High summer

I'm abandoning any romantic ideas I had of maybe one day moving to a Greek island. And I know I'm one of those who complains about the weather here in the North West (rainy, in case you hadn't guessed). But now we're on the brink of a heatwave I'm actually starting to miss the chilly breezes and drizzle.

It's just too hot. The garden's looking tired and a bit singed around the edges. Everything seems so much of an effort. I'm not alone in this but there are a few friends of mine who are delighting in this incessant heat and it makes me wonder if I'm just a miserable so-and-so. I struggled with prickly heat as a child and have always loved autumn and winter. So my thoughts have been turning to the colder months.

I'm sorely tempted to sort through my wardrobe and look at my cold-weather clothes. I've knitted two pairs of wristwarmers. And I have a stall booked at a vintage and craft fair at the end of September, so have been out looking for treasures. The sideboard is slowly but surely becoming stocked up ready for the big event but there's still lots to do.

Here's a list of what I do like about summer:

Strawberries, cherries and raspberries

New potatoes and asparagus

Not having to buy flowers for the house

Bees and butterflies (when the latter don't lay eggs on the cabbages)

Pimms, G&T, cold beer

Going barefoot (Joe and me both)

Eating outdoors

Light evenings

Using sunscreen instead of daycream

Barbecues

Peonies, dahlias and roses

Sandals and painted toenails.

There. That cheers me up. I'm still sending Jay up to the loft to dig the fan out though.

Allsorts

We've had a busy weekend. Children's parties, food shopping, chores - and all those little things which accumulate and before you know it, it's Sunday evening. Here are a few snapshots of the nicer things...

I shortened a strapless dress (which I was wearing in the top photo - even though it looks like I'm not wearing clothes). And my Housewife, 49 sensibilities meant I decided to make a necklace from the trimmings.

I'll wear it with a T shirt or vest.

Here's another little pot I made at my ceramics class. A blue pear with holes in it. No, I have no idea why either.

I'm essentially an autumn person. But there are some things I love about summer and cherries are one of my absolute favourite things to eat. 

More summer fruits: dinky Alpine strawberries growing in front of the shed. I pick them every other day or so but have realised that painting my fingernails a similar colour means I keep thinking I've spotted more ripe berries hiding in the leaves...

We bought the hosta as a weedy little specimen and it's now massive. The number of flower heads total seven; I'll have a go at dividing it later in the year.

The sunflowers are out too. I like the dark-coloured ones best. Last autumn we had a squirrel who kept visiting. The heads full of seeds were too much for him to resist (I noticed he didn't bring any of his friends).

We have some cute little flowers to go with the cute little strawberries.

I particularly like the miniature marigolds. I haven't seen them before but would like to grow them again. I'll have to remember to harvest the seeds when they dry out.

The broad beans now have pods. Which means one of my favourite summer meals: broad beans and peas with mint, feta and olive oil. And toasted sourdough bread. Now I'm feeling hungry...

Simple

The theme for this week's Nature in the Home is 'Simple'.

I considered using one stem of something from the garden. The huge hosta has some impressively tall and glamorous-looking lilac-white flowers at the moment. And the sunflowers are starting to bloom too.

But I opted for a posy of traditional garden flowers: Sweet William, sweet peas and cornflowers.

The sweet peas smell lovely - they're in the raised bed closest to the kitchen door so the perfume wafts in. And the Sweet Williams are a dark variety. I planted them a few summers back and this has been their best year so far.

The cornflowers are the traditional blue shade. We saw some deep purple ones last year and they were tempting, but blue cornflowers are the national flower of Poland. And they're going a bit crazy in all this sun.

To me, this little posy is simple: it's not at all exotic and the colour scheme is quite restricted but the flowers were easy to grow and all came from my garden. Sometimes simple is best.

This and that

Just a few details from around the house... This watercolour lived in our house when I was growing up. My mum left her job as a secretary when she was expecting me, and her boss painted in his spare time. So sometime in the late 1970s she chose one of his pictures as a leaving present. I like it - it hung on the wall at Bond Street too.

