Summer ... a mix of rain, storms and sun.

Summer's here, the elderflowers are blooming, catch them while you can, it's Elderflower Champagne time.

Since exam kick off in mid May, family life has concentrated a lot around Ben's GCSEs.  He sat all seven papers at the secondary school in St. Neots and seemed fairly OK with how they went.  There has been continuous revision all the way through the exams, concentrating more on Maths, which Ben felt was his weakest subject.  There was a good two week gap between the Physics papers which we thought was good at the start but proved difficult as the second paper loomed as Ben had used all his mental energy on Maths and needed extra "reminder" revision to get through the Physics.  Results will be out on 25th August - fingers crossed he get the grades needed to move on to A-levels.

Three of the papers were morning sittings and we felt it better for our nerves to stay over.  Out of all the times we've been to St. Neots, this year and last, we have only had 1 fabulously warm sunny day - St. Neots in the sun is far, far better than in the rain!  I can now say I know the roads of St. Neots well - finding several back routes between the school, town and the two Premier Inn hotels we stayed in ... with Costa and Prezzo being excellent places to reside.

I have been enjoying a very chilled horse these last few weeks as Jay has been going out with his buddy for overnight grazing.  Most mornings I'd find him zonked out and it's been super to see him relaxed enough to continue snoozing while I give him a good stroke and pester him with continuous selfie shots.

Unfortunately, he seems to get up to night time silliness and it has caused himself a couple of minor injuries meaning he's back to going out in the day time, in his own paddock - he's just too much of a playful kid when out with others!

Paul and I celebrated our 22nd wedding anniversary on 18th June and decided to experience our first Polo Match on the 19th to celebrate.  Luckily the weather held for the day (it bucketed down later) and we were able to sit out, enjoy a lovely hog roast sandwich lunch, and experience the horsing around.  I came away a bit hooked on the game - it's quick, fun and just brilliant.  The commentator was fantastic ... he really made the event.



I think it would be safe to say we've had more wet weather than sunny so far this Summer.  Great for the paddocks, the grass is continuously replenishing, not so good for the gardeners who are having to constantly mow the grass and keep on top of the weeds.

The first picture with its stunning bright poppies is a real contrast to the heavy storm clouds in the distance over Kings Lynn.  We watched as a funnel appeared from the centre of the cloud (probably too small to see in the photo), luckily it dissipated.  The second photo was taken a couple of days ago.  We had sunshine but the storm clouds were moving in swiftly from Holbeach way.  We could hear the rumbles of thunder but strangely it never actually reached us.  The third photo was taken during a greenlaning trip in Norfolk.  We had cloud burst after cloud burst so we endeavoured to drive along sturdy lanes to preserve the countryside.  We were surprised to come across this ford at the end of one. Paul had to scrabble around under the Landie to put in the wading plugs before driving through it!

Enjoy any warm sunny days that come your way.

So we've had the snow ...

and now the temperatures have risen and, although the wind is quite blustery, it feels Spring is just around the corner (although we had a flurry of snow first thing this morning!).

As always I loved waking up to a white world, but this year, the excitement of it didn't last as long as usual.  Having to drive to the yard twice a day takes its toll when roads are slippery from ice, snow or slush!  It took a while to melt too, but while it was here we had a bit of fun in it, of course!

We took the sledge out, as we've done in the past, pulling it behind the Land Rover with Ben sitting comfortably having a ball!  I think we drove faster this year, keeping a careful eye on our young towing passenger behind so he didn't fall out :0)  He loved it, the road was mighty slippy and at one point he was weaving from side to side and in absolute hysterics! 

On day two of the snow we had plenty for snow ball fights and made a snow dog.

Weirdly after a week of temperatures in the minus numbers the temperature started to rise to about 10 degrees and has hovered around that mark ever since.  The sun's been out and it's been pretty pleasant out there (even started me thinking I'd get on with digging the veggie patch). 

Our four hens have kept us egg-less since they all arrived in late Summer, but during that chilly spell we had our first egg and now plenty of eggs are appearing in the hen house every day.  Naturally we grumbled about the lack of eggs, now we are kind of grumbling about the sudden influx of eggs!  Lots of baking, carbonara, egg fried rice and fried egg sandwiches are making a small dent in our ever growing supply.  We came across a large stash of eggs in the bushes the other day - perhaps they'd been laying for longer but we hadn't been finding them!  That's often the way I believe and I'm sure there's other little stashes around the garden we have yet to discover.

Roll on Spring, lighter evenings, warmer days, yep, that's what we all like.

