summit push

After yet another soggy saturday, it is great to see a few patches of blue between the scudding white clouds.

Some sunshine is very welcome, we have had so much grey gloom as well as some incredible rainstorms last week. On a rare, beautiful afternoon last tuesday,

when I was indulging in a bit of a poetic moment - getting swoony over  the golden barley in the fields, the last of the dog roses and the midsummer wildflowers beginning to erupt into flower along the hedgerows,

the light suddenly changed, the temperature quickly fell, and the darker clouds rolled in.

It began to look more and more like a mid west tornado in the making!

The hound and I stepped up the pace, full tilt sprint to home in fact, so glad to be indoors before this happened the other side of our kitchen door!

We have been weathering other storms here this week - our youngest slipped off the school climbing frame and broke both bones in his forearm, shunting them over the wrist joint, requiring two ops and an overnight stay in hospital. It was all vile, but he was so stoic and uncomplaining, my champ!

In happier news, the Art fair went well and our eldest has just passed his driving test (Eeeeek!). He sits a hard piano exam tomorrow, and my daughter is preparing for a fast approaching theatrical performance at Her Majesty's Theatre, Haymarket, so the pressures are still on and, to be honest, we are all really ready for the holidays and a welcome change in pace. I don't wear this frantic busy-ness like some kind of maternal medal - certainly I enjoy seeing them doing things they love, working hard and achieving goals, but just as much I long for rested faces, relaxed shoulders and time to hang out together. It is waiting for us, just over the horizon.

In the garden, the tough old Wild Acre flowers are managing, more or less, to weather the weather! I am amazed to see some scabiosa seeds (from Higgledy Garden) that I planted really late in may as an experiment in expanding the growing season into October, have not only survived the incessant rain and low light levels, but have provided a small forest of happy seedlings, I think Higgledy flower seeds must be teflon coated!

I was up at six this morning cutting the flowers for three bouquets, and I was spoilt for choice - this is such a great flower cutting time of year. One bunch was full of purpley blues and deep pinks and the other two were all subtle pale, nudey pinks, white and green - made to be given to a grandma by her two little grandsons, and designed to be able to be put together in the same vase. Which do you prefer, va va voom or serene elegance in your flowers? I'd love to know.

Please don't be too snooty about the gypsophila (like I used to be!), it is quite a different thing when it is fresh from the garden, more in bud than flower and none of that horrid, tired crispiness of the imported stuff.

So here is to the final week of term, and the summer holidays just around the corner where I spy lazy, pyjama brunches, picnics, reading, movie watching and a week in the Sicilian sun - cannot wait! Summit push, we can do it! xx