A Hint of Summer

So we have had a fantastically lovely bank holiday, sunshine and warmth, delicious!

I actually went for an actual run this morning in the sunshine and enjoyed it!  It's a shame exercise is so much more enjoyable and easy in the sunshine, imagine how fit we'd be if it was sunny more often!

We ticked all the Summer boxes this weekend, first BBQ, first Pimms and first tan lines.

I whipped up a skirt (fab pattern - super quick and easy) from a cute piece of fabric I found in a curtain shop remnant box ages ago.

I suddenly fancied a summery pencil skirt the other day and this fabric caught my eye in the shelf as just the sort of jolly Springy Summery pattern I was looking for.

It is a fairly thick cotton or a cotton/linen blend, lovely weight, not too stiff and with a satisfying slub running through it.

So not only is it quick to make, pretty, comfortable and made to measure, the whole thing cost me all of about £2.50.

Lovely skirt, but pretty certain modelling is not my calling....

Annoyingly, I have now realised I have no tops in the right colour to wear with it, so I am planning a little silk job with some leftover fabric from a ball gown I made last year.  Watch this space, I will show you the product of my labours!

I am feeling suddenly very inspired to sew, particularly as I have a wedding and a ball coming up and need (yes, need) new dresses for both.  I also went through my summer dresses the other day and noticed several  in a rather sad state, so I have put them in the scrapbag and made plans to make one or two simple cotton dresses ASAP.  I have a horrible feeling I saw the weather forecast for this week saying rain rain and more rain, but at least that gives me a bit of time to sew before I actually need summer clothing!

The rain is also useful in another sense (notice my positive thinking and generosity to the weather here) as my fruit trees and roses could do with a good soaking.

I now have 2 rows of radishes looking very healthy, and my sweet peas and mange touts have sprouted too.

I planted some lettuces last week but have yet to see anything from them; hopefully they'll make an appearance fairly soon!  The strawberries (both cultivated and wild) and covered in flowers and I did notice teeny tiny gooseberries growing too.

I can't wait to eat fresh fruit picked from my own garden, it always tastes a million times better than anything else...even if you do only get 3 strawberries wrestled from the slugs, 2 raspberries and a handful of blackcurrants.  I am running a zero tolerance policy on nature stealing my produce this year, so netting is going up and slug pellets generously sprinkled.