We keep having mini-harvests: gooseberries, wild strawberries, potatoes, rhubarb... on the way are runner beans, courgettes and red onions.

I found this vintage tea set at a flea market and managed to haggle a bit. The sugar bowl makes a nice vessel for posies.

And I was particularly taken with this set of cups and saucers. The graphic black and white design caught my eye immediately. A charity shop find when I was here.

I've been hiding indoors today as yesterday I went visiting with Joe and spent a bit too long in the midday sun. He was sitting in a paddling pool in the shade with a sunhat and SPF 50 on. I did none of the above. It's made me feel a bit headachey and listless. Silly silly silly.

July goings-on

It's been a busy weekend. I'd been hoping to do some drawing and printmaking but sometimes things just come up and you have to go with it. So yesterday we went to the local carnival. My favourite float on the procession was the W.I.'s hippie-themed one.

The sign on he back read: Croft W.I. keeps jammin'.

The vintage tractors were nice too.

After a wander around the field and a glass of Pimms, we went to see friends and had a barbecue. Then Joe got to luxuriate in his bath in the garden.

Today we went to Helmshore Farmer's Market. It was really hot. Dare I say it - too hot?

We met up with my family. This is my brother and Grace, my niece. She's three at the end of July. Another birthday party!

The farmer's market is held outside the textile museum. The stalls were a bit thin on the ground (they tend to be during July and August) but we still came away with some huge pak choi, some tomatoes and two lamb steaks from a local farm.

We had a walk to see the chickens (there's an honesty box and you can buy free-range eggs). On the way I spotted some juicy-looking raspberries growing by the road. On closer inspection I think they might be tayberries or mulberries.

So we got picking (Mum: 'This is foraging!'). One good thing about carrying lots of baby things around is that there's always a Tupperware handy.

We walked past my old local. I love it in there - wonky ceilings and real fires. 

Grace likes to visit the chickens. They're quite tame and come over to see if you've got any food for them...

Although most were staying in the shade. So maybe chickens are quite sensible after all.

After a very hot car ride, we were home. Joe went upstairs for a siesta and we relaxed outside under the parasol. 

Hope you enjoyed the weather this weekend!

Home

Other than being out and about with Joe, and going to my ceramics class, life at home has been ticking along as usual. A bit of gardening, laundry, chores and more chores... I attacked a rather large pile of ironing yesterday and was so glad to see it gone. For now.

We spend time outdoors when the weather allows. Joe now has a little swing in the garden. Everything's starting to bloom, including these sorbet-coloured dahlias. They make me think of peaches and raspberries. Maybe that's because I'm doing a bit of a detox and have cut out sugar. So lots of headaches and cravings. I'm counting down the days.

A sign of summer: lovely Sweet Williams in the house. I have some growing too, but they're in deep, vampy shades of purply red.

Joe's room is really cute. He stands up in his cot now so hopefully will take notice of things I've made, like a nautical mobile with beach finds...

And a garland I made by cutting out some leaf shapes from felt. Total cost: £1.50. Total length: around 4 metres.

We've been reading a lot too. He doesn't have much of an attention span yet though. I've still to find out what happens in Where the Wild Things Are... we actually did it as a school play when I was very little. I remember the masks and tails we wore pinned to our leotards, but not the story.

Maybe I'll just take it to bed and read it myself.

Velvet

This week's Nature in the Home theme: red.

It was probably the easiest so far for me, as we have a bit of a selection in the garden at the moment. I'm especially liking the little wild strawberries. I pick and Joe eats. 

But I opted for these velvety nasturtiums. I plant them each year now, as they run wild through the beds and brighten up the patches given over to potatoes. This time I chose seeds which would give us rich, deep reds. I love this colour next to orange and lime green, and violet...

(That underneath the vase in the above picture, by the way, is some lino printing I've been doing. Very mid-century modern).

And this little blue lustreware vase is perfect for red flowers. In fact, I reserve it exclusively for them. I think I have too many vases...

I find them difficult to resist I'm afraid.