Sunshine, countryside and the garden…

If you’d have asked me a month ago what I would like to do on a three day break from work, staying at home would not have been the answer….But alas home is where I am and happy to be.  Since our trip to the aptly named Blue Door Barns in East Sussex,  I have re found my love of Britain, coinciding this with the hottest weather this summer, well, I am in my happy place without having to carry any cases!

The arrival of sunshine and heat happened upon the same date as most beautiful family wedding, a quintessential English celebration in the countryside complete with hay barrels and hats galore, this sprinkle of sunshine followed me into the week for more family times including birthday fun.   We spent the morning strawberry picking in the direct sun (HOT work) long lunches in pub gardens and dips in the local Lido to cool ourselves off, how very British….

But my most favourite thing about when the summer does arrive, and I mean the real summer that is of right now, today, is the spontaneity it brings.  Meeting friends for lunch, wearing those summer dresses that you were saving for a tropical holiday one day, lighting the ‘posh’ smelly candles, reading a book in a day, opening a bottle of rosé on a Tuesday and lighting up the BBQ  even though you were detoxing from the weekend, not eating meat this week, or on a diet where you can only breath air! We start to live in the present a little more, not just saving the best for the weekend or the holidays booked seventeen weeks away, you live for the ‘right now’….Most probably because if you are from the UK you kinda have to act on this weather as it may not last long.

…..But how great it would be if we lived this way whatever the season or the weather….Our wallets maybe lighter, the candles no more, our clothes would be less pristine and maybe a little tight, but we would have had a good time. And those times that we refer to as  ‘just staying at home’ become as important a memory as any trip away.

We ate at : Here, Berkhamsted and  The Black Horse, Woburn

We read: ‘On Chesil Beach’ by  Ian McEwan

Strawberry Picking was at Grove Farm, Ivinghoe Aston

Swam : in the Woburn Lido, in existence since 1911.

The rest took place in my back garden.

Dress from Pull and Bear at Asos, shorts from Zara