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

[EWhitaker]

I just saw this recipe for happiness soup on nigellas page. No idea if it's nice but it looks straightforward and i like the name! http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/happiness-soup-207

[Jo Winwood]

What a lovely post about a lovely day!

[SOL]

Cold cucumber soup with (or without) mint. Google for a recipe you like the sound of. I used to make it quite peppery, but I see that some recipes suggest cumin. It needs a little something, you see. I used to cook mine, but some recipes just say to whizz it up.

[Jane]

Thank you so much for your lovely post-I love reading about your day-you always brighten mine! Xx

[Corine]

Lovely post again.

We have eldeflower in our garden, but I have never made cordial. Must try your recipe next year (too late now).

Have a nice day!
www.corine24.wordpress.com

[Mitsa Xida]

It's all beautiful Lucy!

[marleen]

What about yoghurt soup? I know it sounds weird, but it's the to-go recipe in Turkey, both on hot and cold days. hot variation: chicken broth (ideally homemade and with tiny bits of vermicelli) in a pan, heat up not boil. On the side mix 250 gr yoghurt (greek), 1 egg, a bit of salt, mint and parsley, pepper, and a spoon of flower. mix with a cup of water, mix until all lumps disappear, then stir in the hot broth, bring to the boil, adjust to taste, and dig in.
Cold variety: either the cooled down version of the above, or just yoghurt mixed with water, ice-cubes, salt, boiled chick peas, fresh mint. easy peasy but very tasty. At least, for us it is :-)

[Catherine]

I love making soup and make it at least 3 times a week, summer or winter. I think Gazpatcho is the best in high summer.
I'd love to make the cordial before the flowers are gone. Where can I get citric acid please?

[One-oh-four]

More like a pudding than a soup, (although it was a starter), I had chilled peach soup with walnut and honey bread whilst on holiday last year, and have been dreaming about it ever since! Otherwise we like tomato and lentil soup, curried parsnip soup, and my personal favourite, celery soup with a dash of creme fraiche.

[Anne]

I collected elderberry flowers yesterday too but unfortunatly most flowers are gone already... too late but i will certainly look again next year...

Take care
Anne http:// crochetbetweentwoworlds.blogspot.de

[Kathryn Vercillo]

Loving the elderflowers and the mandalas!

[Carrie]

please try just one fuchsia (for flowers not soup, although you can eat the berries and they are lovely)- I think you would love the intense colour and the shapes are so beguiling!

For soup - try lettuce soup -
1 onion, i potato, 1 head of lettuce
stock
salt and pepper
simmer till tender and blitz. you can add milk or yogurt.

[Susan Conklin]

Please tell Little B that I agree, petunias are my best favorites too. My porch boxes here in the midwestern U.S. have red geraniums and purple and white petunias and some yellow trailing petunias. Happy flowers!

[Debbie Phillips]

Watermelon soup!

[Cathy]

You might like to try a chilled fruit "soup" during the hot days of summer, and as a bonus it won't heat up the kitchen. Sort of like a smoothie in a bowl. :) You can find recipes online and it's a great way to use God's intricately created fruits that He provides for us.

[Jen Hart]

Hi Lucy, I haven't commented forever as I have been busy but your call to arms roused me!
I have been enjoying tomato soup. One tin of napolina chopped toms put in a saucepan with a good dash of balsamic vinegar, rock salt and ground black pepper and at least a tbsp of sugar (I have used granulated when not watching the calories and granulated otherwise). In the meantime, roast a supermarket or market tub of cherry toms-obviously the better the toms the better the flavour, but I have made it out of season and it has been fine. Roast a red pepper chopped with it. Add them together, simmer and blitz to your liking, deiish and healthy :-) xxx

[Shara]

Lovely flowers :) It is the middle of winter here in Australia and despite heavy frosts lately my potted pansys are still smiling at me everytime I walk out the back door, surprising how resilient they are. A nice contrast to the bare trees and grey sky.
Here you tried chilled pea soup? I also second the suggestions for zucchini soup and gazpacho (but not sure if your daughter would love this one, mine wouldn't).

[Imelda Maguire]

Love these glimpses into your days. And your photos. Thanks for sharing it all. Roasted tomato soup is very good.

[Gillian]

It sounds magical. Do you sit outside in your PJ's? I never go outside in my PJs or dressing gown as we are so overlooked here, it's very built up, and I am too Southern and uptight about such things, but I wish I lived in the middle of nowhere so I could sit outside with a coffee in my PJs first thing in the morning without a care what the neighbours thought...

I loved your midsummer post yesterday. It didn't really happen for us for various reasons, and I'm wishing I'd made more of an effort now. I am also totally sharing your geranium love, they are fabulous flowers. I dream of a window box full of red ones. Have a great week lovely lady - it would be great if we could squeeze in one more quick coffee before the schools break up. xx

[Angela C]

I love green velvet soup - some chicken stock, potato, onion, anything green (spinach is my favourite but you can put in peas, parsley, broccoli, silver beet in any combination), cooked until all tender then blended. I add cream to serve and of course, season it to taste while cooking and / or afterwards. What a lovely way to spend Sunday morning!!!!! We're freezing over here in New Zealand so soup is on the menu often!!

[Cheer]

Courgette and watercress is a lovely recipe!

[Mayme]

Can't recommend a soup but love reading your blog. I know you have talked about this before but now I need the information. What kind of crochet hooks do you use? They look like something with a grip on them and I'm thinking I need to be using something like that. Thanks. Maymewyns@yahoo.com

[Emma Pearce]

Thank you for your little moment of happiness that closes my day. I too love an early morning cuppa in the garden listening to the world waking up. And I also suffer from an uninspiring garden that I am trying to brighten up with pos of flowers this year.
My suggestion for a light soup is courgette - very simple, chop courgettes, cook in vegetable stock with salt & pepper to taste, blitz, them return to heat, gently blending in semi skimmed milk until at required thickness. Yum yum.

[Lynda Malen]

Can't recommend a soup I'm afraid but try going to church on a Sunday for a change. It's refreshing to actually praise our Lord and so much more delightful than making soup......honest.

[One Earlybird]

Lovely Sunday activities. I have an easy Asian style soup, UNnoodle Chicken & Vegetable I just posted on my blog if you'd like to try it. It's light and yummy. http://oneearlybird.blogspot.com.au/2014/06/unnoodle-soup.html