Weekending

We've become a bit of a bumblebee hospital around here. We have so many and every-so-often we find one who is a little dehydrated and needs a helping hand with a maple syrup shot. We even have one bee that we found who has a deformed wing and therefore cannot fly at all. He gets his daily shot of maple syrup and then placed gently on a rose flower or perhaps an iris to go about his bee business. He crawls about and is quite quick in getting to wherever he wants to go. He has given up trying to fly and is just getting on with living his best bee life - all his food needs being met by those doting humans who live in the house nestled in his garden.

I've been baking quite a bit the last few days, another of those wonderful home blessing activities that I have neglected over the past year. We've had a weekend of indulging on traditional English cream teas in the garden which is definitely not good for the waistline but has been so wonderfully lovely. 

Sitting in the garden in the shade of the gazebo, washing drying in the sunshine and the sprinkler watering the grass while we sip our tea and enjoy our scones piled high with cream and jam is one of the joys of summer as far as I'm concerned.

This morning I had reason to bake a lovely lemon drizzle cake for I had a friend over for tea and cake in the garden. Lockdown restrictions lifted a little more today which means we are now allowed to have friends or family over to visit as long as it is in the garden and no more than 6 people. It was so lovely to catch up with her. This is what is important, isn't it? Fellowship with friends and family.

Although we have been loving all this sunny weather and garden time I have to say that I was pleased to see that we can expect a bit of rain later on in the week. The garden is really dry and I am watering my pots of herbs and sweetpeas at least once, sometimes twice a day.

As you can see the sweetpeas are really responding to all this warmth and watering and are growing fairly quickly now. I can't wait for the plants to ramble all over the balustrading and be awash in sweet-smelling sweetpeas. It's so funny for me to think that at one point in my life I really struggled with growing sweetpeas. I just had NO luck with them. Then one year, 2016 if I remember correctly, I did something (who knows what) and they flourished. That summer I had sweetpea bouquets indoors every single day. 

Plans for this week:

Homekeeping:

My file crate is in desperate need of a revamp so I will be spending a morning getting that in order. I have not properly utilized this great system for a little while now and I have to say that things were far more organized when it was in place and being used actively as part of my planning system. Now that we have moved out of the homeschooling season it will require a bit of tweaking to work for the new season we find ourselves in. I'll be sure to post on this once it is done.

Garden:

The weeds seem to be flourishing just as much as the plants so we will need to put a stop to that. I don't use any pesticides in my gardens as we have hedgehogs and lots of birds so it's all manual weed pulling for me. I also have a selection of seeds that I want to plant this week. Most of these will only flower next year but if I get the plants established this year we will be able to enjoy a garden bursting with colour next summer.  

What are your plans for this week? Do you have any tasks that you have been putting off that you could tick off the 'To-Do' list? Any home blessings planned? Now that we are in June (already!) could it be time to start planning what Christmas gifts you want to make this year and get a head start? Do let me know.

Blessings to you all today...