The Smell of Summer

Sweet peas are one of my favourite smells - like freesias, they smell like all flowers ever concentrated into a single bud. They smell heady, ethereal, angelic - like early summer mornings when the sun is just risen, the city noise is quiet, the birds are singing, and the dew is on the grass. Heavenly.

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Sunny Southend-on-Sea

A proper English seaside ... stripy deck-chairs, ice creams and chips.

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Northumbria holiday in pictures

We've been to the North-East for a little holiday at The Boy's mum's house.

We exercised our inner junkaholic, scrutinising car boot finds and doing a little antique-ing ourselves.

We found this sweet vintage camera in a thrift shop - and searched in vain online for a UK source of Kodak 126 film.

We looked up in Newcastle - isn't it great what you notice when you look up?

We admired art - on walls ...

and in these beautiful surroundings at Belsay Hall - a ruined castle ...

and a quarry garden!

We were startled and fascinated in equal measure by Mat Collishaw's 'The Garden of Unearthly Delights' zoetrope of creepy cupids smashing robins' eggs and spearing snails.

We ate a lot. From tapas to curry to birthday cake.

We chilled out, and enjoyed the last of summer.

(Thanks Carol!)

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A green thought in a green shade

Droplet
Originally uploaded by mindofbutterfly

Lots of summer induced activity in the garden.

The plants are gorging on current sunshine and recent rains.

The mangetout are in bloom, promising a luxuriant harvest - daily, we tally up and revel in the abundance. The strawberries are heavy, bowed to the earth, with hard green fruit tinged, slowy but ever so promisingly, with red blush. The raspberry bush, planted in a fit of optimism three years ago, is finally coming into its own and I imagine juicy red fruit come the autumn - not enough for jam, but enough to eat greedily straight from the branch. The tomatoes grow and grow and grow, sucking up water diligently applied to the roots and reaching for the sky. The runner beans have escaped from their 6ft wigwams, and as I write, are making for the roof.

All in all, "a green thought in a green shade" as Marvell says, and plenty of promise.