Simple Pleasures...

[rhythmaning]

• blue skies


• baked potatoes and butter – real baked potatoes, though, done in the oven for maybe two hours, piping hot and crispy


• stroking cats. Our cats, preferably


• lying in bed. Sleeping is pretty good, too
  
• watching sunsets in the northern sky; or in the western sky, if you are on Lewis in spring or autumn


• dancing; by yourself or with someone else; if you’re by yourself, try I Wanna Be Adored by the Stone Roses, Screamadelic by Primal Scream. Give yourself lots of space


• walking. This is dancing without the music. Use your imagination. Especially good miles from anywhere, up a mountain. (But this is both more complex and complicated.)


• music. This is a bit like dancing, without the dancing. Lots of music, lots of places, lots of feelings


• playing in the snow


• cuddling

[Edit]I remembered another simple one - so simple I forgot:baths - I love long, lazy baths [end of Edit...]


More complex:

• wine


• whisky


• the smell of peat coming from the chimney of the pub in Bettyhill whilst someone walks around the pub playing the bagpipes. (Bagpipes optional.)


• lots of foods; simple food, like pasta with sautéed garlic and parmesan; roast potatoes with roast fillet beef on New Year’s Eve; smoked salmon; I could go on. And I will: roast chicken. With lots of fresh herbs and garlic, and roast potatoes; I am cooking this now; it smells delicious, and I am salivating just sniffing the air. Oh yes


• food and wine; or food and whisky (a bit more complicated)


• the sound made a big band blowing at full steam, all those shiny saxophones and trumpets riffing in unison


• and, similarly, a symphonic orchestra playing, say, Shostakovich or Stravinsky (or maybe Bruchner or Mahler or …)


• driving, particularly at speed along the single track A896 below Beinn Eighe and Liathach; or on Skye, watching the Cuillin; or the A835, A837, A894 and A838 – they’re all the same road – north of Ullapool, where you can believe the view will get better, and with every turn, it does; but just driving*


• flying; it always amazes me when a ‘plane actually takes off (even though I understand the physics); and especially, staring at the cumulus clouds, watching the ground, and trying to recognise the landscape


• maps; and OS maps in particular. They are also useful for walking and driving


• sitting in a pub with old friends, talking and drinking**

[Edit]Jeez, I missed a key one: watching a photograph materialise on paper as it sits in the bath of chemicals in the darkroom, slowly bringing a picture to life from patches of black and white [end of edit]

* this is complicated because – well, it because it isn’t good. I like the planet; I like living here. I like glaciers in Greenland. And driving produces lots of CO2, which kind of goes against all this. Thing is, I drive much less than most other people I know, never in town, and fuck it, it is fun.
** see wine and whisky, above. But don’t forget the beer, too. Mine’s a pint.