Thursday 20 June 2013

La Vie En Rose

I always associate June with the colour pink. I instinctively notice it around me or deliberately gravitate to it at this time of year.

Pink wild roses in the hedgerows...






Deep pink, English strawberries, sold, within hours of picking, from the farm shop, to be eaten just as they are...


or turned into the first batch of this season's strawberry jam to be sampled while still warm ...


or in pale pink, homemade strawberry ice cream eaten, (of course!), in a bright pink bowl with a pink spoon...


Tiny pink granny squares for a little hooky experiment ...


A frivolous, pink, wrap-around skirt to be worn (with pink sandals, naturally!) when the day's work is over...


This skirt is evidence of my lack of self-control as I am supposed to be thinning my fabric stash not adding to it! But I just couldn't resist it's happy holiday mood when I saw the print in my local fabric shop a few weeks ago. It cost under £10 for a metre and a half, which was all I needed to turn into a little wrap-around, holiday-mood number, modelled on my old school games-skirt. This is no longer in the land of the living but I remember it very clearly and with the help of good old Sew What Skirts! I drew out a very simple pattern for a passing imitation of same. It's a bit longer than my old games skirt - on the knee rather than above it - but it has the same swingy freedom of movement about it. Very quick, very easy, very cheap - I like!


It's perfect for popping out in the evening sunshine for a walk along the hay meadows and the wild-rose-filled hedges, before cooking supper accompanied by a glass of chilled, Provençal wine - rosé of course! Feels happy and holiday-ish.

The rose in the pic is a Louise Odier from the garden - she is finally flowering and smells divine!
I am not on holiday; in fact, for work-related reasons, it is rather difficult for me to take proper holiday-time, but where opportunity presents itself, I shall seize those moments that epitomise some of that summery, care-free, holiday spirit and insert them into everyday existence as best I can and count myself "quids in".

This may be looking at life through rose-tinted lenses; in fact take out the "may be", it is looking at life through rose-tinted lenses. Quite deliberately so.

I've recently noticed a number of references in blogland to the fact that people sometimes feel uncomfortable when blogs apparently portray a too rosy version of existence, that seems to have the drab or darker bits of life edited out - the unreality can sometimes jar rather discordantly. Life is not all rosy. No life is perfect; no life-style is perfect; mine is certainly not and I hope, by focusing on good things, I haven't made anyone think it is; if I have, then I must apologise, because that's wrong, and I do; but one of the wonderful things about both writing in this space here and reading the blogs of other like-minded souls, is an opportunity to be mindful of what is rosy and to celebrate it, and that, I do try to do, without apology...

... for all sorts of reasons - because life is for living and I don't know what's around the corner; because I cope better and more patiently with the negative stuff, when it hits the fan, when it's balanced with feeling there's still plenty to appreciate; because viewing life as a glass half-empty all the time can become a bad habit, that's difficult to shift, and I want to set H an example of positive thinking not whingeing; because at the end of the day I believe we are responsible for choosing the colour of our own destiny and often, we find ourselves in macro-contexts that cannot always be transformed just how we would like them to be, but we can transform, how we approach them, on a micro-level; because I think happiness is not a goal that lies beyond us, that we must spend our lives striving after and waiting for, but is often within us and around us, and choosing deliberately to focus on what is rosy, in however small a way, gives that oxygen and helps it to grow, rather than the opposite.

So you won't find me writing stuff here through storm-coloured lenses (I hope) but I don't want anyone to feel that because I write about positive things, the negative or the dull don't happen in my neck of the woods - they do, frequently! And like everyone else, I have down days and weeks when everything just seems a bit (or a lot) too much. But I only have one life to live and I am getting to an age when I feel there is not infinite time to waste, so if there's a choice between dwelling on the rosy positives or the grey negatives, I am going for the rosy option. It's pink, for a start, and, as you may have gathered, I love pink!

Vive la Vie en Rose!

