I am a big fan of all kind of Bucket lists, books about challenges to tick and you name it. Thus, I also have a lot of notebooks where I write down things to do, goals to achieve, places to visit before I die. Most of all, these tools motivate me and make me happy every time I tick one of the things I’ve written down. However, one of the best “things to try” tools for me remains the book ”203 Challenges – travel the world and explore your inner self” by Maria Angelova and Ivalina Nenova. This is a pocket, travel size book that can be your travel mate on the road. It will boost you to go out and explore the world by just opening it on a random page.
Table of Contents
Let’s check on the first two things of my bucket list
Challenge 1: read a book every week
Do you like reading? Do you have time to read? Do you have a special books-to-read-before-I-die list? Or you just decided to challenge yourself and try to read one book a week?
I read a lot and I am trying to read one book every week. Not always possible, but….this is why it’s called a challenge.
Here are all my blog posts with books recommendations
When the Frenchie in me is reading
Three great books “Time of Violence”, “War and Peace” and “I am Malala”
Book review of ”Zuleikha Opens Her Eyes” by Guzel Yakhina
The subtle art of not giving a fuck by Mark Manson book review
40 Rules of Love Elif Shafak book review
Legend of the first Kuker Warrior Studio Zmei production
My first book club: 5 ladies, 5 books and one tiramisu!
3 books that stand out of my list
Three books about love in time of war
Five books for real world explorers
Challenge 2 “Plant a tree every year and watch it grow”
“Plant a tree every year and watch it grow” – sounds familiar, doesn’t it? It’s quite a popular goal and you can find it in almost every bucket list. On the other hand, it’s something that everybody absolutely should do at least once in a lifetime, even more! I have never planted a tree myself until, me and my husband we bought a house with a little backyard. And the backyard needed to be completely renovated. So, that’s how it all started.
Minimalistic garden
As we are into Scandinavian minimalistic design and architecture, we always wanted to have our own house with a backyard. As a result, one year ago it became a reality. We bought a new house and renovated it. Thus, the dominant colours we’ve chosen were white, grey and black and the most used material was wood. The living space together with the kitchen were spacious and we’ve got only what we needed in terms of furniture. Finally, once the house was renovated and furnished, we decided that it was time to renew the backyard and organize a big BBQ-housewarming party!
The perfect minimalist backyard for relaxing and BBQ
Most of all, we wanted the backyard to be in the same minimalist style and to be in synergy with the house itself. But at the same time, we also wanted to have an outside retreat to relax and stay in touch with Mother Nature. This is a part of the concept of Japanese gardens – a place full of calmness in the spirit of Zen Buddhism which stresses simplicity and looks naturally clean. Even though everything from the layout to the main elements has a strict meaning, role, and place, they are laid out asymmetrically to suggest rugged wildness of nature.
Furthermore, the elements and materials we used were wood (for the decking), concrete (for the outdoor tiles), little stones to fill in the spaces between the decking and the tiles. Seems like grey (tiles), brown (decking) and green (plants) colours predominated. We filled the stony spots with trees, ponytails, and lavender. In total, we planted two trees, three or four ponytails, and one lavender bush. In conclusion, he plants symbolize time’s passage and seasons change and make the backyard look different in different seasons.
As a result, challenge 2 has been successfully achieved and now we enjoy the summer days in the backyard. And gardening, relaxing in the hammock or making barbecue for our family and friends are the perfect stress-reducers and fulfilling activities especially in the warm seasons.
And you, do you like gardening? Did you already tick this point on your bucket list and plant a tree?
Do you have a bucket list? Would you mind sharing some points you have already ticked or you are about to tick?
Thanks for reading!