Life In An English Garden: How to Keep Your Cup Half Full

Some years ago I took a job as a cook for an important British family who were spending the summer at their country estate.

I worked at least twelve hours a day and was homesick for Australia, where people didn’t insist upon a home-cooked flan at every meal or line the servants up to educate them on antique sideboards and the importance of using drink coasters.

I was out of place and felt it.

Despite our shared British ancestry, the family and I were as different as night and day.

It didn’t help that in this small corner of England the class system was still firmly entrenched and my egalitarian (and often outspoken) approach to life constantly got me into trouble.

As my mistress once shrieked at me, I made a very good cook, but a pitiful servant.

Despite managing to view this as a compliment, I found it a challenge to stay positive.

Bonding with Onions

Since I was fattening up the family on omelettes and kippers for breakfast, scones and jam for afternoon tea and a three course meal of pate or soup, beef or pheasant, cobbler or apple tart for dinner, I was required to keep it simple for lunch.

This meant a platter of tomatoes, onions and basil every lunch time for six weeks. A simple, pleasant meal to prepare… except that I am allergic to tomatoes.

Boning pheasant, stuffing a goose or gutting a sea bass have nothing on handling tomatoes for me.

And these were hothouse tomatoes, grown in the garden, so fat and sodden with summer sun that when I went to collect them, they exploded under my feet like land mines.

Disgusting….

So I became very heavy-handed with the onion - and to this day it remains my favourite vegetable!

Lamb Pie, Leek Tart and Life’s Lessons

They say that to dream of an onion means that a situation in your real life is multi-layered, and you need to look beyond the obvious, peeling away the skin to get to the heart of the issue.

I certainly “grew” in that long, lonely summer.

Just as my culinary skills were challenged every day in the kitchen (learning to bone a rabbit was one lowlight) I also discovered that I can:

• work hard, even without positive reinforcement
• meet deadlines, even if they are unrealistic
• rise to the challenge, even if I am unsupported
• maintain my dignity, even if I am put down
• enjoy life, even if I am alone

What I ultimately learned about myself was that in difficult circumstances I prefer to look for the positive angle, rather than giving in to onion tears.

Keeping Your Cup Half Full

There are times when a great many layers need to be peeled back to find the “silver lining”, but there are four simple guidelines that help me stay positive:

1. I keep focused on what makes me happy
2. I stay the course, never allowing negative events, people or challenges to deter me
3. I seek counsel and comfort from people I trust
4. I anticipate life’s struggles and deal with them when they arrive

I believe in these principles so strongly that when I decided to create a story about a woman struggling to stay positive, I used these four simple points as the signposts on her journey.

The message at the heart of the eBook “Keep Your Cup Half Full” is that positive thinking is a skill that you can develop.

Just like a dirty pot, with a bit of elbow grease you can scrape away the grime and uncover the silver lining!

If you would like a free copy of the Outfit Inspirations eBook “Keep Your Cup Half Full”, just subscribe to this site before the end of September!

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