Beautiful June

Hello again, it's been a while since I dropped by and in the meantime, the seasons have moved from spring to glorious summer. And I have to say it has been absolutely wonderful in these parts. The lack of rain has meant that watering takes up most of my evenings, and our new water butt ran dry over a week ago, but we can't say it wasn't a lovely June. The solstice and Midsummer's Day were marked by me as always with roses and candles, and I try not to remember that the days are now shortening, but prefer to focus on enjoying this fabulous time of year when the evenings seem to go on forever. 

I've loved coming home from work every day and heading for the garden to potter about deadheading things and staking plants. But by far my favourite summer evening activity of all is smelling the flowers, especially the roses. 

They have been beautiful this year, and fill the borders and walls with the most luscious blooms and perfume. Here's lovely Gertrude Jekyll filling the air with the smell of Turkish Delight.

This year was the turn of New Dawn to shine. We've lived in our house for 20 years now, and some of these roses were here when we moved in. I don't do much to them apart from pruning in spring, and New Dawn hasn't been touched all year. But it has rewarded us with a profusion of flowers this year, all scrambling around the front door and heading on up the wall. This photo was taken just before it got dark, when the pale blooms shone out in the dusk.

Here in daylight you can see the pretty soft pink of the petals.

It has a delicate tea-like perfume, quite different to Gertrude.

Many-petalled William Shakespeare was as richly-scented as ever,

and along with graceful Mortimer Sackler,  

a rose which the label said was Guinee (but which doesn't seem to be dark enough), grows up the back of the garage. It's also flowered more than ever this summer.

Our garden isn't attached to the back of our terraced house, as a shared access way and garages lie between them, a common layout for Somerset cottages. So my first sight of the garden is always revealed as I round the corner of the garage. When the roses are in bloom they frame my shed prettily.

Temperatures have risen here to over 30 degrees on many days recently, and while I adore the sunshine I usually like to find a shady place to sit. On a bench just outside my shed is perfect, and it's here that I've squeezed in a bit of crochet when I can.

The roses inspire me at this time of year to be creative, and this year I made a pretty crocheted wreath to hang in our house using Lucy's May Rose pattern.

I was very happy with the finished result, as I'd tried to match the colours to the roses that we grow.

Another rose-inspired activity was my annual baking of rose petal shortbread. I've made this for years, as you can see here, here and here.

I made a big batch and took some to work to share with my fellow teaching assistants at break time with our coffee. I had plenty left over to share with everyone at home too. There are five of us at home for the summer now, so the house is full again. J is home again before he starts post-graduate study next year, and B is here too. And our D, our youngest, is heading off to uni in September. 

I always think that if each month has a colour, then June's is definitely pink, and a deep pink at that. So many of the flowers in bloom in June seem to be this colour, and with them comes the warmth. This rose campion is a new addition this year, and it's flowers are such a bright pink that they don't look real against their silvery foliage.

The peonies were wonderful, and over very quickly in the heat. Blowsy and abundant, they were glorious.

There have been other lovely perennials too: spotty foxgloves;

yellow flag iris;

Iris Sibirica;

pale pink oriental poppies;

sunlit chives;

my favourite allium, rose garlic;

delicate purple greanium;

pink and silver spiky astrantia;

my first go at growing helichrysums

and deliciously-scented pinks. Their clove-like perfume is so strong that it drifts around the garden on the evening air while I'm watering.

Back to roses again, and the stripy, raspberry-ripple petals of rosa mundi unfold as the other roses are past their best and extend the rose season in our garden.

And here's a warning - if you don't like creepy-crawlies, look away now. This little crab spider has been living in the blooms of rosa mundi for days now. It doesn't make a web, but catches its prey instead. I found it holding a dead bee last week.

And I found this gorgeous white ermine moth on the side of my shed. Isn't it a rather sophisticated and classy moth?

Our tiny pond has gone from strength to strength, as I've surrounded it with lots of foliage this year to make it more wildlife-friendly. You can just about see the water under the marsh marigold leaves. I'm hoping that the tadpoles that have grown from frog and newt spawn donated by a friend are growing into frogs now.