E x

16 comments:

  1. I can do nothing but think happy thoughts here, please don't apologise for celebrating the good and happy things in life!! Loving the pink! :) x

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  2. What a lovely Rosy Glow of a post. It's so important to try and find the postives in life, no matter how tough things may seem. I'm intrigued as to what the adorable didi pink granny square are for, they look so sweet.
    Clare x
    http://summerhousebythesea.blogspot.co.uk/2013/06/three-things-0852.html

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  3. What a wonderfully refreshing post. Thank you for emphasizing the enjoyable things in life and the fact that we have a choice as to where we place our focus. I am fully onside with your philosophy. Love your summery pinks, I am now officially on a mission to find just the right wrap-around skirt pattern for summer. Mrs T, you are inspiring as always ;D

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  4. Dear E
    What a lovely post - your photos and your skirt too. I totally agree - bad things happen to us all, of course they do, but I don't necessarily want to focus on them on my blog. I tend to look at positive things as well and leave the negatives for me to deal with away from blogland. Life can be very difficult at times and it is important to have positives to focus on.
    Best wishes
    Ellie

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  5. Thankyou for making me smile this morning. I hated pink when I was younger, but I'm coming round to it!
    H xx

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  6. Tickled pink by your post!
    I'm perfectly happy that everything in blogland appears rosy. Reading blogs is my bit of escapism and I love reading about the good things that happen to people - if I want dismal stuff, I just need to pick up the newspaper.
    Keep those storm coloured lenses firmly shut away. Ax

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  7. I love what you have said in this post. We live in a world where we are surrounded by bad news on a 24/7 basis. It is nice to read about the good bits of people's lives, the things that don't make the news headlines. I try to keep my blog on a positive note, but do occasionally write about my daughter's medical struggles, or things like the frustration of trying to downsize to a smaller home. But when I do tackle more serious subjects I try to do it with a sense of humour.

    I love all your strawberry pictures. I plan to buy some at the market tomorrow, and your ice cream picture made me think that's what i might be doing with some of them. Yummy!

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  8. You said so well what I have been thinking lately. My blog (and yours, and many others) is a place to celebrate the positives and indulge and share the things I love to do. But yes, no-one'e life is perfect.

    I loved the pink theme here. I could just bit into one of those strawberries. xx

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  9. Dear E - couldn't agree more!!! xxx

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  10. Your pinks make me happy, and it is important to accentuate the positive. So there.

    Your fabric..love. Perfect button.

    Pretty wild roses, too.

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  11. I think this is a subject that comes up periodically here in blogtopia ... not lightly named thus. And I agree that focusing on what is rosy in life is a good thing, but I also think that sharing the downs from time to time can be a positive thing too. Not if it's done in a woe-is-me way, but rather as a statement of fact, and with good humour. Good and bad ... you can't appreciate one without the other, and real life comes well supplied with both. Often, it seems to me, it's how we handle the tough stuff that shows us at our most human.

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  12. I too, will go for the rosy pink option. :-)

    Lovely post and photos, E. Now I will go crochet me a couple of rose colored roses and turn them into glasses. ;-)

    Wishing you a pink week!

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  13. Such a lovely thoughtful post and I agree with you strongly. My blog helps me concentrate on the good and the positive in my life I don't want to dwell on the bleaker side which involves chronic poor health that has caused me to give up my career. Life is all about living and focusing on the good things. Your pink theme is joyous and your skirt looks amazing .
    Sue x

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  14. I missed this post last week, but am doing some catching up tonight. Your rosy view reflected in your blog provides your readers with such a beautiful escape.

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  15. HI there ! Like Liz I too am having a 'blog catchup' session - I love the pinks in your world. I think that celebrating life is a good thing - everyone at school laughs at me because I'm always singing (I even made my year 9s sing last week!) but I think that it's important to celebrate life when you feel it's good, and I'm a simple soul - sunshine, flowers and music make me feel that life is wonderful. When the blues grab us the best thing is to go away with a book, curl up, have a cup of tea and get over it. I'm pretty sure that as I've got older I've become more happy, more optimistic. Looking forward to reading some more posts, Judy.

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Thank you so much for taking the time to visit me at Mrs TT's and comment. I love to read what you write.