The sun really helps ...

doesn't it?  Today it is gracing us, and, according to the forecast, it should do for the rest of the week.  Makes sitting outside with a cuppa so much more pleasant, although it does make it harder to come back indoors afterwards to get on with work!

We had a very upset Ben first thing today as he discovered one of his goldfish had floated off to fishy heaven.  Bless him, he took it quite badly, but now "Snow" (I never knew that was his name - what a terrible mum I am) has been buried in the pet graveyard (gruesome!) and now Ben has begun to chill a little.  This means we need to now do that awful task of cleaning out the fish tank in order for us to view "Flame", the beautiful fan-tail,  far better.

So, with the sun out, the first thing I want to do is photograph flowers in the garden.  Not sure why this seems to be a ritual everytime the sun comes out!  So, here we have pretty clematis and chives.  This gorgeous pale pink clematis adorns alot of fences, walls and even telegraph poles around this area.  Ours is by the back fence and was looking so straggly last year that I chopped it all down to the ground.  You can imagine my surprise when it all sprang up again looking rather fabulous with its array of pretty blumes.  The chives, and other two herbs that I planted last year have spread like wild-fire.  I just need to replace the rosemary and bay (that didn't take too kindly to -14 degrees) to get my fully stocked herb garden back up and running.


Flowers feature too on my latest Patchy.  Gorgeous floral fabrics and the lightest of Spring green material decorated with green seed beads, burgundy ribbon and flower printed buttons.  This wallet has two extra slot in pockets - so eight in total - all ready to store little things like store cards, library cards, vouchers, notes, secret messages ... I could go on and on and one, the list is endless!  Anyway, I love it, and want to keep it, but it's up for sale in Ellie's Treasures on Folksy and Etsy.  The price now includes UK postage and packing.

Cats and baskets

It's not the first time this has happened in our family of cats, but I was lucky enough to have the camera to hand this time.  Kan has managed to squeeze into this small basket for a comfy(?) nap! 





Cats find comfort in the strangest of places don't they?  We've found them curled up in the empty sink when it's been very hot, inside the airing cupboard and behind the washing machine to name just three.  Where's your cat's favourite sleeping place at the moment?

A nature post

I've been busy clicking with the camera around the garden.  Here's what I've taken:















Such beautiful colours (apart from the baby toad, but he's still beautiful).  While I'm at it, here's a pic of the potatoes we harvested this year and the first of many excellent sized carrots (they taste so much nicer than shop bought ones).  I'm ever so pleased with the carrots.  It's the first year ever that I've grown them directly in the ground rather than in a large pot (resulting in tiny baby carrots, which are lovely, but not quite the same).  I'd been put off doing this before mainly because our soil isn't completely stone free (by a long way) resulting in wonky and stunted growth.  Also I dreaded the thought of a ruined crop thanks to carrot fly (apparently this is more likely if you disturb the tiny seedlings too much at replanting time), but we seem to have been spared.  The only pest upsetting the carrots has been Kan who seems to enjoy hiding, playing and sleeping amongst them!!

Blooming beauties

I'm not a big gardener, although I do enjoy pottering around on my little vegetable plot.  I keep trying to take a decent photo of it, but it looks far too orderly and boringly green, so I've given up.  My veggie plot, I believe, is the only orderly thing in my life!  I remember reading recently that you really don't need to sow vegetables in neat rows (I've done vertical rows and now this year I've done horizontal) but should just jumble everything up around a central column of, say, runner beans or peas.  It sounded fun when I first read the article, but now, it just sounds caotic and I do crave a tiny bit of order once in a while! 

Anyway, getting back to the point, the garden needed some attention.  Last Autumn I went a bit mad pulling up weeds (or so I thought), and moving various plants from one area of the garden to another.  I've finally planted up my new herb garden, which, once it's all bushed out and lovely, will fill a space directly under the kitchen window.  At the moment, it's vary sparse with tiny herb plants itching to grown and take over the area, but the weeds keep coming back and swallowing them up!

Anyway, getting back to the point ... again!  My moving bits and pieces around has paid off.  We came back from holiday to a beautiful array of colour in the one and only flower bed and shrub area of the garden.  Katie took some photos to show off the colours that greet us each morning from the kitchen.


Canterbury Bells



Rose


Marigold


Lavender - strictly speaking this isn't in my flower border, but at the front of the house instead.  I cut it right back during the early part of this year and actually thought I'd killed it, but as you can see it's looking gorgeous and the flowers are bigger and darker than we've had in previous years.  Obviously it likes the rough treatment!  This is the lavender I cut, dry and store ready to use for the scented items at Ellie's Treasures.