Sending love and good wishes to all my family and friends and all my readers in America on this your 250th anniversary.
Here are two of our fridge magnets collected on trips to your beautiful counrty. 
Happy Fourth of July!
Happiness Calendar, Tomatoes and Cake
I’m a bit late with this month’s Happiness calendar which is focussing on resilience and jumping back up after a set back. Hope some of the suggestions work for you should you be needing them.
It’s our first season in the greenhouse and we have some small tomatoes some of which are beginning to ripen.
I made a coffee cake for tomorrow’s market in town and made a mini one for us.
Cherries, Apples and A New Parasol
We treated ourselves to a few delicious cherries today.
We have five apples on our family apple tree. 
There was such a wild and fierce gust of wind two weeks ago that it lifted our parasol, tipped the heavy wooden table on its side and bent the parasol as it landed. We are pleased with our new one that arrived today and will be sure not to leave it open when winds are expected!
Two views of Welly Dog for you today aka Tinners’ Hound by David Kemp, remarkable artist who died last month. You can read about him here in The Guardian obituary. If you are new to our Welly Dog and would like to know more, put Welly Dog into the search bar on the right and there are lots of lovely photos of our Welly Dog and the ones cast in bronze that are in Redruth town centre.
Seed Bombs, Verbascum and Roses
There is still no sign of a flower yet in the sink of seed bombs but most of the greenery is doing well, if a bit nibbled. I still don’t know what to expect. Anyone have any ideas from the leaves?
I love the delicacy of the verbascum flowers, cream with their purpley middles.
The rose we were given for our golden wedding anniversary almost nine years ago is giving us some delightful peachy/golden blooms. 
Thistles, Silhouettes and Poppies
At Roots today we went to sit on the bench in the new orchard and listened to the birds – a wren and a blackbird sang for us. In front of us were the purple thistle flowers and the teasels and cow parsley in silhouette.
The line of poppies in one of the poly-tunnels was quite striking.
Greenfly, Lilies and Rhubarb
It wasn’t until I looked at the photo of our first Sweet pea flower that I saw the greenflies! The Sweet peas have been very slow this year. I’m hoping they’ll pick up if the weather improves.
The lilies are scenting the whole of the garden.
Our rhubarb is doing well since we brought some of it home from the allotment. Tonight I have made the very delicious Different-every-time- pudding, otherwise known as Rhubarb Butterscotch Pie and the recipe by Ambrose Heath can be found here.
Day Lily, Clematis and A Very Good Read
Our first Day Lily has bloomed today and there are lots of buds to come.
I bought the clematis, Lady Betty Balfour ,many years ago and it has struggled. Suddenly it’s reaching to the top of the yew tree. I don’t think it had the right label on it as it doesn’t look like the Lady we once had in our previous garden. 
I have just finished a most enjoyable read. The salesperson at Waterstones last Friday suggested I might like this one set in Cornwall. I had already bought our books but had enough points for this one to be free so I didn’t resist and, boy, am I pleased that I did get it. It’s funny, clever, rattles along with delightful characters that are so alive and is a really good mystery. I read it in two days and didn’t do much else! I really can recommend it, even if you don’t get it free. (Book buddies J and H, it’ll be available for the borrowing!)
There is a second novel coming in October, a series to watch I’m thinking. Any of you already read this one?
Sunset, Clematis and Hydrangea
Last night’s sunset was glorious, a fiery orange cloud hovering over the tennis courts nearby.
Many Clematis are blooming and this purple one is lovely.
We bought a new beautiful blue Hydrangea today to go with the others I showed you a day or two ago. Click here if you missed them..
Our heatwave seems to have passed on by but the rest of the country and Europe are still sweltering. Here it’s just summertime warmth. How is it with you?
Poppies and A Poem
All the poppies in our garden have sown themselves and are very much appreciated.
I’ve shared other of the carefully chosen words of Thich Nhat Hanh before and came across this poem today that I found very moving both in its recognition of the beauty of nature and of the awfulness of humans finishing with much needed compassion.
“Please Call Me by My True Names”by Thich Nhat Hanh
Don’t say that I will depart tomorrow,
even today I am still arriving.Look deeply: every second I am arrivingto be a bud on a Spring branch,to be a tiny bird, with still-fragile wings,learning to sing in my new nest,to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower,to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry,to fear and to hope.The rhythm of my heart is the birth and deathof all that is alive.I am the mayfly metamorphosingon the surface of the river.And I am the birdthat swoops down to swallow the mayfly.I am the frog swimming happilyin the clear water of a pond.And I am the grass-snakethat silently feeds itself on the frog.I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones,my legs as thin as bamboo sticks.And I am the arms merchant,selling deadly weapons to Uganda.I am the twelve-year-old girl,refugee on a small boat,who throws herself into the oceanafter being raped by a sea pirate.And I am the pirate,my heart not yet capableof seeing and loving.I am a member of the politburo,with plenty of power in my hands.And I am the man who has to payhis “debt of blood” to my peopledying slowly in a forced-labor camp.My joy is like Spring, so warmit makes flowers bloom all over the Earth.My pain is like a river of tears,so vast it fills the four oceans.Please call me by my true names,so I can hear all my cries and my laughter at once,so I can see that my joy and pain are one.Please call me by my true names,so I can wake up,and so the door of my heartcan be left open,the door of compassion.
High Pressure, A Puzzle and A Poem
Another hot day with high pressure and our ship’s barometer is overflowing which usually means a storm is on its way – and just as I started to write, lightning flashed outside.
The following turned up when I uploaded today’s photos and I have no idea what I was trying to capture but I love the colours in it. It’s a piece of art!!
Here’s a poem for you tonight, another by a favourite poet, Imtiaz Dharker. The opening verse is how it has felt here for the last few days, needing ‘space, light, empty air.”as the heat feels so oppressive and all the curtains are drawn to keep the house cool. But this is indeed the time to ‘be alive” and to feel all the “excitement.”
