Chapter 1
The abundance of the present
Our theme for our first chapter is abundance. It feels right to think of abundance at this time of year. A veritable glut of produce as well as high holiday consumption of a sort, mingling with holiday thinking time. There is nothing like hot weather to make you do nothing but think deeply. Thinking abundant is a wonderful way to live. It sits apart from having abundant, but feels more like eating the best tomato/ice cream/hot grapes from the vine of your life.
Two courgettes and good ingredients for paint
Two courgettes from the farmer’s market. A nub of local cheese from last night’s dinner. A jar of good white beans. Some pickles. A root around the salad drawer finds an onion, a papery clove of garlic and a forgotten bottle of Sussex fizz.
Thinking of jam on toast on a sulky March Sunday.
Inside my wonky childhood memory, we had twenty seven fruit trees in our back yard. I’m sure it wasn’t that precise number – likely more, but still there was an incredibly splendid feeling of towering trees and surging vines.
The abundance of the present
It is easy to be ensnared by the desire for more. More rooms, more money to buy more things to fill those rooms and more recognition for having said ‘things’. Sometimes this ‘more’ is thought of as abundant and to have less than this feels meagre.
Ice Cream and icy happiness
Pleasure.
Colour can be a joyful and visceral delight. It doesn’t have to be anymore complicated, than that it makes you happy.
Lunching Ladies: the visual story behind the launch of our Maps of Colour
Choosing colour is intimate. A river running, the slick of a horse’s rump, a painting of flowers, Keats, friendships, the flight of a lark and a brown paper parcel tied up with string - are all primeval and real sources of joy …
Simplicity in a glass of milk
Simplicity in living has been on my mind – both in how I run my business and in our own lives at home. Why do we long for simple now?