When my boys were small, the three of us planned to spend a Saturday afternoon building a birdbath and planting flowers around it. Well, honesty bids me tell you that the boys drifted off halfway through, leaving me to finish the job. Hot and very cross, I went inside to clean myself up. ‘Mummy, Mummy!’ Randy shouted. Grimly, I put down the disinfectant and went into the garden. ‘Isn’t it great? Aren’t they wonderful?’ he exclaimed, his cornflower-blue eyes sparkling with excitement as two scarlet rosellas perched on the new birdbath.
Birds need water every day to survive. Besides drinking, birds also need water to wash themselves. To attract birds into your garden, balcony or courtyard, ensure there is a birdbath. Simplest of all is a rock with a natural dent in it, or a ceramic or terracotta saucer placed on a stump or ledge out of reach of predators. You will find that once birds have been attracted by the water, they will want to stay and find something to eat. Set up a birdfeeder near the birdbath, and spend a few moments every day just enjoying the sight of the birds darting around and squabbling over titbits; you will automatically smile and feel calmer just watching them.
Another idea is to take a bag of breadcrumbs or unsalted nuts to a park. Imagine every crumb or nut is a problem. As you throw each one, name it and say, ‘That gets rid of you!’ Watch your worries get eaten up and disappear.
Like many so-called ‘children’s games’, pressing flowers and using them to make cards, stationery, bookmarks or even small pictures is a supremely relaxing hobby for adults, too. The actions of collecting and arranging the flowers are simple and repetitive, which helps you to become absorbed in what you are doing. The process takes time, and so it teaches you patience, and gives you a sense of being in touch with natural, unforced rhythms. And making a batch of cards and filing them away for future use also gives you a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment – friends and family will value that personal touch.
The easiest way to start is to place individual flowers between sheets of clean blotting paper and then put them between the pages of a heavy book, such as the telephone directory. Place more weights such as bricks or books on top. You can buy small flower presses from craft shops and garden centres. Leave the flowers for 4–6 weeks, then check to see if they are ready to use.
Fold sheets of paper or light card in half. On a separate piece of paper, set out the pressed flowers in a design – perhaps as a circle, a heart or initials. When you are satisfied with the design, start to pick up the individual pieces, and apply a little glue to the backs of the flowers and petals with the point of a toothpick. Fix the flowers into place on the front of the card. When they are correctly positioned, press down on them with a clean piece of paper to set them in place. Leave the glue to set properly before putting the cards in envelopes.
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1. Use the links between health and emotions for your own good
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