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...

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...

  Happy Monday! Are you in need of a little tip today that will help you take a moment, remind you to see the beauty around you, and let you celebrate the small things in life? I am always in need of a tip like that so Eric Carle's beautiful simple quote really spoke to me. There are two things that I love about this quote: Firstly,  his inclusions of sunsets in the world of art. Lately we have been having the most glorious summer sunsets. We've been having a mild heat wave here the last week or two, so evenings are very still and clear. The colours that have decorated the sky have been magical and mesmerising. We often have our front curtains closed to block that strong afternoon/evening sun (our house faces west), but when I remember to open them I am never disappointed. Here are a couple of shots that I've taken with my iPhone, look at those colours! The second thing that I really like about this quote is the very first line: simplify, slow down and be kind.  It's...

"I imagine we are none of us what may be called rich, though we all possess a genteel competency, sufficient for tastes that are elegant and refined, and would not, if they could, be vulgarly ostentatious.” Cranford, Elizabeth Cranford 1904 I know that q uiet luxury  is a not a recent or new trend but recently I was watching a simple living blogger on Youtube who made a comment that made me stop and think. She said that many people who follow the quiet luxury trend aren't actually rich but are simply trying to appear wealthy and that that particular trend is not in alignment with simple living.  I sat with her words for a while, not entirely sure that I agreed with them. I realised that her interpretation of the term "quiet luxury" and mine didn't match up. For her, it was a focus on wearing expensive clothing and jewellery and even going into debt to appear that one was more wealthy than they actually were. There are some people trying to appear rich and luxurio...

  Happy 2025! The New Year was welcomed quite gently this year with family visiting, dinner eaten outside, cricket, an evening stroll, movies, games and finally watching the fireworks at midnight on the television. It was relaxed and joyful and I am hoping, will set the tone for the coming year. 2024 ran away with me. I lost a lot of direction, felt overwhelmed and fell back into old habits that did not improve either my mental health or my bank balance. I stopped blogging, which saddened me and enabled me to move even further away from the intentional and slow lifestyle that I so craved. In the last couple of months of the year I decided that I needed to make a change. I began to wake early and meditate. I watched the sun rise. I tried to consistently take an evening stroll once the heat of the day had passed. And I began to research the concept of a no-buy year for 2025. There are more than a few articles, Youtube videos, blog posts and personal accounts on the internet that disc...

Happiness is not a state to arrive at, but a manner of travelling. Margaret Lee Runbeck I can't believe how quickly November passed us by! It felt like chilly October hung around a bit too long, but this last month has flown by. Spring, in all its variable and unpredictable glory, has come to an end and I thought I would share with you some reflections of life in general around here lately. The quote above was in a book that I was reading this weekend and it was a perfect reminder that the simple things really do matter and play such an important role in our day-to-day contentment and appreciation. In the garden Spring is always a tough time around here. We can get frost as late as November, so often we wait before planting out tomatoes, zucchini or other cold-intolerant plants. However, because there was so little frost this winter we took the chance and planted things a bit earlier. We are already enjoying zucchini and there are some tomatoes growing. We have three lots of tomato...

Welcome back to It's a Classical Life.  I hope you have been enjoying this season (autumn or spring); finding moments to connect with nature, appreciate the simple things, read the classics and enjoy a slower pace as we approach the holiday season. I wanted to share with you a recipe today of one of my favourite spring dishes - quiche. I use fresh eggs from the chickens and fresh spinach from the garden and this dish is delicious! Here are some photos of the different steps in the recipe, so you can see how it looked as I made it. Sautéing the spinach, onions and garlic Assembling the quiche - the tomatoes are placed gently on top Served with some no-mayo coleslaw I chose to finish off some coleslaw with my piece of quiche; my son and daughter had roast vegetables with theirs. I prefer to eat my coleslaw without mayonnaise and a drizzling of French dressing. This meal was light yet filling and tasted delish! I love that we got to use home-grown produce as well; it certainly ma...

  Hi there! Thanks for stopping in here today. Sometimes I am at a loss for what to post here, simply because I feel that so many other writers have already commented on the things that I want to comment on. Sometimes I feel like I am repeating myself with my quest for simple living, joy at home, contentment in everyday life, and being inspired by the classics. Sometimes I just think I need to take a step back and not keep pushing myself to write or produce something new. The last thing I want for this blog is be redundant and repetitive. No-one gains inspiration from that!  Serenity, inner-peace, true contentment, whatever we want to call it as at the heart of Lao Tzu's quote this week. This quote, like so many others that I like to inspire me here, can be taken a number of ways. I won't go into them here, but I'd love to hear how this quote speaks to you. Is it calling you to switch off, and be present once your working hours are done? Is it reminding you that some thin...

  I know that many of you are entering autumn and getting ready for the winter season, but here spring has well and truly sprung! We have had above average temperatures all week and the weather has been warm and pleasant. It's a nice change after our cold winter, but I don't believe we've seen the last of those wintery days just yet. Our spring can be so variable, even knowing when to plant seedlings can be a challenge because frost can occur as late as November! This quote by Joan Chittister, one of my favourite authors and theologians, is right on the mark. I recently spoke about a winter reset and how by living seasonally we can ensure that our plans for the year are on track, we are producing what we want (or don't want), and that we finding joy and contentment in our everyday lives. The beauty of spring.- literally and metaphorically - is the perfect time for this sort of reflection, to consider the "endless possibilities of life," and more importantly, ...

Good morning (or afternoon!) and welcome! If this is your first time, I'm so glad you've found us, and if you are returning then it's lovely to have you back. A few weeks back I mentioned Flora Thomspon's 1938 classic, From Lark Rise to Candleford in a post on happiness. This trilogy of books, which has since been turned into a television series, focuses on life in a small village, Lark Rise, towards the end of the nineteenth century. There were a lot of little observations which I found quite inspiring and enlightening and thought that you might enjoy them too.  "There were no bought pleasures, and, if there had been, there was no money to pay for them; but there were the sights, sounds, and scents of the different seasons: spring with its fields of young wheat-blades bending in the wind as the cloud-shadows swept over them; summer with its ripening grain and its flowers and fruit and its thunderstorms, and how the thunder growled and rattled over that flat land ...