When the sun shines, the thermometer rises and the weather has you gasping for breath, it can be hard to appreciate how good summertime is for hygge. It’s too easy to have hygge down as a cold weather thing when, at its heart, hygge is probably just as enjoyable during summer if you think of it as finding a cosy, welcoming place, spending time with … Continue reading Summer Hygge: 10 Ways to Really Appreciate Life When It’s Summer
What a strange few weeks it has been! I’m finally getting past my crazy cough that stopped me from fully participating in my Canterbury holiday. It’s not until now, when my energy is making a full return, that I realise how tired I really was, and how much I *may* have let slip by because of it. And now we’re in the last week of … Continue reading Creating Sanctuary: Summer Rescue Remedies
I’ve been away for nearly a week, plonked very usefully over a weekend so it didn’t take too much time away from work. It’s funny the lengths, as a self-employed firm, that you go to to maximise holiday time. We always used to go away over August Bank Holiday, so that a 5 day break from the office was really only 4 days holiday used … Continue reading Book Friday: Bella Grace Issue 32
It’s June. Flaming June, as the painting by Lord Frederick Leighton has it. So far, not a very warm, hot or languid season. But give it time. I never mind a cool summer. I’m not a lover of heat, so even were it to be beaming sunshine, languid heat and air so humid you could suck it in great lungfuls and feel the steam as … Continue reading Whether it Rains or Shines, there’s always time for a Book.
Hyge is a pretty frugal way of life anyway… any philosophy that places maximum emphasis on cosy, home-based, home-made and small group entertainment is not going to be one that costs masses. No expensive meals out in fancy restaurants, no need to spend on imported hothouse flowers, no big and cavernous houses. Hygge is all about the small, the intimate, the personal. In a world … Continue reading Frugge? Frygge? Frugal Hygge for the summer.
I have a weekend away booked for next week, to Leamington Spa. It’s a beautiful town in the Midlands that made it as a spa town in the early 19th Century when spa towns were *the* place to be. It’s a romantic little break, just Mr Hygge Jem and me, and we will spend our time wandering through the streets of Leamington, Stratford and Warwick, … Continue reading Five Words for August.
Four more weeks. Four more weeks. Four more weeks. And international travel seems a distant dream on the horizon (why oh why does Microsoft tempt me with screensavers of Crete and Corfu, Capri coast and California when the closest I am going to get to any of them is a Capri Orange or a quick rewatch of Mamma Mia? And the people who would usually … Continue reading There’s Just No Getting Away From It This Year…. so I might as well read a book.
I spend all day most week days at my desk, typing, filing, phoning and basically staring at a concrete jungle outside. Cars pass, the crossing beeps occasionally and sometimes a fight starts at the pub on the corner. It’s very urban and, apart from the plants on my desk, has no natural elements in it. Yesterday I had a rare (very rare) day off office … Continue reading There’s Hygge in Them Thar Birds!!!
How to Hygge the British Way 