Easy Like Sunday Morning

♥ Today I took my first coffee of the morning outside at 7.30am and enjoyed sitting in the gentle warmth of a blissful sunny summer's day ♥

♥ An hour later at 8.30am, I was walking in the park with Little Lady and Little B on a search for some late elderflowers ♥

♥ I already made a batch of eldeflower cordial last week, but as we all love it so much it's disappearing very quickly. There are plenty of elder trees growing wild in the hedgerows of the park and we easily managed to collect the required 25 heads before heading home ♥

♥ I don't wash the flowers as that takes away the fragrant pollen, but ideally they do need to be critter free. So I leave them outside on the table for a while to give the insects and spiders a chance to climb out. These flowers were laden with pollen (atchooooo!) and I'm hoping they will make a great cordial. I make a variation of Sarah Ravens recipe {1kg of sugar dissolved in 1.5 litres boiling water, 25 flower heads, 2 lemons & 2 oranges thinly sliced and 30g citric acid} ♥

♥ 9.20 now, and time for a spot of breakfast. I love to eat breakfast outside on a summer's morning, listening to the caw-cawing of the rooftop jackdaws, a distant radio, the gentle sounds of the neighbourhood easing into the day ♥

♥ I pegged out a load of laundry (so many socks!), then had a little chat to my newly potted-up flowers. Little B and I went to the market yesterday to get a few more blooms to go with the geraniums. I loved reading all your suggestions, thank you so much! I've got blue trailing lobelia, some red and purple daisies (osteospermum I think they are), some pale yellow marguerittes and some verbena. Oh, and some petunias which Little B chose, he was so insistent that they were his "best Favourites" that I brought them for him ♥

♥ I am seriously love love loving my geraniums, sorry to keep going on about them, but they are really lighting up my days! The colours are incredibly intense now that the flowers are beginning to open fully, wow, they please me very much! ♥

♥ I really like seeing the row of flower pots lined up on top of my wall and I'm looking forward to watching them fill out a bit as summer progresses. I planted some nasturtium seeds too yesterday, underneath the passion flower in one of my big pots. I hope they sprout ♥

♥ 10 am and I felt like baking, so made a batch of fruity flapjacks ♥

♥ Once the flapjacks were out of the oven and cooling, I  took these two stacks of mandala's out to the back yard to photograph them (this is Thursday and Friday's post, 65 of them!). This mandala project is bringing me a huge amount of pleasure, but cripes it's hard to keep up with the workload. I am doing ok though :) ♥

♥ 11.2o and I give in to pleas from Little Lady for us to make soup for lunch. Strange girl, it's a baking hot day and she is  desperate for soup, but I suddenly realise that actually she is asking for us to do this together. It is only she and I that are soup-lovers, the boys aren't keen, and so we get busy in the kitchen. We decide on carrot and coriander as it's simple and light and I have all the ingredients ♥

♥ 12 noon, and we are sitting down outside to slurp our soup together, it turned out good! We chat about making Sunday soup-lunch a weekly thing and discuss possible recipes for the future. Any good summer soups you can recommend for us to try? ♥

This morning was warm and sunny and happy and productive and relaxing. Busy and Lazy all at once. Such a beautiful morning full of nothing in particular, but yes it was indeed beautiful.

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♥...more little snippets from the Attic...♥

Elderflower Cordial

Geranium Love

Moments

Mandala Wheels for Yarndale

This week

Comments

[sewa laptop]

great content, it's a beautifull picture, good job :)

[Mary Beth Coggins]

Lucy I love your blog! don't paint that wall in the garden it is charming.

Mary Beth
USA

[sbo web]

sbo bet Saya Bisa Dapatkan Kind Itu Dari Info Ditulis Dalam Such A Sempurna? Proyek Itu Saya Hanya Sekarang Bekerja Pada, Dan saya Telah Untuk Informasi tersebut.

[Winwick Mum]

Sunday mornings are just made for pottering. Sunshine on a Sunday morning too is just bliss! xx

[Alison]

Ooh summer soups - yes definitely Gazpacho as has been already mentioned. I have another good one - carrot and orange soup.
I was unsure until I tried it - it's delicious! Think I might have to make a batch today!!
Love your blog, Lucy and your super photos.
Alison xx

[Gill]

I really enjoy reading your blog - my whole family is from Yorkshire (not me) so seeing all the stone houses and cobbles makes me think of them!

Soup - I like this one - roast tomatoes and roast garlic soup. One carrot, one onion, one celery stick, some tomatoes (say a baking tray full), some garlic, peeled - say about ten cloves. Chicken stock - say a large jugful (chicken oxo cubes).

