We are almost at the end of this early summer month and hand on heart it has been an utter dream. The weather - ohhhh - the WeAtHer!!!! It has been perfectly perfect, really hot and sunny and light and bright. And then after a good few weeks of parched dryness we had some terrific summer storms with giant claps of thunder which shook the whole house, and I mean literally, the house ((shook)). It was quite scary at the time, possibly the loudest thunder I have ever heard in my entire life. We've also had some wild downpours, bringing us the most lush smell of summer rain on dry ground. I've loved it, the heat and the sun and the rain and the smell of it all, it has made me so bloomin' happy.
We've still been trying to get out and walk every morning at 7am, but these past few weeks it's been harder than usual for us to wake up in time. I think it's because J and I both suffer from hayfever and the pollen has been very high in this hot, humid weather. The first weeks of hayfever season do kind of knock the wind from your sails and we've both felt unusually tired even though we've been sleeping very well.
But on the mornings when we are up and out, it is so, so beautiful in the woodland in June, the greenery is in full tilt and the slant of sunshine through the leafy trees makes my heart sing.
These long, hot golden days have drawn me out in the evenings too, even though honestly I've had so little energy to spare. Little Lady often pulls me from my slump on the sofa and I can't resist when she is so keen to have my company.
I mean, eight o'clock in the evening and it looks like this ↑↑ - I would give anything to experience this in midwinter! So outside I go, making the most of these deliciously long, bright summer evenings.
Summer views out over the town as we stroll home from the woodland, gosh, I do feel so lucky to have all this on my doorstep.
It's almost been too hot to walk through much of June (and by that I mean the sort of walking that eats up the miles), but J and I have done a little bit. Mostly local ambles across the fields and down quiet lanes, time to stretch out our muscles and chatter together about this and that.
The kitty has been flopped out all over the place, sometimes lolling over the furniture but often times she's taken to hiding away under my bed which I guess must be a cool spot for her. Did I mention it's been hot??? ;)
Our routines continue to flow through these early summer weeks - Saturday morning trips to the market where the fruit and veg is abundantly ripe and lush. I ate a lot of asparagus this month.
The strawberries are especially good at the moment and we are eating our way through punnets and punnets of them each week. I'm not big into ice cream, but last week I had a craving for it and bought a small tub of plain vanilla, mainly to have with strawberries. Oooo, it was stupidly good, I had kind of forgotten the deliciousness of good vanilla ice cream with very ripe strawberries.
On Friday mornings, I like to try and walk to the bakery if I have time before 8am. It's not very far to walk, less then ten minutes each way, and I can walk part of it along the canal. The bakery is just over this wooden bridge and across the road to the right there.
I like to treat the Little People (who are no longer little) on a Friday, because I think to myself that this is the kind of mothering that might stick in their minds when they are grown. When I was growing up, we used to have croissants once a year at Christmas, and if my Mum had gotten up early to go to the bakery to fetch me fresh pastries for breakfast on an average Friday, I would have been absolutely beside myself with the luxury of it. I tell this tale to my Little People of course, and in return I do receive genuine thanks and gratitude which I believe are the foundations for true happiness.
Spending lots of time outside in our modest little yarden, and enjoying the simple pleasure of unpegging and folding warm, fragrant, sun dried laundry. The joy of it never gets old.
We had our town's annual charity Gala, the usual procession of decorated floats, walking entertainers and marching bands passing the very end of our street as they made their way to the park. It's such an old fashioned tradition and a bit faded nowadays I suppose, but always touches some deep rooted memories I have of experiencing many carnival processions as a child. Here in Atticland, the tradition of a charity Gala is positively ancient, with the very first one being held in 1901. As well as the entertainments, there is always a travelling fairground set up in the park, and at precisely 10pm on Saturday night there is a free firework display. I'm a sucker for fireworks and absolutely love the dramatics of an aerial display, it really was excellent this year.
A few weeks ago my good friend Christine came to visit from Winwick for the day which is always a lovely thing. As the weather was far too warm to be doing yarny things inside a café, we opted for a walk at Bolton Abbey instead.
Eeeep, it was hot! With hindsight it was maybe far too hot for a five mile walk, but as much of it was through shady woodland we thought it would be OK. It was a moderately sweaty affair, and I was really glad when the bridge came into sight and I knew that a a sit down and some much needed refreshment was in my near future.
I opted for old fashioned Victorian lemonade, and at the last minute I decided that I really, absolutely needed to top up my energy levels and picked out a generous slice of Victoria sponge. My very Victorian refreshment combo was exceptionally good I have to say.
