Summer solstice in the garden

 

I just love this time of year, love, love, love it. And yes, I know I say that every time. 

I pootled round the garden earlier with the dog, taking a moment to enjoy it all. I love how still it often is out there. I stood at the door in the rain at the weekend and it was magical. Summer rain is fantastic, making everything green, green, green.

The clover in the grass is doing beautifully and there are bees there all day long. The wildlife pond is full of frogs and newts, it's fascinating to watch them. It really needs to be bigger. Ten times the size. Twenty! And every garden should have one. Which is also something I say all the time. But they should! 

I picked some yellow and white solstice flowers and lit a scented candle, just to mark the occasion. The littlest boy and I watched the sun setting behind the distant hills on the other side of the river. That was magical too. All magical! All the exclamation marks! The sun literally disappeared as we watched. Well, of course it did, but the last bit was fast. You know what I mean.

Otherwise today involved a bit of overwhelm. Loads of phone calls and emails and trying to get plumbers and movers and decorators and so on to do small jobs and really, not being hugely successful and trying to shoehorn work in around it all and laundry and food and garden and dog and on, as life does. I am hoping to feel a little calmer tomorrow. Or at least more organised.

The toilet cistern has taken to pouring water constantly down into the toilet, which apart from being un-environmentally-friendly is a bit noisy. I am trying to view it like one of those indoor water features you can get (which actually I would probably quite like)(until it went green and had to be scrubbed). Maybe I will put some crystals about the place to add to the spiritual ambience. 

A plumber has said that he will come. At some stage. Maybe one afternoon. That was as much pinning down as I managed to do. I am hoping that he doesn't forget me and wondering how many afternoons need to go by before I can politely ask if he will be fitting me in soon.

I thought the fridge seemed a bit warm earlier, but I am ignoring that for now. If the worst comes to the worst I shall eat all of the ice-cream and try to formulate a plan.

Leaving you with an outtake from the solstice flowers shot and hoping that it was a good day with you. Enjoy the summer my friends!

The Queen in wool

 

Goodness, I love this time of year. The Jubilee has made it especially nice, with bunting all over the place and a surfeit of cake. The town did of course celebrate by producing a knitted Jubilee scene, complete with the Queen done very nicely in stocking stitch, a range of teapots and some really good knitted cakes, all displayed in the window of the secondhand bookshop.

Elsewhere I came across this brilliant post box topper, honestly, in a league of its own. I see no-one has tried to tackle a corgi though, which is a bit disappointing.

The garden is all abundance and this is the time of year when the clover in the lawn flowers, which the bees love. My new neighbour has new pigeons and when I'm out there I can hear them cooing to each other, which is lovely. 

I have almost no news, which is not a bad thing. I'm working a lot, also not a bad thing, but hopefully I'll be able to take the odd bit of time off in the summer holidays. The eldest two are taking their A-levels and GCSEs at the moment. I feel I have coped with it quite well so far.

In between working I am clearing a property and it is really making me think long and hard about Stuff. At the end of the long day, I come home and declutter here a bit too. 

The Sort-It Centres are busy with people unloading mountains of stuff into the huge skips. I've found it all a bit sickening to be honest, although I am far from blameless. I do try to avoid buying too much, especially new and cheap things that won't last, but there could definitely be improvement. I am definitely resolving to do better and to try and reduce what I have. I may even get Marie Kondo down off of the shelf.

I have been trying to get rid of a piano, which is quite a feat. It turns out there are literally dozens of pianos on Ebay for 99p, buyer collects. It turns out no-one wants them any more. Some of them are lovely, all walnut burr and a high shine. I am looking at my own enormous old piano in a different light I can tell you. I have been quoted £225 to have the other one removed and recycled. If only I had played the cello instead.

How are things in your corner of the world? Good I hope. CJ xx