There Are Some Things You Just Can’t Improve

I always look forward to reading the What’s Going On at Conran blog and a recent post made me think about design very carefully. They quoted Sir Terence Conran’s affection for ‘plain, simple and useful’ designs.

Being able to really look at something in its stripped down form is one of the most useful things to do before embarking on any kind of project and you will probably find that there are some things which cannot be improved upon. No embellishment, no tweaks required, full stop. This post is a bit different from my usual ramblings as its about some of my favourite things – perfect exactly the way they are.

Perhaps its the colour, perhaps its their simplistic form but stumbling across a rambling mass of forget-me-nots never fails to stop me in my tracks.

Despite living in a city like Edinburgh crammed full of art galleries, museums, sculpture parks and stunning architecture , I still need to get into ‘the wilds’ now and again. Last weekend I was in Perthshire and amazingly you can reach the foot of Ben Vracky by car from Edinburgh in 90 minutes.

This is the start of the walk – complete with gurgling burn running next to the path. Can this be improved? I don’t think so.

Half way up the mountain you look down and see the extraordinary colours of the landscape. I’m not quite sure why the vegetation changes so abruptly here, perhaps its the change in altitude, perhaps its the edge of controlled burning, but for a colour boffin, its pure joy.

Higher again and you can see see the weather moving in – in this case snow is coming.

Reaching the summit of any mountain metaphorical or physical is a feeling that is impossible to better, but standing on the summit of Ben Vracky surrounded by swirling snow (in May) has to be one of life’s greatest feelings (provided you are properly kitted out of course).

From mountain top to river bed and the pass of Killiecrankie. Standing on the steep rocks at Soldiers Leap you can watch the river Garry crash through the pass and fracture into a million droplets.

and a packed lunch sitting on the river bed surrounded by rocks that would not look out of place in the most fashionable city art gallery.

Beautiful, simple things which are out there, to look at, for free. You can’t beat that.

Now, on a different note, some very kind fellow bloggers have awarded me some lovely blog awards. I’m afraid, I didn’t really know what to do with them at first so its taken me a while to even acknowledge them for which I must apologise. I am only mentioning this in order to thank the people who have given me them – I’m not wanting to show-off about them!

The first one ‘Hope Unites Globally HUG Award’ came from the very kind This Mans Journey blog. Then the amazingly talented food writer, Kellie from Food to Glow has awarded me the ‘Versatile Blogger Award’ . You must try some of Kellie’s recipes, apart from all being super healthy, they are all bursting with flavours and are absolutely mouth watering (as is her photography). Patricia from deCamville Design has awarded me a ‘Beautiful Blogger Award’ so a big thank you fellow bloggers for your generous awards.