We met friends for a very sociable and tasty breakfast this morning and afterwards had a very brief and very hot walk on the beach.
On the way back to the car park these beauties caught my eye.
Our beautiful little guest, Fern, has settled in already, is loving being stroked and has a mighty purr – just delightful. What lovely and unusual markings she has. .
One of the allotment plots near us is a wonderful riot of Crocosmia.
I’m growing a purple, white and green border for the bees at the allotment but the verbena has taken for ever to come up. Here it is with its first flower.
Tomorrow we have a little visitor arriving to stay with us for about 6 weeks. She is a beautiful little cat called Fern and today we bought some Feliwell, on the recommendation of our daughter, to help her settle in. We also bought her a little toy. We are both really excited to have a little cat in our household again. 
Such a hot day! We aren’t used to it. Simple turkey salad was an easy to prepare and easy to eat lunch. The lettuce and borage flowers are from our edible garden in the trough. 
It was not a sensible day to make jam but the crop (600 grammes) was harvested so needs must, despite the heat …… I haven’t made Blackcurrant jam before and it is delicious. 
Our Day Lilies are gorgeous.
The early morning sunlight shone through a Poppy petal in a vase on the window sill with the featheriness of Love-in-a-Mist being highlighted.
Yesterday on the cliifs, one our treats was seeing – and hearing – the Cinnabar Moth. You’ll have to look closely to see it right in the middle of the photograph. 
We’ve had some lovely visitors at the bird feeder. 
Our supper tonight was baked potatoes! They were delicious. 🙂
A quiet walk early this morning and beautiful views along the North coast. We spotted six different kinds of butterfly, a good record for Butterfly Watch Week.
There were various varieties of lichen on the rocks. I like the profile of this one against the blues of the sea.
A gift of four lovely looking baking potatoes was waiting for us when we went down to water my seeds at the allotment tonight. They will make splendid dinners. Thank you S&M. (I put M&S first but then, dear Reader, you might have thought that they came from the store!)
Our eldest daughter brought my beautiful15 year old Beetle home today. She has been caring for it over the lockdowns and now that I can go to choir again, has brought it home.
I have spent the day in the shade on this beautiful sunny day and have read a whole book, completely unable to put it down – Helen Dunmore’s “Talking to the Dead.” If you enjoy a taut, psychological story that keeps you guessing, this is for you. It left me stunned. 
We walked down to the allotment to check on things this evening and were delighted by the perfume of the Night Scented Stock, planted in abundance near the shed. 
I was talking to a fellow allotmenteer this afternoon about the importance of kindness, triggered by their kindness in giving us some shallots, our crop being a complete disaster. I was reminded of the following that came my way some time ago. 
I have my sister to thank for the following delightful video of some amazing dancing. I think I can guarantee that it will make you smile.
I love the delicacy of the blossoms on our Hydrangea Petiolaris in the front garden.
The following poem came to me the other day and so clearly expressed the joy of ‘gathering’ treasures along the way.
Something snapped the head off one of our glorious red frilly poppies still in bud but with the outer skin just opening. I put it in Mum’s green glass and over two days it has opened up beautifully.
ClothKitty now has some shorts and a sun hat.
The Borage in the edible garden is dropping its lovely blue flowers onto the curly purple lettuce.
The bees love the Eryngium which is a cloud of buzzing blue this year. 
We were given a little chili plant earlier in the season, (another allotmenteer gift) and it is doing really well in the poly tunnel. I will have to ask for advice on when to harvest.
I heard Jackie Kay on Radio 4 this afternoon and learned about the inspiration for writing one of her poems. She had heard that from 2017 babies born in Scotland were to get a cardboard box containing mattress, sheets, clothes – all a new born might need. She wrote to the government to suggest that there should be a poem in the box and they said ‘Yes!’ So, she wrote the poem ‘Welcome wee one’. She spoke of how new Mums would see her on the street, thank her for the poem and ask for selfies. I think this is brilliant.
This afternoon I have made some Blueberry Muffins and yes, they are really blue!
Every day we have another poppy.
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