It's been 4 years now since I started blogging and, although I'm not as regular a blogger as I used to be, this little corner of the internet is still important to me as a place where I can share all the flowery and creative things that make me happy and that I know you get too, dear readers. So before I go I'd like to say thank you if you still drop by from time to time - it's much appreciated xxx

Midsummer

'I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,

With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:

There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,

Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;

And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,

Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in'

'A Midsummer Night's Dream' - Shakespeare

It's Midsummer's Day and it's been glorious. Summer is definitely here.
  

Out in the garden in the evening warmth the air is heavy with the scent of honeysuckle and roses as the sun drops below the horizon. 

This time of year is truly magical with dawn long before I wake up and warm, languorous evenings that mean I can garden until late. So much light is wonderful and I try to make the most of it.

As is my custom I burned my favourite candle and cut some flowers for the house. It's my own little tradition and I love to mark this dreamy time of year.

I hope that you've had a lovely Midsummer's Eve and Day and have been able to enjoy the warmth and sunshine outdoors this weekend x

PS I've been away from blogging for a short while as life has been very hectic here indeed. Our new kitchen has taken longer than expected and B and J are both now home from university, so there are now five of us in a house with no kitchen! It's fantastic to have them home again and the kitchen should be finished this week, so I'll be able to return to blogging soon, and can catch up properly with everyone else's blogs too. See you soon x

Midsummer

Tomorrow is the longest day of the year, or Summer Solstice, when the hours of daylight are at their longest and those of darkness at their shortest. Around this time comes Midsummer's Eve (followed by Midsummer's Day). Different cultures celebrate it on different days, some on the day before the Solstice, and others a couple of days later on the 23rd June. In northern European countries, such as Sweden, it is celebrated on the third Friday in June with bonfires, singing and feasting.

Midsummer's Eve was traditionally a magical time when the human world and the fairy world meet. Our ancestors built fires to celebrate the longest day and to bless their livestock and the forthcoming harvest. It was also held to be the best time for people to divine their future love, by making potions and performing rites using herbs and flowers which are at their peak at this time of year.

Many writers have been inspired by Midsummer's Eve. In 'I Capture the Castle' by Dodie Smith seventeen-year-old Cassandra celebrates her 'rites' by gathering flowers and lighting a bonfire:

'wild flowers - I can't remember if that is traditional or if Rose and I made it up: mallow, campion and bluebells for the garland to hang round our necks, foxgloves to carry, and we always wore wild roses in our hair ... There wasn't a breath of wind as I climbed the mound. The sun was down - usually I begin the rites by watching it sink ...the sky beyond Belmotte Tower was a watery yellow with one streak of green across it - vivid green, most magically beautiful ...I watched until the yellow faded, too - then turned towards the moon still low over the wheat field. The blue all around her had deepened so much that she no longer looked pale, but like masses of luminous snow'

In Shakespeare's comedy, 'A Midsummer Night's Dream', a group of lovers and actors are lost in the forest on Midsummer's night. The fairies who live in the forest control and mislead the humans until the morning when order is restored. It has a magical, ethereal quality and the language evokes the beauty of summer flowers:

'I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,

Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,

Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,

With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine:

There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,

Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;

And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,

Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in'

Years ago just before we got married my husband and I went to the Regent's Park Open Air Theatre in London to watch a production of this play. It was a magical experience, and the audience sat entranced as night fell and lanterns and fairy lights lit the stage.

The novelist and poet Thomas Hardy also captured that magic in his poem 

'On A Midsummer Eve':

I idly cut a parsley stalk,

And blew therein towards the moon;

I had not thought what ghosts would walk

With shivering footsteps to my tune.

I went and knelt, and scooped my hand

As if to drink, into the brook,

And a faint figure seemed to stand

Above me, with the bygone look.

I lipped rough rhymes of chance, not choice,

I thought not what my words might be;

There came into my ear a voice

That turned a tenderer verse for me.

My own Midsummer traditions are modest (no dancing or lighting bonfires for me!). I always have in the house flowers from the garden and a scented candle . I love Yankee Candles and my favourite is this one, Midsummer's Night, which has a heady and summery perfume.

 Whether you mark the occasion or not, it's undeniably a very special time of year x