Swingling

Just been to see the fabulous Swingle Singers.

 Catch them if you can.

Sweet peas

for one of the cubs.

My son dealt very calmly with a sad but inevitable

casualty of a large, city litter.

Fruit and maps

You can have them thisaway

or

thataway.

If you have them thisaway, they are certainly more portable

on walks,

but if you have them thataway

you can put on a yellow T-shirt

as recommended by the man selling them,

and let them dribble down your chin.

Going greige

Unless you're wearing three shades of 'greige' on a daily basis, 

you're seriously behind. 

The curious colour hybrid (grey and beige - do keep up) 

is now the one on fashion insider's lips - literally.

"Shades of steel, stone, shell and fawn send a message 

of quiet luxury and timelessness during an economic recession," 

says Future Laboratory trends expert Jonna Dagliden...

Put simply, greige looks more expensive than it is

 without tipping into the realms of "flashy" 

and less than a week after the new Budget, 

that seems pretty appealing.

Who needs a triple-digit handbag 

when you can get this season's hottest arm candy for a snip at £16 

with Chanel's Le Vernis nail polish in Particuliére.

This vital advice brought to you by The London Evening Standard

and these on trend but nervy visitors to the garden tonight.

Here I am, apparently sliding under the table 
with my new greige hairdo.

Am thinking of changing my name to Bella Blissett.

(It was her byline, btw, and I think only good fortune

and eternal happiness can come with a name like that.)

I was nearly a Minette.

Who would she have been?

A cat possibly.

Smoke Bush

My Cotinus coggygria is beginning to take on its 
characteristic smoky purple haze 
as it comes into flower for the first time.


For musical accompaniments
it was a toss up between this one:

and this one:

My vote?

Your vote?

Seen in Wakefield

Twenty five miles away.

Love's Labour

The labour

of love.

This music featured in Kenneth Branagh's Love's Labour's Lost.

The new prescription

When you've been looking here,

you need your rosiest tinted spectacles

when you get back here.

They shoot horses don't they?

In haste.

There's a tennis match going on

and on

and on

59/59 in the 5th set.

Early one morning

The garden belongs to itself at 5 a.m.  

 I am not expected.

There is a cool independent air.

The business of the day has commenced

needless of my presence.

The virginal sky receives the red-eye. 

New light investigates

dark corners.

Poppies

undress.

Bees

move in.

Suddenly tired,

I go back to bed.

Strawberry Bellinis

According to Something To Do, 

my trusty guide since 1966 for all things seasonal,

The 21st June is Midsummer's Day, the longest day in the year. 

The sun rises earlier and sets later than on any other day. 

It is also a day of magic, 

when fairies (if you believe in them) 
feast and dance from midnight to dawn.

Years ago people used to light bonfires on Midsummer's Day 

to encourage the sun to shine. 
They would hurl burning discs into the air 

and roll blazing wheels downhill 
in imitation of the sun's journey across the sky.

We, on the other hand, lit a candle and made Strawberry Bellinis.

This encourages the fairies.

Just popping by

with this poppy.

Have been far away

to Manchester.

It didn't rain.

But I'm a little under the weather.

Raspberry ripple

Wall's ice cream came in family bricks,

served at home as a special pudding after Sunday lunch.

We became pretty adept at cutting it into equal fifths.

I liked Neapolitan, three segments of 

strawberry,vanilla and chocolate flavour,

habitually referred to by my grandma as Metropolitan.

But my favourite was Raspberry Ripple.

So I can never look at a Rosa mundi

without it conjuring up the memory

of roast beef, lamb and pork

in strict weekly rotation,

each with its proper accompaniment -

mustard, mint sauce, apple sauce. 

An odd fusion lodged deep in the little grey cells, 

adjacent to similarly vivid childhood memories associated with 

mimosa, vanilla sugar, raffia, Plasticine and Lily of the Valley.

And if anyone could find me a plastic troll and a Pez machine to sniff,

I'd be ten again.

Variety is the spice of life

Who knows what a day will proffer.

Lavender syrup

for 

lavender lemonade

from

this lady.

A tribute to the late Johnny Dankworth at a concert tonight.
The City of London Choir will sing and we're hoping for

a guest appearance by 
this lady.

Beauty

A thing of beauty is a joy forever:

Its loveliness increases, it will never

Pass into nothingness, but still will keep

A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

Therefore, on every morrow, are we wreathing

A flowery band to bind us to earth,

Spite of despondence, of the inhuman dearth

Of noble natures, of the gloomy days,

Of all the unhealthy and o'er-darkened ways

Made of our searching: yes, in spite of all,

Some shape of beauty moves away the pall

From our dark spirits.

from Endymion, Book 1

John Keats

Beauty in another bower here.

Morning ablutions

Sunrise 04:43.