Good morning everyone and happy Friday!
I have been a good girl and working hard behind the scenes to complete all my long and intense to do list. I am certainly not done, but I am finally seeing some satisfying progress, aka: a lot of items with lines across them. Doesn’t that feel good?!
I have to stick to the once-a-week-post rhythm for a while longer, but this week I have a few things I want to share with you, so I could not resist.
First of all, here is your weekly Shinrin-Yoku invitation, which is of course also posted in its dedicated page with the others, where you can find the link from which to print it out.
This invitation is one I have been doing regularly this past week as a wonderful break from computer work. I am fortunate that I can work from home, or from wherever I am, and right now I live in a place with a beautiful, soft and green lawn just outside my cottage. On top of that, the lawn is cared for organically, and not sprayed with pesticides, which is certainly a bonus.
With the lovely sunny weather we have been having here in the Napa Valley, I thought that my dogs should not be the only ones having all the fun running around the (circular) lawn, and laying around in it, so one day I joined them.
I walked out there, took my slippers off (oh yes, it is warm enough for thongs on sunny days) and just reveled in the feel of the grass against my bare feet. I walked around a little bit, then sat down right there with my dogs. It was so wonderfully grounding and refreshing, even with dogs climbing all over me.
So I hope you will be able to enjoy it, too, wherever you are. And if you are in a forest where there is a moss-covered area, you can try part of this invitation on the moss as well, like my Shinrin-Yoku group did last year at Quarryhill Botanical Garden in Glen Ellen.
Also, if you want to lie down flat but do not feel quite comfortable doing it directly on the grass, you can use a beach towel.
I know some of you are in places that are still covered in snow, so grass may not yet be available, but it will, eventually. In the meantime, I just had an idea! Would you consider trying walking barefoot in the snow for a minute or two? Keep a towel and shoes nearby, of course, and maybe a bucket with some hot water. If you do, I would love to know how that feels., as I have not seen or touched snow in nine or ten years. As for laying in the snow, well, you all know about making snow Angels, don’t you!?
And now we come to my update, and that is the right word for it as this whole website is going to be updated at some point over the weekend. You know what us creative people are like, we need to refresh and redesign things every so often. Often would be preferable for us, but confusing for you, so we hang on as long as we can. I have loved and enjoyed my blog-site design and style for over two years now, and I have kept if fresh with little tweaks here and there. But a week ago I found a new theme that I not only fell in love with, but also worked perfectly to integrate my portfolio site. I thought about it for the whole of two hours and felt lighter and happier by the moment, so I knew it was the right decision.
This past week I have been doing as much tweaking and behind-the-scenes design work as possible to adapt the new theme to my website style so that I will be able to limit the hours in which the blog will be behind the “curtain” and unavailable to you. This will happen at some point between Saturday and Tuesday, and I thank you in advance for your patience. I promise you are going to love the new design: there will be a wider post space and images will be so much bigger! But no worries, even those of you with smaller computer screens, or viewing from a mobile device, will be able to enjoy it all without glitches, as the site will remain mobile friendly.
Last, but not least, I have a new free wallpaper for your computer’s desktop for you. If you head over to the designated page, you will find the image above and the link where you can download it. I hope you will enjoy it, and wish you a wonderful weekend of just what you want.
