It's a Classical Life

  Watercolour image created using Canva from a photo taken by me Autumn is by far my favourite time of the year. There is something about it that stirs my creativity. The colours inspire me and awaken my soul. The quietness of between seasons gives room to breathe and be still. Thankfully, where we live autumn lasts. The days start off hot - late summer continues to hover - but by mid-April the cool evenings and chilly nights have set in.  I thought I might share some of autumn's inspiring creative virtues with you here. So grab a drink and step into the glorious riot of colour that is autumn. 1. Photography Nothing makes me feel like a  photographer than taking shots of nature in autumn. My phone can never be too full of glorious reds, browns, golds and greens. The evening light casts a golden glow over everything which no filter can capture (in my experience). 2. Clothing I try and keep a fairly simple, capsule wardrobe but I find that hard in autumn because the weather...

  The last few years I have made a concerted effort to declutter my house. When the kids were younger somehow we managed to fill every nook and cranny with bookshelves, craft cupboards and toy boxes. As they have grown I have encouraged them to downsize what they have to be able to keep it neatly in their room. I've decluttered a lot of my own things too - everything from home wares to clothes, photos, journals and yes, even books. There are a lot  of programs, books and content creators out there that talk about decluttering and how by having less stuff we actually have more room for the things that really matter. For me, the biggest benefit of decluttering and letting things go has definitely been for my mental health. Now, even when we have guests or we just let things go for a week or two, it is very easy to tidy up and get the house back in order. I simply cannot handle the added stress of clutter and stuff everywhere anymore. But I still have a long way to go.  Decl...

  Doing word searches and cross words is one of my favourite past times. I find them really relaxing and I know there are those of you who do too. I've also realised that I actually really like making  word searches. Today I have one for you based on the Golden Age of Hollywood. I mentioned here that I've been enjoying watching film noir movies and others from the 1930s-1950s so was inspired to make one based around that time.  Downloading the word search is simple. Either click on the jpeg image above and print it, or you can click on the pdf link below. The Golden Age of Hollywood Word Search If you're interested, you can find the other word searches that I have created  here . I hope you enjoy doing these as much as I'm enjoying creating them. Have a lovely and relaxing weekend.

  Last week I spoke about embracing autumnal comfort food. This week I thought I would share with you what is on my menu plan. Normally I plan our menu for the whole month, but I'll just share with you what's coming up this week. We make pizza dough from scratch, but this can easily be bought or you can use pita bread for a tasty and economical alternative. My husband makes the pizza sauce, which includes antipasto such as sun-dried tomatoes, artichokes, olives and pieces of bacon or pepperoni. Once the pizza is topped with that all you need to do is add cheese. I also love my pizza with thin slivers or soft sweet potato and baby spinach. They can be as simple or as extravagant as we like. We tend to buy pre-made chicken schnitzels and battered fish for the burgers, but this can easily be substituted for home-made. Most of our meals are a mix of home-made and conveniently pre-made. I find this is best for those days when my husband and I are both working and perhaps lacking th...

  In her book, Cosy: The British Art of Comfort , writer Laura Weir says: "In my daily life, I am surrounded by noise and opinion, and over the past few years I have found myself seeking comfort from politically dark winters and the relentlessly bleak news cycle. My instinct has evolved and become an undeniable urge to hide away and find solitude. Rather than swipe and scroll my way through life, I want to feel protected and nurtured. I don't just want to drink a warm cup of tea, I want my emotional state to mirror that cuppa too - warm, predictable, reassuring. Perhaps I'm just getting old, but I want to swap toxic politics and anxieties induced by social media for reliability and kindness. I want to feel more cosy." Oh my, yes please! Count me in! She goes on to explain that cosy is what you do when no-one is watching - it's your definition of cosy, not one that is being prescribed by current trends or marketing techniques. This book really made me think. In Aus...

SOURCE   It's been a while since I've written a Saturday matinee post but when I watched the film The Blue Dahlia  (1946), written by Raymond Chandler and starring Alan Ladd and Veronica Lake I knew I had to share it with you. I loved this film so much, and even weeks after watching it I keep thinking back on it. The great thing is, you can watch online too here . The Blue Dahlia  is considered one of the original film noir movies. If you've never heard of the term before, film noir it refers to a particular style of movie, made popular in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s. Elements of this particular style include dark lighting aspects, a crime or mystery to be solved (they often included detectives or private investigators) and a moral lesson to be learnt. Post WWII films made also included some of the challenges that society faced after the end of the war. The Blue Dahlia does this rather poignantly through the scenes of the character Buzz Wanchek (William Bendix) who s...

Last year my son got his first job. It paid about $11/hour. He quickly learnt that the things that he bought were paid for, per hour of work. For example, lunch with friends might have cost $20, which he saw as two hours work. He didn't particularly like his job and two hours work just to pay for lunch wasn't worth it in his opinion. I was amazed at how quickly he learnt that important lesson - ie, our money is worth our time.  Henry David Thoreau said, The cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. My current job is a real pay-cut from my teaching job (but I love it so much more!) and yet I found that I was spending as if I were still on a teacher's income. I was dipping into my savings to pay for things I didn't really need. For the last two months I have realised just how frivolous my spending had got. For the last couple of years I had been tracking my spending (on clothes only). L...

"Self-sufficiency is the greatest of all wealth." ~ Epicurius   As February has come to an end I wanted to take the time to reflect a bit on what's been going on in garden. As I watch floods, cyclones and other extreme weather events lashing our country and others, I give thanks for the relatively mild weather we have been having. Most of February was hot though - as in over 30 degrees celsius. We have been watering the grass by attaching a hose to the washing machine and allow the grey water to go onto the grass rather than down the drain. You can see just how dry the grass still is despite this! Honestly I think the soil has become a bit hydrophobic and the water just sort of puddles. Still we are trying to recycle the water and also create a greener yard. This snake-like thing has been a great source of entertainment to Norman, our new Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, who has been my constant companion. There is something so precious about having an animal that shadows y...

This quote concludes our month of Bitesize Inspiration from Eric Carle. It was always my intention to focus on one person each month for inspiration but I'm surprised that my first one was Carle. I've learnt a lot about him and his creative life. This quote came from this article here , and was in reference to his own upbringing and time spent reading with his father.  There is so much love and warmth to be had when reading with a child. As Carle says, it really does cultivate a sense of security, belonging and wellbeing in both parent and child. I find it really sad when I hear people say they are too busy to read to their kids but it's okay because they play them audio books (I've actually heard this a few times over the years). I'm a big fan of audio books as an adult and they certainly have their place, but nothing beats that quality time spent with a parent who can put on silly voices, explain new words and engage with the text - all while having a little snugg...

  I wanted to start a new series this year called My Favourite Books...in which I will share with you a collection of my favourite books with the same theme, setting, or genre. First up, I wanted to begin with My Favourite Books....Set in Italy because I recently reread Diana Athill's A Florence Diary (which absolutely makes my list) and was to remember some of my other favourite books with Italy as the setting. I am a trained Italian language teacher and spent time in my early twenties living and travelling in Italy. It is a place that holds a very dear place in my heart and has inspired many writers, artists, musicians and creatives over the centuries, from the composer Giuseppe Verdi to artist Michelangelo to writer Italo Calvino. Overseas travel isn't in our plans at the moment but when I feel that longing for Italy, these are the books that I turn to. Of my list, the first three are non-fiction, and the following seven are fiction. I hope you enjoy my top 10 favourite boo...