It's been emotional

Ah, the end of term.  A mad whirl of concerts, presentations, assemblies, sports day, parties and farewells.  I always feel a sweet sorrow at the end of the summer term.  A whole school year has gone by in the blink of an eye.  Two wonderful teachers have left, the lovely boy in Year 6 who looked after my littlest boy all year has left to go to big school, a friend or two has moved and everyone is going up a year.  The biggest boy slips further towards the end of school, just a couple of years left.  The middle boy will be in Key Stage 2 in September.  And the littlest boy won't be one of the babies any more.  There will be a new batch, and he will be going ever onwards, ever upwards, growing, growing, growing. 

In a panicky moment of sentimentality I saved this little flower that the littlest boy gave to me on the way to school on Thursday.  It suddenly felt terribly important to hold on to it.

And whilst I almost can't stand the ending, I do so love the summer holidays, and the prevailing mood around here goes something like this.

At home, I've been pondering what to do with some of the produce from the garden and the allotment.  Last year was such a wash-out, but this year everything is going swimmingly and there are gooseberries, blackcurrants, strawberries, raspberries and tayberries.  I've been browsing Sarah Raven's "Food for Friends and Family" for summer recipes.  I do love a cookery book that's divided into seasons.

The garlic's in, and hopefully this should last us a year.

There are flowers too.  Something I love about summer is picking flowers for the house.  I very rarely buy them, but to have them around the house is always lovely, especially when they have hardly any flower miles and no added chemicals.

It's been hot and dry here, as over most of the UK.  Grass is brown and cows have slim pickings.  When it's really roasting, the best solution is sometimes a little umbrella.

We spent the afternoon at "our" country park.  I think this place is somewhere that will stay in the children's memories after they are grown.  They love the trampolines, the assault course and the animals.  Oh, and the acres of space.  I love the walled garden with its fruit and vegetables, the flowers and the wonderful views.

This afternoon the bees and butterflies were out in force.  There were literally dozens of bees on a bank of lavender in the big rockery which overlooks the river.  Lavender is one of my very favourite plants.  Such a beautiful scent and wonderful flowers, and it is an absolute favourite of bees.  I have never seen so many bumble bees in one place as I did today.

Back at home I am looking forward to taking things just a little bit easier than recently.  I'm looking at the shells we brought back from holiday and remembering the fun we had.

This one makes me think of chocolate.

And I'm going to be pottering a little more in the garden while the children are around.  Enjoying this rose, Rose de Rescht, and the white petunias I planted in my hanging baskets instead of tumbling tomatoes this year.

I have plans for the next few weeks.  Nothing ambitious, and not too many, but plans of outside adventures, picnics, water, scooting, walking, discovering, climbing, building and playing.  There will be games, library books, delicious treats, cookery, growing and picking, swimming and making.  And I can't wait.  If I had a Superman costume, I'd look something like this.

Let the fun begin.

Bliss

I'm back and properly exhausted as one should of course be after a holiday.

We stayed here, in Marazion, where the castle at St Michael's Mount looks out over the bay.  The minute we arrived we hit the beach and tried out the sea.  Oh it was good.

It was a fantastic week of sun, beaches and exploring.  There were lots of pretty cottages to look at, with Cornish gardens and seaside colours.

Mousehole was particularly lovely; lots of little cottages all crammed into tiny streets with plenty of art galleries and some nice cafes and shops.

We visited the amazing Minack Theatre, built onto a rocky clifftop.  How I'd love to see a play there.  Not this time unfortunately, but it was great to walk round anyway.

We also walked around St Michael's Mount and the church and castle there.  The island has been settled since the 8th century, and the current priory church was built in the 14th century.   This is the castle.

The St Aubyn family live in some of the rooms, but there are plenty of others that you can walk round.  I loved the library, which had stunning views out to sea.  Imagine sitting in there in the winter, in front of a roaring fire, reading, sewing, playing chess...

It wasn't all ancient buildings though.  There was a little of this...

...one or two of these... (this one spotted by the littlest boy and purloined by other half in a daring act of bare handed bravery)

and there was lots and lots of this...

It was a hot week, and the sea was utterly blissful.  I even swam in it and didn't feel cold after the initial icy shock.  The littlest boy was rolled around in it as if in a washing machine at one stage.  He made the mistake of bending down in a rough sea to pick up his little float.  The first wave knocked him down, the second one dragged him under, the third one turned him over a couple of times.  It took me that long to grab hold of him and pull him up.  Poor thing, he was dripping sand, sea water and sunscreen and sobbing, "I can't see, I can't see."  After that he preferred little waves and just getting wet up to his knees. 