Half tomatoes on baking tray. Stick garlic on top of them, or between them. Put a little oil over. Stick in oven at around 200 for about 20 or 30 mins. Chop celery, onion and carrot roughly. Saute in pan with either a bit of oil or butter for about ten minutes until soft. Add stock. Add toms and garlic. Whizz. You can also roast red pepper and put that in too, or add herbs. Might work cold too! I haven't tried that though.

[sue]

Hi Lucy,
is the recipe for the fruity flapjacks on here somewhere? they look fab!

[Vesna Dozet]

Dear Lucy,
my name is Vesna Dozet, I’m live in Belgrade, Serbia. I made and send to You this Mandala Wheel
http://www.pinterest.co/pin/551409548099367660/ , not VB Group!
This is on my Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/vesna_dozet/14297096689/
I guess the confusion, because my name is written on the envelope only (I forgot to put a note that I was made for you).

I would be glad if you can to change it to Pinterest.

This is my blog http://vecilijascorner.blogspot.com/.

Come on Yarndale in September, and we hope to meet.

Thank you for all
Best Regards

Vesna

[Rachael Iddon]

Made my second batch of cordial today. Yours has a lot less sugar than mine so maybe I should give it a go. Mine has 1250g of sugar to 1200ml of water!

[Helen]

Hi there

I'm a big soup fan, admittedly more in the winter months. I've blogged some of my favourite recipes, the all- time easiest one to make is pea and mint.
http://plate-spinning-mama.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/soup-glorious-soup-i.html

Most of the recipes I follow are adaptations of Covent Garden soup. They have a fabulous book "soup for every day" must be on Amazon.

Happy souping!

[Lisa]

We love this gazpacho during Summer:

http://www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/green-gazpacho.html

I follow the recipe except for the white wine vinegar- I use a pear-infused vinegar instead.

[Natasha Wells]

Ooo I bung my elderflowers in bugs and all! Then after 4 days soaking I strain it through a muslin to get the bits out! Much less hassle! This year I took the Guides out to harvest some....we ended up making 30 pints in total!

[Sandra]

Hi - we are Gazpacho lovers - a soup eaten cold on hot days - yummy.

Best wishes
Sandra

[Elizabeth]

Just wondered...
Do the proselytizing posts annoy you?

[Catmac]

Don't paint the stone!!!!! It looks great as is.

[Joy]

broccoli and stilton, leek and potato, sweet potato and carrot or carrot, cumin and coriander. Love them all with fresh bread and lashings of butter. Enjoy :-) xx lots of love Joy xx

[Marion]

We have had most of our meals outside this weekend, but my favourite time is breakfast. It sounds as if you had an idyllic Sunday.

[Catriona]

I had soup for my lunch today and it's called "fridge clearance soup" ie everything languishing in the fridge because I could not be bothered to go shopping in the heat!
I only planted my tubs up yesterday as we had been away in the carrievan and it did seem silly to do it before we went away. Love your posts as always Lucy.
PS my daughter painted her outdoor walls a beautiful sky blue and it makes a super background for her flowere tubs.

[Angela-Southern USA]

Oh, as for soup; Vegetable (the more veggies the better) soup with pasta. Then potato with cheese and garlic soup is a big hit in our house.

[Angela-Southern USA]

I'm humming that song now. lol I wish elderflowers grew around here, I'd love to try that, it sounds so refreshing. Sounds and looks like a lovely Sunday indeed. Mine was more on the work side, Found beef on sale and canned 17 pints for future quick meals. The garden is producing tons of summer squash and zucchini so all the extra has went into the dehydrator(probably 20 lbs.). The oldest has just baked some zucchini bread, so my kitchen smells lovely. I can't imagine keeping up with all those mandalas! I've enjoyed seeing them in all their glory on Pinterest. The flowers look beautiful!Have a great week Lucy!x

[Ann price]

My mum sadly passed away last year at 91 and she made fresh tomato soup which is very refreshing and not too strong flavoured. Chop and cook a white onion and a carrot with a knob of butter to soften and add 1lb of whole tomatoes and litre of veg bouillon. Simmer till soft mash and strain add a quarter pint of milk and tsp flour -reheat.and enjoy

[Julie]

I love the woolly lollipop butterfly. I may copy that idea for a toddler group craft.

[Caro]

Sounds lovely, and you've inspired me with soup. I'm having courgette today. Onion, celery, garlic, courgette and stock, with bit of salt and lots of pepper

[Julia Crossland]

I love a nice lazy Sunday, nothing can beat it! Glad you had a nice weekend xxx

[Anna-Marie Field]

Hi Lucy, Sounds like the perfect morning!!! You made me realize that we haven't done that in a very long time!!! Weekends have become a busy time for us and I now miss our old way of living!!! Weekends are usually fully booked and we now run around doing breakfasts and housekeeping!!
Have a great fun filled happy and fab week!!!
Love
AMarie