Harvest and old lace

I think I may have mentioned before that I am not a summer person.  I like duvets and cosiness, christmas, hibernating and frosty starts.  I don't cope well with heat under normal circumstances let alone when I'm pregnant.  Summer is not my season, I feel down in summer in a way that most people do in the darker months, again not helped by the pregnancy hormones nor the challenges our family is currently facing.

That said, there are some advantages to summer, which I make sure I take time to appreciate.  A harvest of veg in the garden starting to appear, sweetcorn...

...and peas...

Not to mention the tomatoes, the lettuce and the herbs all bursting of their various pots.  July is also a good time to plant carrots, which we shall be doing tomorrow ahead of the rain due on Monday.

The bursts of colour are also very welcome...

...as is the opportunity for a little late afternoon reading in the garden...

The hot sun today was extremely handy for drying out old lace...

Bought at Spitalfields antiques market and washed gently this morning in a jam jar filled with warm distilled water and bicarbonate of soda, this cleans and gets rid of the musty smell.  The sun has the additional benefit of being a natural bleaching agent, it helps to lighten the old dull colour to a brighter antique effect.

This lace is going to be used as part of a rather large, daunting and long-overdue project, more of which will be revealed soon (hopefully!)

So much as I long to see the first leaf fall from the tree in the garden to signal the start of autumn I can appreciate the joys of summer for a little longer :)

xx