...heavenly colour

This time last year the park was a riot of bold, bright colours - vibrant reds, yellows and blues:

In mid-August 2018 there is an entirely different colour scheme to enjoy. Those long weeks of non-stop sunshine have bleached the colour out of the landscape, leaving only the most delicate pastel shades - blush pinks, soft greens, eggshell blues, ivory, taupe and cream. Simply divine!

...midsummer moments

• Last weekend we finally got a break from the dry, hot weather and had a proper rainy day. It was lovely! We did a complete circuit of the park and got soaked to the skin, but it felt absolutely wonderful to be comfortably cool for a change.  

• For the past six months at work we've been waiting to move to a new base as our current building has been sold to housing developers. There have been various delays, mainly for lengthy repairs to be made to a collapsed, water-damaged ceiling in the part of the Grade 2 listed building we're moving into, but on Friday 10th August we'll finally be saying goodbye to our shabby, decrepit office/home-from-home. I've been busy taking photos of all our favourite features - the gorilla tape carpet repairs, mystery stains and passive-aggressive notes left by the cleaner before she retired in March. The DIY solution to the tap that couldn't be turned off in the kitchen and the save water/hot water* warning signs above the missing sink in the ladies' loo (with the fetching dark blue gloss paint walls) are my personal favourites. 

*Ironically we haven't had ANY hot water in the building for the past month and a half. The boiler has gone the way of the cleaner, and (like her) has not been repaired or replaced.

 

• The decluttering and packing has resumed with a vengeance, as one of the rooms we were supposed to be moving into is still not ready, so a lot of the things we were planning to take have to go into storage for the time being. The washable toys came home with me this weekend for a much needed spa break. Who knew that the light grey (with dark grey ears and tail) shaggy dog was actually a white (with dark grey ears and tail) shaggy dog?!

• My friend asked for help with a painting project yesterday. She has a small business offering wedding props for hire (large illuminated signs, sweetie/prosecco carts etc.) and had agreed to source a 'rustic' painted pallet as an added extra freebie for a couple she particularly liked. So she painted the pallet mint green and I went over to do the decorative bits. The lettering is a bit wonky, but it was a last minute project and I've offered to repaint it more carefully with a generic message if she wants to add it to her repertoire of accessories for hire. 

• The hot weather has resumed so we kept our morning walk fairly short today. Highlights included the pincushion flowers (the seeds I planted at home are growing, but no sign of flowers as yet), the pink and zingy orange daisy, and the fabulous lilac/blue thistle - a seed head was harvested for planting at home. The XXSCat dog has a quizzical expression - "Why are you loitering among the flowers when there's running to be done?"

...another tiny mouse

I bought a little wooden doll-house from Ikea a couple of months ago, inspired by this lovely post by Lene Alve, which brought back vivid memories of childhood play with miniature figures and objects. I felt a real yearning to create something similar for myself, and for my maybe-future grand-children - that I could work on and add to over time. The house hasn't yet been assembled, but I've started collecting bits and pieces for it and thinking about how I want it to be. 

I love the quirky kittens that inhabit Lene's house, but have decided on something more Beatrix Potter-ish for my own. Think Tom Thumb and Hunca Munca, Mrs Tittlemouse, or the mice who befriended the Tailor of Gloucester! The little lady mouse below is made from pure wool felt, with a tiny knitted capelet adorning her shoulders (keeping the dream of winter alive as the summer sun beats down). My last little lady mouse looked so sweet with her floral accessory I'm thinking of making something for this one to hold in her little pink paw - her fingers curl quite readily if heated with a hair-dryer. I'm mulling over various possible items (flower, umbrella, fruit, basket) and materials (paper, clay, fabric, twigs, 3D pen). 

As ever, my thanks go to Ann Wood, whose Very Nice Mice pattern provided a jumping off point for me.

Apropos of nothing the picture below was taken during at dusk during one of my evening plant-pot-watering sessions (it's been far too hot to be lugging watering cans around before sundown). It's a solar-powered "firefly collection jar" from Aldi nestled among the geraniums. Soooo pretty!

