The Ides of June

Sometimes, my mood is as fickle as the weather in June, when sweltering Summer days are followed without warning by those with a definite chill in the air, often going hand and hand with leaden skies and a shower or two.

Take Tuesday last week, when we woke up to what looked set to be a grey day, with temperatures to match. Oddly enough, I was in a cheerful mood and ready to take on the world.

In compliance with the weather, however, I ignored the call of my Summer frocks, and opted to wear a skirt and long sleeves.

The skirt with its exotic fruit print was charity shopped back in July 2018 and with its midi length and lined cotton fabric it was just the ticket for the day ahead. It's from the German Basler brand - perhaps not the hippest of labels - and would have retailed at well over € 100, so those € 4 I paid at the charity shop were well spent!

As I had gardening plans for the day, I combined the skirt with another charity shop find, a long sleeved shirt in a sturdy 96% cotton fabric from the defunct Belgian Wow To Go label. And no, you don't have to adjust your screens: for once, I'm wearing an item of clothing which hasn't got a print!

I kept my accessories pretty simple, opting for red for both my belt and beaded necklace and a tiny red and white check for the plastic flower brooch, which was a retail buy back in the mists of time.

The snake print ankle boots were bought new as well. They were a bargain from New Look bought in their closing down sale in Belgium early last year. I didn't wear those for gardening, obviously, changing into my charity shopped ankle wellies instead!

The day started off with our usual fruit and yoghurt breakfast, which included the first of our gold tinged white currents. We have to be quick, though, as a gang of fruit thieving wood pigeons are loitering on the garden wall. They are waiting until our backs are turned and then make their move, lowering themselves into the bush and stripping it bare from the inside out.

Phoebe isn't any help here. As they are quite big and there are usually three of them, she flees inside the minute they start flapping their wings and looking at her with their beady eyes!

But there are good things happening with our long suffering currant bush too. As usual, it is being plagued by greenfly, which are kept under control by ladybirds and their hungry larvae. On the bottom left is one of many which have entered their pupa stage.

And now that we're on the subject of fruit, look at those gooseberries, which are slowly but surely ripening to their ruby red colour.

The gooseberry bush which we planted eons ago are one of our garden's success stories, offering a hearty profusion of berries year after year. Left to its own devices, it has put out its straggly and painfully prickly stems all over the place. In fact, I needed to stake some of these to go ahead with my gardening plans.

These started with clearing the first part of the border on the top left of its carpet of sweet woodruff (Galium odoratum) and wild shoots of variegated Euonymus. The next step will be digging it over, removing roots, and digging in compost to accommodate a new batch of plants!

On the bottom left is the Nepeta I planted out last week, which much to my delight has started flowering. Phoebe still hasn't given it another look, so I think it's quite safe.

After lunch, it was Jos's turn to do some backbreaking work as our kitchen tap needed replacing. This involved him lying on his back with his head and most of his upper body wedged inside the cramped cupboard under the sink. Obviously I was at hand to assist him by handing over the required tools. 

Job done, we took the opportunity to clean and reorganize the cupboard. No photos were taken, as this was hardly the most exciting of tasks, so I'm treating you to some more flowers from the garden instead.

Meanwhile, our postman had arrived with a letter from Sheila, all the way from Canada! How exciting! And look, she made the most enchanting Zentangle tile for me! Can you spot Phoebe?

I'm skipping last Wednesday's office day, arriving at Thursday, when the weather was looking somewhat brighter. 

It was definitely warm enough to peel off the pink cardigan I'd started the day with, and which picked up the pink bits in my Diolen dress. I'm quite stumped as to why I hadn't worn this delightful dress for years. I mean, what's not to love  about its pattern of red and pink roses and their green leaves on a royal blue background? 

Apart from my pink perspex ring, I used nothing but green for my accessories, being a green skinny leather belt and green beaded necklace. Even the Bambi in my brooch is frolicking on a palest of green backdrop.

Our privet tree - it started out as a topiary ball but soon got out of hand - is in flower, emanating its cloying, childhood nostalgia inducing scent all over the garden, and attracting busy bees from far and wide.

Phoebe is clearly not amused! 

While Jos was doing the food shop, I pottered around house and garden, doing this and that but nothing much at all. Then I thought I'd continue with the reorganization of the book and CD shelves I started on Sunday.

This is how it looked after I'd finished. And yes, these are good old Billy's from the Swedish furniture shop

As any good shelving unit should, it has some decorative objects on display as well.

Lately, however, we'd added anything we didn't have space for elsewhere and, together with the untidy piles of books we'd brought back from the paternal home, it was looking decidedly cluttered. Chaotic clutter, as opposed to the usual Dove Cottage clutter, that is!

I've treated some of the CD cubby-holes as giant printer's tray compartments, adding some vintage cameras, an inkwell set with some boxes of loose pen nibs, and a photo of my Mum as a girl.

Then I tidied the piles of books, re-homing some of them, and added a selection of objects.

Sheila might recognize her Zentangle tile, which is now taking pride of place in an Art Deco frame. I'm sure she'll appreciate that a volume of favourite poems is keeping it company.

The afternoon was spent going to the DIY store as we were in need of a new blind for our bedroom window, one that is actually easy to pull up when we need to water those boxes of lavender!

The weather being its usual changeable self, our latest garden project was once again postponed.

The mercury kept rising on Friday, so I opted for one of my short-sleeved cotton frocks. This gorgeous green Paisley print one was bought from a vintage shop in Welshpool back in 2018.

It is true vintage and quite fragile. In fact, I had to mend the fabric around the lowest button twice that day, as it kept tearing. In the end, I left the button undone in order to prevent further damage.

I added a hessian belt and accessorized it with a blue butterfly brooch and a long, multicoloured beaded necklace. The green bangle is Bakelite and was charity shopped for a pittance.

It was quite humid and thus a thunderstorm was imminent, which once again put paid to our plans of revamping the new border. We did go to the garden centre to pick up some plants, including two different varieties of Clematis.

As usual, I'm leaving you with some of our current garden successes. The honeysuckle - which is a dwarf variety called Honey Baby - has been a garden stalwart for almost 20 years. 

The cabbage white on the top right couldn't get enough of the Scabious flowers, while the delicate yet sturdy Iceland poppies (bottom right) are a firm favourite with the bees.

The pink flowers o the bottom left, another bee magnet, are a new addition. I can't remember what they're called and it's far too wet in the garden to go and have a look.

Until next time, my friends. I do hope you'll keep staying safe!