Going Easy

Hello dear souls ~ how are you?

I'm in the process of making something, and I've taken a picture of it to show you...one of those horrible sneaky peaky pictures that doesn't really give anything away, but lets you see a little bit of what has been going on hooky-wise here this last week.

I'm afraid the light is a bit rough today, try as I might I just cannot get the colours to zim and ping as they do in real life...but suffice to say they do, and I'm very skippity-happy about this little project which I will hopefully be able to show you properly next week...when it will all be finished. Am I awful for teasing you with it? I am sorry - perhaps to ease the frustration, you could all play at Guess What It Is?!

Ah look. That's much better. Now you can see just how zimmy and pingy those colours really are!

Well, I've been stuck indoors these last couple of days (as most of you around this island of ours probably have at some point) due to the typically British July weather conditions of gale force winds, lashing rain and cracking thunderstorms. My garden is a mess, but during an impromtu blue bit, I ran out and had a tidy up.

What a heavenly relief to see blue skies again, with drifty white clouds billowing about instead of nasty dark grey ones silently flashing with far away lightening...

The sun squeezed itself out for only a few minutes, long enough to illuminate our first little sweet pea...oh my goodness I do love these flowers, and I'm sure the fairies must come out at night and paint their soft petals those beautiful colours!

Life this week has been mostly about small moments like that. I've got to tell you that seemingly out of nowhere, my poor little bod succumbed to an awful outbreak of exzema...and that usually means that something is becoming a bit too much in this life of mine and needs dealing with pronto. It has been several years since this happened, and that was due to the perils of working away for months at a time and not being particularly happy with the job I was doing then.

Anyhow...I've worked out that in all, I've got rather too much heaped on my plate and I've got to do a bit of prioritising...let a few things go, start being a bit easier on myself as far as those mental To Do Lists go.

Do you have those? They are created in your mind (or in my case, increasingly more on paper too these days) and they are rather long. They include all the usual things like 'tackle that mound of ironing that is now making friends with the lampshade on the ceiling' and all manner of other pressure inducing things that have been made Very Important and Very Necessary.

So...I am making more time for the small stuff. The simple, necessary stuff that makes us feel good - the stuff that is necessary to ground us and keep us sane, like quite literally smelling the roses and admiring a blue, sunshine filled sky.

It's also about saying No to things that can't be achieved, or to things I don't always feel I want to do. No can be a hard word to say at times, but I've realised if I want to keep my sanity, and have an hour or so to myself each day then I'm going to have to.

And so far so good. The skin has cleared up, the gentle pace and just making time for little me has proved to be the best medicene there is!

I've been eating a bit healthier too, after some recent baking jaunts I felt enough was enough, there is only so much rocky road one can consume without being sick, and so it was a real pleasure to go into the garden and pick our first little crop of dwarf peas and broad beans...

The daughter's first strawbs appeared too...

...look at all those pretty borage flowers! Methinks I can feel a recipe coming on...

A Tasty Summer Garden Pasta if you please!

It's so very easy, and you don't have to have borage flowers to decorate (but you know me, I couldn't help myself) :D

I cooked up a batch of spaghetti and grated a big handful of parmesan cheese.

Meanwhile, crush a little garlic clove and sizzle gently in a tablespoon or so of good olive oil (don;t let it burn though, it tastes revolting)...when the pasta is half way cooked, toss in the broad beans and peas to cook for the remaining 4 minutes or so, that's all they need honestly - drain when ready and add to the garlic and oil mixture. Toss well and add the parmesan, stirring quickly as it will melt beautifully over the pasta, peas and beans...season with salt and pepper and eat it quickly, before somebody else does!

Voila!

It doesn't get much better than that, from garden to plate in 15 minutes.

(This has turned into one of those famously long posts again...)

Before I go, I just wanted to show you something we bought at the weekend, and I was in a rapture about it the minute I clapped eyes on it!

Now, some of you who kindly visit me regularly will know about our camping escapade that we have been planning for a few weeks now...buying the tent and all manner of bits and necessary bobs so that we have the delicious luxury (weather pending of course) to take off somewhere on a whim if the weekend is free! Hurrah!! What a plan indeed!! And yes, already our first weekend is looming large, we travel south tomorrow to road test our new kit! Lets hope the weather is kind, but if it isn't I can heartily thank Diane at Heartshaped for all her generous and thoughtful camping wisdom.

But anyway, I digress...I was going to show you my latest purchase that had me swooning...

Isn't that the sweetest, most retro, most funky camp kettle you ever clapped eyes on??? And doesn't it just sit beautifully with its little melamine neighbour? Oh people, I can only imagine that with age a slight lunacy decends when one is reduced to having raptures about a camping kettle...add to that it whistles and I really felt I had gone to camping heaven. Honestly.

I suppose it happens to the best of us, and yet its just those very moments that make ordinary life so very extraordinarily special!

I'm off to pack now, keep your fingers crossed that we don't suffer the mercy of those vile storms that crossed Yorkshire last night and we'll be happy...if it's dry, it's a bonus isn't it?!

Have a good weekend, thanks for stopping by.

Mucho love

J x