Sybaritic Spring Afternoon

One of my favourite books is The Gentle Art of Domesticity by the lovely Jane Brocket, who you can read over at www.yarnstorm.blogs.com In one of the chapters of this scrumptious book is a memory of an essay written as a student, and teacher's comment 'what a sybarite!' if only you take 'addicted' out of the definition, being a sybarite seems a lovely thing to be. I am going to alter the definition for the way I think of it, as being 'a coinoisseur of luxury and pleasures of the senses' for however lovely the subject of the addiction may be, the nature of addiction itself, is not.

Which is a roundabout musing on the nature of luxury and the pleasures of the senses, and the way I am spending my afternoon. It is a wonderful spring day, which seems all the more of a gift as it was born wreathed in chilly mist this morning. I have every window in our little flat open to let in the Spring, but I have the bedroom door closed and the curtains pulled. I am sitting in bed, with a mound of feather pillows at my back, a cup of tea in my favourite floral mug at my side, and a pile of books and magazines next to me. I have had a nap, been texting with a dear friend, and am going to do a little cutting out of magazine pictures for one of my scrapbooks. The books I have include 'Knitting' by Sarah Dallas that the library ordered in for me, so I am also daydreaming of yarn and needles.

It feels really decadent to be in bed in the afternoon, with Radio 4 in the background, and not to be ill! You see, I had such a busy day yesterday- I worked until 6:00pm, caught the bus back into town and then worked in my other library until 10:15pm as we had the author Xinran speaking....and then had to be in work for 8:30am this morning! I was feeling so sleepy this morning that I was really glad that I had 'time off in lieu' or 'toil' this afternoon- they gave me back the extra hours that I worked last night. The thing that kept me going this morning was the thought of an afternoon nap, and sybaritic pleasures!

I feel the cool breeze blowing through the curtains, but am pleasantly warm as I am wrapped in my soft dressing gown, and have on my feet the slippers that I crocheted for myself. At my back is a fluffy cloud of feather pillows.

I can hear the gentle murmer of Radio 4, and a garden full of birds singing so beautifully to me. I love to hear 'the beeps' on Radio 4 marking the passing hours.

I can taste hot fragrant tea, and crumbly shortbread, just the thing for a light snack where the aim is to tempt the taste buds rather than fill the stomach!

I can see a tempting pile of books and magazines, my favourite mug, and the new avon catalogue waiting for my attention, along with one of my scrapbooks. I have one scrapbook for pictures of clothes/styles/makeup that I like, and another for inspirational, beautiful pictures from magazines such as Country Living. I really want to start another with articles that I want to read, and to start a box folder like my Mum has, labelled 'ideas to try'. It is so intriguing, I am going to beg her for a peep one day!

I can smell the shortbread next to me, and there is an echo on the air of the Past Times Lavender Room Fragrance that I sprayed just before I got into bed. I love room pefumes, but would never touch an aerosol or an air freshener! So not only a sybarite, but a snob, too!

Recently, when I come here to share little things about my day, I will mostly have a few ideas for things that I want to include, but it tends to come straight from my heart onto the page, with a few tweakings for clarity. Occasionally though, I have a post that brews for a little while, like percolating coffee. I have one in my mind just now. Spring flowers are perhaps not the most original thing to write on, but they are my favourite of all flowers, and I have seen so many beauties on my walk to work each day, that I really want to give them a post of my own. Just this morning, there were daffodils of every kind, tete-a-tete, narcissi, hyacinths, crocuses,violets, even some tulips...I feel like nature is somehow emptying her jewellery box and scattering it over the earth for us to enjoy.

I really hope that at least one person who visits here and reads this will plan themselves an afternoon of sybaritic pleasures, and really savour them.