Don't worry though, I have still been drinking coffee right through the recent summer heatwave. Spending Friday mornings in the company of good yarny friends continues to be a true highlight of my weeks and I love my "Coopers" times so much. The past few Fridays I've been knitting instead of crocheting because none of my current crochet projects are particularly portable or sociable.
I cast on these "Frost" socks at the beginning of March, so I was keen to get them finished up and off my needles.
I'm happy to report that a) they are indeed finished and off my needles, and b) they fit like a dream and feel amazing on my feet. Obviously June hasn't in any way been sock weather and my toes have been permanently living an airy, sock-free life. But my newly completed socks did get a wash, a blocking session, and then a try-on which is the law when you finish knitting a pair of handmade socks. If anyone is remotely interested, the yarn is an old, hard-to-find Regia yarn, the "frost" colourway designed by Kaffe Fassett. I purchased from a lovely little online company called KnitUK. The sock pattern I always use is the beginner-friendly Basic 4ply Sock by Christine at Winwick Mum.
Hmmm.....what else to tell you about the joys of June? Flowers are featuring in my daily life and I am thrilled by them as always. The climbing rose is blooming in my front garden ....
....and in the yarden the first sweet peas have flowered. I was late planting the plantlets so they are still quite small and straggly, but they are so good at popping out floral abundance even when the plants themselves look less than stellar.
The first flowers had very short stems and in all honesty I felt very guilty snipping them because it seemed a bit cruel to strip the plants. But I know from experience that the more you cut them, the stronger the plants will grow and more flowers will be sure to follow. Plus there is the obvious bonus of this.............
..........the most uplifting, joy-inducing jug of flowers on my table, making me ever so ridiculously happy. Love love love love love times a gazillion. There is nothing nicer than a small homegrown posy in a jug - well maybe a large homegrown posy might be nicer, but I was still delighted with the humble nature of this small arrangement. Absolute Joy in a Jug.
Summer Solstice came last week and it was the usual emotional affair for me. I find this particular day in the year so full of feels - gratitude, joy and relief for the abundance of daylight, but also the rather sinking realisation that days will now get shorter. As my darling husband delighted in telling me, and I quote - "It's all down hill from here. Soon be Christmas". Well bloody hell, what can you say to that?!!
Anyhow, I ignored his harsh, winter-loving words and went forth into the evening to marvel at the very lightness and beauty of it, and to drink in the knowledge that at this time of year the sun sets at a quarter to ten in the North of England. Wowsers, it's absolutely lovely out there in June.
I had Little B with me on this Solstice jaunt - 9.42pm in the above photo as we were strolling home from the meadow together. We'd been on a little walk around the fields to see if there were any elderflowers still blooming because it's been a very early, short season for these precious flowers this year and I feared I might have missed them.
I had no need to worry because we found a whole hedgerow of trees still in flower, so we went together the very next day to gather some in.
So pretty!
We managed to snip enough to make 3 litres of cordial (recipe in this post, scroll down to find), so all was fragrant and floral and zesty in my kitchen for a while last week. We're all really enjoying this delicious summery drink and I have lots of small bottles of it stashed in the freezer.
I'm well aware that I've had very little to share with you on the creative front this year, and I feel weirdly sad about it, like I'm letting you all down a bit. As you know, my annual crochet-along finished at the end of February and ever since then I've been in a real dither with my creative endeavours.
However - stuff has been happening in the background, in slow, stuttering stops and starts. In April I created a colour palette for a new blanket which is a square design - I think I might have shown you a few little bits of it here and there. It's been a challenge to find the necessary focus and concentration to tackle this blanket, but I have a September deadline and I hope to be able to show you some progress once I've actually done a bit more work on it. Right now it's just messy piles of part-made squares which don't really make much sense!
Overlapping that, I had to then create another colour palette ready for my next annual CAL, as it's necessary for me to work five months in advance when choosing my colours with Stylecraft. So I was working hard on that last week, and I'm happy to say that as I already had the spark of inspiration in my mind, the stitch pattern and colour palette came together like a dream. Following on from the beautifully muted Springfrost colours, this next one is rich and colourful and I am so so excited about what I've chosen.
And finally, this week has been all about preparing for my upcoming crochet retreat to Madeira (I fly out next Thursday), and yet again I'm so sorry that I can't show you what I've been working on. All this invisible behind-the-scenes stuff is very boring, isn't it?!
Do you like the sky in the above photo? It was a-maz-ing to stand underneath it, I felt a bit like I was going to fall into it, sort of like a reverse kind of vertigo.
Well.....this has turned into an epic blog post, over two thousand words of ramble about the month of June. I am never short of things to yak on about it seems. I wonder how you've been, and hope that there have been plenty of joyful moments for you during this lovely mid-year month. Drop me a line or two and tell me what's been making you happy of late, I do really enjoy reading all about life at your end.
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