...World Cup wins

At some point in the knitwear in a heatwave phenomenon my preference for sitting quietly knitting instead of watching football became linked (in the minds of certain superstitious friends and family members) with the extraordinary success of the England team in the World Cup. This was good news for the Charity Shop Rescue Gang, as it meant that I had to keep going (knitting and not watching football) - at least until the luck ran out. So the flopsy bunny from the Gala got a little blue Peter Rabbit jacket:

...this flopsy girl bunny got a pretty heather-coloured cardigan:

...and this gorgeous Liv doll got a beatnik jumper (she reminds me of Twiggy).

I didn't follow any patterns, just cast on what looked like the right amount of stitches and then made things up as I went along. Even though it became sadly apparent that I don't possess any mystical powers over the football results, I do now have an extremely well-kitted-out team.

...knitwear in a heatwave

It's a well-known fact that Grumbling Talking About the Weather is one of the top three favourite British pastimes, along with Queueing and Having a Lovely Cup of Tea. Given the extraordinary run of hot weather (not a single drop of rain for weeks!) we're currently enduring enjoying it would seem odd not to mention it here. 

I am not a sun-worshipper by any stretch of the imagination. I am fair-skinned - prone to bumpy red heat rash, burning and (at best) freckles if my skin is exposed to the sun for any length of time - so I tend to stay covered up all summer long. No matter how much loose-fitting cotton or linen I swathe myself in, prolonged hot weather leaves me feeling sticky, uncomfortable and tired, especially now that my hayfever has returned. At the moment I'm mostly staying inside, dashing out for brief intervals to hang line after line of washing to dry ("Marvellous Drying Weather!") and emerging just after sunset (9:30pm!) to water the poor thirsty plants. We have a two-watering-cans watering system in place at the moment. Husband fills one while I empty the other; by the time it's empty the next one is ready to go. Even though this labour-intensive method still amounts to a tiny amount of water per plant per day it seems to be enough to keep them going. It's a bumper year for raspberries (I'm freezing them because I can't keep up) and the rhubarb really makes a few drops go a long way. 

The rest of the time when I'm not at work I've been pottering inside, looking for things to wash (Marvellous Drying Weather!"), making nice warm knitwear for assorted charity shop rescue animals and dreaming of winter. Last weekend Wibbly Pig got a snazzy festival jumper. This weekend Funny-looking Sheep is finally getting his Dr Who scarf, well over a year since he first requested it:

Yesterday we ventured out to a local Gala in the scorching midday sun, along with our fellow Englishmen and quite a few mad dogs (not the XXSCat dog, she stayed at home in the shade like any sensible creature would do). Drummers drumming, cheer-leaders cavorting, cup-cakes melting, barbecues sizzling and the clinically insane Zorbing - everyone giving it their all in spite of the sweltering heat! I bought some plants from the local allotment stall:

"Bloomin' Triffids", snorted the chap who was doing most of the selling, casting a cheeky sideways glance at his mate who had grown them.

I also bought a little flopsy bunny from a girl on a bric-a-brac stall who was trying to raise money for a school trip in December. She needed £200 to go on the trip and had only got £25 so far. She wanted 30p for him but I gave her £5 and told her to keep the change. I wished I could have given her more. He has had a wash and is currently being baked dry on the line ("Marvellous Drying Weather!").

I think a nice little knitted jacket will be just the thing for him to be able to keep up with Wibbly and the rest of the gang!

...miscellany

Crazy-beautiful roses at the park

Vibrant summer hues

Pebbling again

A knitted jumper for Wibbly Pig

...grass

I've been a hayfever sufferer for most of my life. Every summer brings at least two or three months of intermittent sneezing fits, streaming, itchy eyes and nose, and a sense of suffocation in the pollen-filled air. Antihistamines, eye-drops and tissues are my constant companions, and I pray for rainy days to bring some relief. 

This year is no different, apart from the fact that over the past couple of weeks I've rather fallen in love with the source of my affliction. Up at the park large swathes of the old golf course have been left to grow unchecked into softy undulating meadows, containing a wide array of grasses. The effect is really quite magical, as the flowering spikelets range in colour from gentle pinks and purples to soft beiges and creams, all set against a backdrop of vivid green. The macro setting on my camera enables me to get such detailed images of the flower-heads - far better than my eye can actually see - and I find myself constantly stopping for 'just one more' picture.

Somewhat to my surprise this time spent getting up close and personal with the enemy doesn't seem to have made my hayfever significantly worse. I wonder if my positive thoughts and feelings might eventually be able to override my body's physical response?