This picture is for Devon, who writes a wonderful blog in sunny California and likes a little surfing herself.

You will note he's being careful not to get too close to any actual waves.

Now it's back to real life with the inevitable post-holiday bump.  I've done the allotment open day and Sports Day under the searing sun.  I've vaccumed up the sand and unpacked the large onion that the littlest boy found bobbing along in the sea on the last day and insisted on bringing home.  I've put some shells on the mantelpiece to remind me of a wonderful week with happy boys and I've found a spot for the pirate accoutrements - eye patches, a cutlass, a dagger, some pieces of eight and a really handy hook.  Aar har me hearties.  Normal service is resumed.

Stand well back, I'm packing

Buckets and spades have been dug out of the deepest darkest spideriest recesses of the garage.

Cookies have been baked.

People have been lined up to water plants at home and at the allotment,

to feed the hamster

and the piggies.

Flowers that will not last more than a few days in the garden have been picked.

Boy flavoured books have been chosen from the library.  (Actually I did this too early and they've almost finished them already.  I'm adding another thing to my To Do list.)

A new chunk of wool has been broken out.  Delicious.

The weather has been checked.  Oh yeah.

There's a little something for everyone here.  My camera for me, a book of golf courses for other half, an RSPB guide for the biggest boy, Lego for the middle boy and pickle, yes pickle, for the littlest boy, who doesn't like to go anywhere without it.

Yes, it's time for a little holiday, and I am told the sun will be shining.  I haven't packed yet, I'm just gathering up a few things in a calm and relaxed fashion.  Tomorrow I will be screaming and sweating and throwing things about the place, but today all is serene.  A little shopping for odds and ends, a little Wimbledon, a little sit down with the laptop.  I need to get in the zone before the pre-holiday melt-down hysteria.

Hope you have a good weekend, I'll be back (with photos!) in a week or so.

I coulda been a contender

The biggest boy is incredibly competitive.  It's not something I understand, but he turns everything, everything, into a competition.  The littlest boy reads a book, the biggest boy read it when he was four.  I see a goldfinch, the biggest boy saw four together with a hawfinch and a yellow wagtail.  If we ask his other brother to spell a word or do a sum, the biggest boy is like to yell out the answer first, he just can't help it.  So it is no surprise that growing our own has an element of which is the biggest, the longest, the fullest pod, the earliest fruit.  I made the mistake of weighing a big strawberry the other day, and now we're a little bit obssessed.  Today's offering was the heaviest so far, but a little nibble had been taken out of it, so it failed to reach the holy grail weight of 30 grams.

Several people have said to me that strawberries are wonderful this year, and they are certainly doing well in the garden.  The boys are (sacre bleu) proclaiming themselves fed up with having them for tea. 

So today's pickings ended up as jam, which seems like sacrilege so early in the season. but I'd hate to see them go squashy.

Elsewhere in the garden things are looking promising too.

Blueberries, cherries, the odd artichoke, tayberries, tomatoes, aubergine, grapes and radishes.  I think the cherry tree will have to go, as this year the top half of it died part-way through spring when the weather turned nasty.  So now it's an odd shape - it's just the bottom of a tree with no leading shoot.  I find artichokes a bit intimidating.  I love them when they're in a jar, all ready to eat.  But how to get from this big tough bud to that tender deliciousness?  The ones in the jar aren't in my price bracket any more though, so this is it.  And really, I am sure that homegrown ones must be nicer.  I shall have a bit of a google and tackle it tomorrow.

All is end of term excitement in the Above the River household this week.  There are school trips, cricket tournaments, sports competitions, step-up days to visit next year's classrooms and all manner of summer treats.  Then after school there is tennis in the garden and new library books to read and nature diaries to write and more tennis in the garden.  My grass is not holding up as well as the Wimbledon grass.  And one by one the balls are disappearing over the fence and not being returned.  Can't imagine where they are going.  And unlike Wimbledon there isn't an endless supply.  Might have to screw up my courage and have a Word.  Because the budget is also not stretching to new balls every week, along with artichokes in a jar.  But summer is here, the sun is coming and life is good.  Hope it is with you too.