was exciting to fly in an aeroplane once more and to finally visit this remarkable fourth UK capital city.

Love - Brighton - April 2022

We visited Brighton last in 2017 so it was exciting to find out how it had changed in the past five years. I have visited Brighton regularly since I was alittle girl, so it feels like visitng an old, dear friend everytime I go.

One thing the Eat Pray Love holiday saga has taught me is that it is much better to be just organising two holidays a year rather than three. I am aiming on going on two holidays a year, one far and one near, in the upcoming future.

 

Flower sketches

I drew these flowers to illustrate 'Get Well Soon' and 'With Sympathy' cards for my craft stall. I love drawing, especially faces and flowers, and hopefully will continue to do so. Drawing nature is a good way to de-stress and relax.