A Pretty Perfect Weekend

Ah, this weekend...it was just what I needed. Slow and steady with that elusive balance of activity and rest, time alone and time with people. Last week was busier than usual; Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I attended a First Aid at Work course* and on Thursday and Friday I had my usual days at work and tried to cram in everything I usually do at home on the other days. Then after lessons on Friday our school held it's summer fair, a completely lovely event which the children thoroughtly enjoyed. John was able to attend and he took the kids home after a while, but I stayed for the clean up and arrived home about 7.30 pm, very tired. I slept so deeply and heavily on Friday night that on Saturday morning I don't think I was really with it.

We went into town, to the library and to Waitrose. The kids signed up for a six week summer reading challenge and, caught up in the excitement, I also decided to borrow six books. "I'm going to have my own six week summer reading challenge!" I declared to John, "It'll make me make time for myself over the holidays!" He just laughed at me.

I chose two crime fiction titles (The Dying Minutes and R is for Ricochet), two books that I can't believe I haven't ever read before (Love All and Love in a Cold Climate), and two purely because I liked the jackets (Where'd You Go, Bernadette and Sex and Stravinsky).  I'll probably only read one but who cares, my intentions are good. That's the great thing about libraries, isn't it, you can just pick up as many books as you like and on a whim too, and if they're no good then it's no loss. 

We had a coffee and bought some bits and bobs. Fruit, flowers, beer chosen for the label design. I have decided that nectarines are much nicer than peaches, and the yellow fleshed ones are best of all. These were almost syrupy and so good with pancakes.

I pottered with the flowers slowly, enjoying the snipping and arranging, glad not to be in a hurry.

Flowers in every room. I'm good at buying the cheap ones and stretching them into lots of vases in lots of places.

I spent most of the afternoon in the garden, reading the paper and crocheting. Every now and then I came indoors to do something or get something, but it was a pretty chilled out affair. I drank tea and listened to Woman's Hour on the iPlayer. My sister and brother in law were coming for dinner on Saturday night so we did some cooking. Really easy, no fuss stuff, like spiced nuts.

Smoked trout pate.

Spinach and ricotta stuffed cannelloni (John made that).

Lemon possets with lemon shortbread for pudding. Nice food lined up ready in the fridge, ready for a happy evening of eating and drinking.

Today we met up with my dear friend Abigail and her family in Guildford. We had a lovely long lunch together, made plans for the summer and looked around the castle, where we saw the most beautiful wild flower planting.

Isn't it stunning? Imagine having this in your garden.

And these marigolds and geraniums had been planted in huge swathes throughout the castle gardens. I'm not sure if I like them, they are maybe just a bit too bright and brassy for me, but very eye catching.

I'll take these poppies any day.

I wish every weekend could be this good but I know it can't, normal life and work gets in the way. But that just makes times like these all the more precious. I hope you had a great weekend too.

* I went on this one and it was excellent; informative, well delivered and very useful. I hope that I never have to use it, but that I don't forget what I learned either.