Summer mornings

We spent the weekend just gone in Norfolk with Mr Snipsnaphappy's mum and family.  The weather was sunny and hot and there were lots of open spaces to run about in or, in my case, sit and drink tea in.  Lillia was happy to sit ocassionally but not often :)

I am addicted to photographing flowers, it's so hard to resist!

Speaking of addictions...Talking Tom Cat 2 is out! She just loves that trumping dog...

I am not a summer person as you know, but sometimes I can really appreciate the benefits of sunshine and summer.

Is it just me or does a hot, still, sunny day make everything sound different in the same way that snow does?

Lovely sunny days :) 

(But I am really enjoying the rain the last couple of days!)

Rocks and flowers

I just wanted to share with you some lovely sunny pictures taken over the weekend.  With Mr Snipsnaphappy away on a stag weekend (axe throwing and whisky drinking) the girls and I decamped to my mum's house with it's large sunny back garden, and of course the extra pair of hands offered by Granny!

There is something about bright flowers on a backdrop of stones on a hot day, I just can't resist taking photos of them...

I even got a chance (ok about five minutes) to put my tootsies up and browse through the latest Ideal Home magazine.  I like to play my own personal game of "When I Have My Forever House I Will...." when browsing through interiors magazines.  In this case When I Have My Forever House I Will have a guest room that looks very much like this...

*sigh* How lovely :)

Not so sunny the last couple of days of course, but that's fine with me, I do love a bit of rain. Half term is now over, Lillia is back at school & we are on the last leg of the school year...lots of change and transition afoot this year...

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