Happy New Year to all of you out there who visit Glover Gardens, whether you are a ‘frequent flyer’ or just drop in occasionally.
There hasn’t been much content in these pages lately, and I’ve realized that I subconsciously took a bit of a break from most of my devices, and most definitely from computers, for the two weeks I took off from work at the end of the year.
During vacations and holidays, I usually create more blog posts than usual and flesh out ideas and recipes that I’ve loosely captured on my Blog Ideas (online) notepad, but this time, I just did tactile, non-device things while I was off. Some cooking, some organizing, some gift-wrapping, a little reading, some walking, some moving back into the (not-quite-finished) kitchen, some reviewing of my ever-growing photo archives to find beautiful images to print and use as part of the new kitchen’s decor. This was one of the pics. It makes me happy to look at it. It will be part of a small gallery wall of tablescapes on the wall above the bar, probably just a 5×7. It’s a reminder of a Colorado afternoon that I captured in this post: The Hills are Alive: Picnic on a Mountaintop.
The partial break from devices and computers was nice.
Really nice.
I needed it.
“Let Your Mind Alone” was the title of a humorous James Thurber book my parents had when I was a kid in the 70s, and although it was first published in the late 30s, it was still hilarious. I’ve just ordered a copy from Amazon, since I somehow didn’t inherit my parents’ worn-out copy.
I always think of that book title when I realize I’m too distracted by the myriad of data and news and trivia (oh my!) that worm their way into my consciousness and need a break from all that external stimuli. “Let your mind alone, Kim!” I chastise myself.
There was a nice article about taking breaks from our online world a few months ago in Thrive Global: 10 Surprising Benefits of Taking Breaks From Our Devices.
By Marina Khidekel, Chief Content Officer at Thrive Global – Image: Skaman306/ Getty Images
So, I’ve been “letting my mind alone” and feel the better for it, in all of the ways covered in the article.
And now, after this break, I’m back!
Our kitchen remodel, Glover Gardens Kitchen 2.0, is close to close-out time and there will be much more to share with you, including the recipes that are popping into my head as a result of the absolutely beautiful new space our contractor has designed and built for us.
Happy new year to you and yours, and don’t forget to “let your mind alone” every once in a while. 😊
© 2022, Glover Gardens
