Moments of Calm

It has been a 3 day bank holiday weekend here in the UK and what treat it has been.  Shouldn’t all weeks have 3 day weekends?  It certainly goes a long way towards creating more moments of calm.  I have certainly enjoyed some lovely times over this weekend without the pressure of Monday morning looming.  Many of my moments of calm this week have been flower related.  In case it had escaped you, its been the Chelsea Flower Show this week.  I didn’t go but I did enjoy lots of it in other ways….

RHS Chelsea Flower Show

I have been fortunate enough to go to the Chelsea Flower Show a couple of times and enjoyed it immensely, but it is busy. This year I have loved watching the coverage on the BBC.  I had a lovely routine this week of making sure I watched an hour of the flower show each evening.  Getting such good views of all the gardens and flowers and hearing interviews with the designers and creators was a joy.  It was the most calming TV I’ve watched in a while.  I love the enthusiasm of gardner’s.  Whilst we were watching one evening, my husband commented what nice people gardner’s always are.  I agree and I’m sure it is because of the calmness they enjoy from spending all of their time connecting with plants and the soil and watching things grow.

Chelsea in Bloom

Chelsea in Bloom runs along side the Flower Show.  Every year the shops and businesses in Chelsea adorn their windows and shop fronts with the most incredible displays of flowers for everyone to enjoy.  It does get busy during the day, as it has now become quite an institution.  However I was fortunate enough to need to be in Chelsea this week for work and went a little earlier to catch some of the windows.  At 7.30 am I had much of the displays to myself and could wander around and in front of them at my leisure.  It was a beautiful sunshine filled morning and the dappled early morning light was just perfect.  The theme for this years displays was ‘Under the Sea’ . Every day approximately 8 million pieces of plastic pollution finding it’s way into our oceans. Chelsea in Bloom in partnered with Plastic Oceans UK who aim to stop plastic pollution reaching the oceans within a generation.  This certainly got me thinking more seriously about how I can reduce my single use plastics. I, like most of us, I imagine consider myself to be a diligent recycler.  However, I am still shocked each week at how much plastic ends up in our recycling bin and we are a household just 2!  My early morning was not only a calm start to the day it was inspiring too!

 

Cycling in the New Forest

We had a lovely little escape from London on Saturday with the intention of slowing down and immersing ourselves in the gorgeous country side of the New Forest.  It worked very well.  We hired bikes and had a lovely day cycling through pretty villages, along forest paths, and beside meadows and open fields.  It was a beautiful day, with warm sunshine and only the gentlest of breezes.   The country side is so alive at this time of year, hawthorn and cow parsley and bright fresh green leaves.  Although there were other cyclists and walkers on the same route as us it was very peaceful and still.  Lots of places to stop and admire the famous New Forest Ponies and places to stop and picnic too.  23 miles of England’s green and pleasant land gave us everything we needed to feel calm, refreshed and exercised.

I hope you have had moments of calm too during the last week.

If you would like to read more of my ‘Moments of Calm’ posts, you can find them right here!