leading you up the garden path

June has been a gentle summer - with both warm and rainy days - today is the perfect example of what I imagined years ago. An English summer's day - warming up after a night of rain, with sunlight highlighting wet leaves and glistening flowers.

Alpine strawberries sweetly scenting the stone wall - as you walk by you are hit by their intense fruity fragrance, this mixes with the spicy aroma of the geraniums as their leaves warm up in the sunshine.

It seems that I am not the only one attracted to the aromatic bouquet lingering around the angelica. I can see you Mr Snail!

My little succulent gardens are growing, filling their pots and growing offshoots at a rapid rate - they must be happy.

There is something incredibly fascinating about the hydroscopic nature of Alchemilla mollis leaves - I love that the raindrops look like beads of glass. It's quiet unpretentious apple green leaves and lime green flowers are a delight as they froth along the top of the wall.

In the cool of the shade as I went down the path, the plants and flowers were less scented - they also need the sun to excite their perfume. However the cat mint was still able to exude enough aroma to attract the cat.... it is now known as the 'flat' mint ....

Our mini meadow is full of yellow rattle,  which excites me - you can already see the grass surrounding it looks less vigorous, the cat finds this wild part of the garden perfect to lie in, she vanishes and sleeps. 

A small wild piece of Eden, full of birds, insects, a fat and rather cantankerous and indolent white cat and us - bliss.

I am also HERE

Weekend wanderings

 You know when you've made plans (the more of a 'guide-line' style of planning rather than a hard and fast one) and then have to alter them, sometimes they turn out to be far far better.

Well, that is sort of what happened this last weekend. Our original plan - well loosely based guide line of an idea - was to pootle out on Friday evening when I'd returned from work. Spend the night out in the van and wake up Saturday and walk until the afternoon and then pootle home.

Then Youngest rang and asked if we could meet up on the Saturday evening- so we altered our plans a little and went out on the Saturday morning and walked one of our favourite routes - the Coronation Meadows near Slaidburn. We go annually if possible to see the 'unimproved' meadows with their wonderfully flowering fields. Each year is different - as it is very weather dependant, so a wet and dull year fills the fields with lush green growth and blousy flowers and dry hot year makes for shorter stockier stems and intense but short lived flowers. 

It felt as if we were the only ones out as we made our way through the meadows - it was glorious. All to soon we'd reached the far end and entered less floriferous fields however they are just as wonderful and are gently being allowed to become naturalised and insect rich habitats.

 Our walk finished far too soon, so we returned to the van, refuelled ourselves and set off along the riverine path towards Newton by Bowland. Oh Moss was in doggy-paradise. The water was just what a hot and dusty dog needed.

Then having returned to the van for a second time, we jumped in and trundled through the country side to meet up with Youngest.  We found a lovely quiet road with a large pull off space so we parked up. While we were just about to get out of the van a woman with a dog and small child on a pony came up and asked to borrow a cell phone - her dog was struggling in the heat.

Himself handed his cell over and I hopped out to offer some water for the dog. It was a large broad faced bulldog with an incredibly short nose and he was struggling to breathe. He lay on the floor as I poured water into a bowl for him and he soon drained it - however due to his squat face most of the water shot out of his mouth sideways so he lay in the puddle with his legs out backwards. The woman was unable to get hold of her husband however, during that time, the dog had cooled down and had a enough water to be able to stagger home. 

We'd wondered if we should offer her a lift however we had to factor in that she had a small child on a pony to get home too - she did say that it was not too far and that she would continue back very slowly. It took nearly 10 - 15 minutes for this dog to recover enough to continue walking - the owner was very worried and then very grateful once her dog had come to a bit. Hope she/they all got home ok.

Youngest landed and we spent a lovely evening chatting and walking along old sea defences - we were 'accompanied' by a silently hunting barn owl, curlews, oystercatchers, swallows and swifts.  Youngest stayed until it was almost totally dark then left to collect his girlfriend from a party.

We then set off to our final destination - a favourite stop for a night.

There is something wonderful waking up, clutching a mug of tea and watching the tide go out. Our plan was to walk a slightly extended 'dog loop' for a certain dog then pack up and head home in time to make scones and have afternoon tea in the garden with my folks.

So, yes, our loosely planned weekend took a slightly deviated path and was delightful. Simple pleasures and gentle days followed by mugs of tea with scones, jam and cream in the garden - a good weekend indeed.

I know we have walked through the Coronation Meadows several times and I know I have blogged about them - however I can only find my first post about the walk - so if you have a couple of minutes spare follow this link ...2016 it is also one of Moss's early walks with us and we were still getting to know each other🐾💗

edited to add: I have just found another Coronation Meadow story  2017

Following on

 June has been fairly flaming hot - which is glorious - it warms me right through to my bones, although, I am still wearing heavy work trousers, T-shirt and lightweight fleece and boots daily - yes it is warm but it is delicious.

June is also my birth month and this year must have rated as the best birthday weekend I have had in a very long while.

It was filled with family and camping, sultry sunsets and mesmerising reflections, thoughtful gifts, delicious cake and wonderful walks.

Moss is an oddity - she feels the heat yet does not stop (the hard-wiring in a working collie brain won't let her - I am yet to find the 'off switch') so at work she has access to plenty of water and I have to make sure she takes a break.

Initially she took over a tray of water designed to soak freshly pricked out seedlings - it stays permanently full of water (and the occasional dog) in the lobby of the glasshouse. Then my boss bought her a paddling pool ..... I can see staff favouritism occurring here .... where's my pool?

Please note the snarky side eye as I snap yet another photograph .... 

I shall leave you with a small selection of photos from June - and we have only really just reached half way - still time to enjoy the long warm days it as we head to July.

You can also read my latest work post HERE