Summer Days, Drifting Away

I was early for work yesterday so popped in the play park on the way and went on the swings.  I do love a good swing, no grown ups were looking so I think I got away with it.  There were school children hurriedly finishing homework on  picnic benches and a few workmen fixing things - here they are playing on the roundabout (perk of the job I expect).  There are some lovely flowers to look at and a wonderful smell of freshly mown grass.  What a great start to the day.

workmen at play

 The park also has a lovely wildflower section.

 Amber and I often take a chair each and slump - I slump in a similar fashion - and we soak up the sun, despite the thick fur coat, she loves to be in the sun.  When it gets too hot, we turn the chairs round and take some shade together.  We also have a glass and a bowl of water each and keep hydrated.  If only they made sunglasses for cats, that's the only thing that bothers her so she squints a lot. Girls sunbathing together, lovely.

The heatwave here in the UK is set to continue for another week.  What else would you do on a day off? Brighton of course! ..





I was in Brighton last week to meet up with a friend who was staying with hubby at St Dunstan's.  They  provide training, rehabilitation and support for Blind Veterans. 


 
She is known to many bloggers as Elizabethd and has green fingers, almost visibly green!  See, she arrived with this miniature rosebush in her handbag!  her blog is **here**crammed with pictures of her beautiful flowers.

 




We had lunch at Leon, by the Clocktower, it's healthy fast food.  This Leon lunch was a special treat as they have just introduced their new meatless meatballs to the menu, which were definitely very delicious and filling.   If you haven't got a Leon near you, there are still the cook books to devour - available in the shops of course, but also through your library.  I got one for my birthday this year but I have made absolutely nothing in there yet.  I do like looking at the pictures.  I only like food cooked by other people (hubby mostly), I'm not a good cook.

When I am not on holiday, I like to make plans for future holidays.  It doesn't really matter if I get to do the holiday, the planning and imagining is 50% of the pleasure and halfway through a plan we might think of something better and start a new plan, but when we get the wall map, well that's when it's really happening.   On my other blog, Magic Carpet Travels, I have chatted a lot lately about our recent trip to Vietnam, that was a real one, and truly wonderful.

This is a pic of my thinking corner, it's where I do things like shopping lists, pay the bills and plan holidays; I will have to take the Vietnam wall map down and roll it away soon (but it could come out again one day as it also has Cambodia and Laos on there which have yet to be explored).  We will have to get thinking and find a new destination ... and a new map.


I had the paintbrushes out at the weekend, nasturtium and lobelia in the garden, bit out of touch with painting so I enjoyed having a few minutes to play around.



In my garden there is a large toad, he lives in my flower tub and comes out when I do the watering.  I made him a little swimming pool and some shade (old pots) and have been so pleased to see him soaking in there.  I would like to have a very large garden pond and get in there with the toads.  Just imagine, steps into the pond, water lillies, a nice little waterfall feature, as long as the water was reasonably clean it would be very enjoyable to sit in there together.

My neighbours gave me a dear little pot with two small rose bushes peeking out, I think they are intended for indoors but after only a week were growing quite fast so I decided to pot them up outside, I think they will be happier outside and I will enjoy them even more.  You can never have too many flowers.

There is a lot to do here that isn't getting done, ironing, housework, gardening then there is of course the going to work thing, that has to be done too.  When not doing all of this it is lovely to dip into a good book.









 My current read is this - about Alys Fowler and her rubber dingy on a canal adventures... although I may not finish this one as once you've seen one canal I do think you have probably seen them all and am not feeling as enthusiastic about it all as she is.

and then there's this one - lots of interesting facts about bees in here plus info on how to keep a hive.  Would love to do that, so next best thing is get into a book like this and you could almost be there for a short time.  Imagination is a wonderful thing to have, I believe the more you use it the more it grows.

Hope you are enjoying the Summer as much as me ... I really must get out into the woods soon and get some painting inspiration...... bye for now x

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