I won’t lie. The garden is still a mess. But there are some small things I would like to get done despite feeling a bit like a failure every time I go out there… This post (although it’s written for Northern America, it’s the same hemisphere, isn’t it?) about garden duties in July is good and informative. Here’s my own list for this month, partly inspired by that post:

- take cuttings from my roses for propagation
- buy a squash plant and get it in the ground as soon as possible
- buy an olive tree for my large pot (to replace the lavender tree which died in winter)
- sow beans
- clear beds for above (which I should have doen several months ago, oh dear)
- repot tomato plants (or directly into the ground?)

Also – a bit of a berry crisis as the birds have eaten almost everything apart from my red gooseberries (and I promise I’ll get a shotgun if they get at those too). On the positive side, there are now 5 baby chillies on my plant. They smell amazing.

There was a request for the recipe for that carrot cake. Here it is (it even comes with an article attached! Scroll down for the recipe). It’s also in Nigel Slater’s book Tender (which is fantastic and well worth the money). I make it with regular flour instead of self-raising because we don’t have that in the shops – so I add an extra teaspoon of baking powder. I also do without the nuts (allergy) and bake it in only one tin, then make half the amount of icing – it’s delicious and I could eat it on its own, but mascarpone is ridiculously expensive here – and only ice it on the outside. It’s a little labour intensive but so worth it in the end.I’m off to have a piece, left over from our midsummer celebration, right now.

Summer has finally made it here, taking us by surprise. There’s no water left in the rainwater barrel which makes it more difficult to water the greenhouse. I’ll have to start filling the watering can in the bathtub. The tomatoes are coming along nicely (but need so much water!) and, finally, after lots of flowers falling off without setting fruit (I think it was too cold), there’s one tiny baby chilli on my huge chilli plant (Ancho Zac, a mild variety). And my aubergine plant is flowering! Purple!

I’m swamped with work and it’s not making me happy – today I had to miss a birthday party for it. I keep thinking of all the great, fun things I could be doing instead – and hopefully will be doing when I get off work in just a few days. So, here’s a list so I can remind myself:

- go to Sweden – it’s only a short car ride away, now we have the bridge between Copenhagen and Malmö. Once there I want to visit Ystad (where the Wallander detective books takeplace) and outside Ystad, Åbergs Trädgård, which is a garden centre and café and the loveliest place I’ve visited. I’m determined to go this year.
- sit in the greenhouse with a cup of tea and a book (actually, I could do this for my break today)
- sit outside with my husband on the porch at night, after M. has gone to sleep, drinking something nice, lighting candles (it’s been too cold for this yet)
- having friends over for a barbecue in the garden
- lots and lots of cafe lunches with good friends who are magically neither at work nor away on summer holidays
- spending a week on a Greek island, swimming in the ocean and eating salads, tzatziki, grilled lamb and yoghurt with honey. I’ll see if I can make this happen.
- picnics on the beach with fancy sandwiches and lots of blankets
- making homemade icecream and storing it in baby food jars for taking with us on above picnics
- sewing – on my list is pants for M., a quilt for M., pillows, something for me… a dress maybe? How about this one?
- bake cinnamon swirls and fruit crumbles and how about that fancy carrot cake with mascarpone icing again?
- go on a fishing trip in the Norwegian mountains
- go for walks in the nearby forest, bringing a backpack with drinks and snacks and something to sit on

I could go on. Now I’m going to go off and do the work instead. And maybe water the tomato plants a little. Anyone out there with more suggestions?

Next week my summer begins – no more work until August! I want to spend some of all that lovely free time sewing, and what’s better than using old men’s t-shirts to make cute clothes for your kid?

Oh, and by the way – we didn’t go to Aamanns this time, we found something even better. Kaffebar is organic, child friendly (M. siad “not [go] home” while he was drinking fresh apple juice and eating (specially made for him) sandwiches) and has delicious food too. A complete win and we’ll be back within long.

SEE
rain, rain, rain
my parents, today
the ocean (more water!)

HEAR
the buzzing of the bumblebees that are nesting in our roof
happy 2-year-old talk
a nightingale!

TOUCH
woolly yarn
boy hair
the big plastic watering can

TASTE
homemade sandwiches with pastrami, mustard and finely sliced cabbage
dark chocolate cake
ice cream

SMELL
the sharp, fresh smell of chilli flowers
lilacs everywhere, fading soon
bread on the toaster

Plans for the weekend: Lunch in a nice café, maybe Danish open sandwiches for once? (The place I linked to, Aamanns, is mindblowingly good. Just look at those photos. Makes me want to go there now.) And good ice cream for everyone. And maybe a visit to the botanical gardens? We’ll see. I hope you have a nice weekend!

I have chocolate cake. A huge stack of work is waiting for me, but there is flourless chocolate cake on the counter and I was thinking that actually, mint tea would go very nicely with that. The garden is doing more or less all right, but there are so many things that need doing (the weeding! I never expect the weeds to happen in such insane amounts). The tomatoes are growing. I haven’t planted out the leeks yet and I’m starting to worry that last year’s pencil-thin leek disaster might happen again. Oh, well. I don’t think I could have done any better this year so we’ll just see what happens. Sometimes I have to remind myself not to open the gardening books, though. The page on cucumbers was slightly frightening. So many things to consider! I’m putting them in anyway and I’ll just be crossing my fingers.

Take a look at these string gardens (via poppytalk). How magical they look. Not very practical, perhaps (would you water them with a bucket underneath?) but so beautiful. Imagine having one at your workplace.

I did my sitting yesterday and realised just how tense my body has become from these past months. I’m grateful for the timing of this project; if I’d kept going like this I would have turned into stone before the summer holidays. Loobylu has extended her business into iPhone app making – and the first one is a meditation timer. Nice coincidence, isn’t it? I haven’t tried it yet, but I will. Yesterday I used the timer in my iPod and the sound of artificial crickets made me jump.

I’m taking part in Penelope’s seven day sit this week. I think cultivating happiness is sorely needed this spring – the stress of the past months has left us running on fumes. Not really unhappy, just worn out. A little calmness will be a good thing.

“…eating and reading are two pleasures that combine admirably.”

C. S. Lewis

I went into the greenhouse just to look at my tiny little seedlings. I wish they’d grow more quickly, I want to eat them. Instead I picked the first mint sprig this year for tea – the plant is big enough now. It would grow faster in the ground but it would spread too, and I have enough weeds so I keep it in a pot. Mint tea is so good. There are lots of varieties of mint and I stay away from the pepperminty ones and love this one we got last year – Moroccan mint. I figure the Moroccans know about their mint tea. When I’d finished my cup I made more with the same leaves, adding some elderflower cordial. Not bad either (but less Moroccan).