Notes from the summer

An unintentional summer break

There’s a nip in the air and the start of the leaves changing colour, which is giving me a strong ‘back to school’ feeling. I love this time of year, autumn has always been my favourite season. Although, now I’m a gardener blessed with my own private outdoor space, I have to say I’ve found a lot more joy in spring and summer than in previous years. Still, I don’t want to wish the year away, but I have to admit to looking for those signs of the earth tilting away from the sun.

It’s been a wee whilie since I last wrote here, and I’ve missed it! I’ve spent the last couple of months thinking about topics and ideas for the blog and podcast, but renovating the house has somewhat taken over our lives. I’m accepting of it, there are seasons in life for everything and we have nearly broken the back of the biggest of the renovation projects (new kitchen goes in next week, quickly followed by carpets, flooring, stove, and patio door). We’re very lucky and privileged to be in the position to both own our own home, and have funds to renovate it, but it is stressful and exhausting at the same time. I’m already looking forward to November, when hopefully the worst of the upheaval will be over.

This thrifted Caithness glass bud vase has brought so much joy, making wee posies from plants and flowers in my garden

I was going to wait until this period of construction work is over, but I missed writing too much! My brain and notes app are overflowing with ideas, none of which I have the bandwidth to execute at the moment. I’ve still got my Bare Minimum Artist’s Way to complete as well, I’ve got as far as week 8 out of 12 so I’m not giving up now.

I was inspired by Elise Joy (a permanent state of being for me) and her newsletter to just start where I am, and send this summer update. It’s a big one with lots of photos, so you may need to click the link at the top or bottom to view the whole thing in your email or Substack app. I don’t want to wait until the ‘perfect’ time to start sending out updates again, so I’m just going to start writing when I’m inspired and try not to over think about topics and schedules. Even if it’s just a sporadic Notes from the Week, it’s still practicing my writing, and putting my work out there.

Before

After (but still not done)

Decorating has been taking up much of my spare time in July and August. My parents came to visit, so we had a frantic two weeks trying to fit wall prep, hole filling, painting and cleaning around night shifts and life admin, prior to their arrival. It was my Dad’s first trip to Inverness and my Mum’s second, so we were keen they had a good time and enjoyed our new home. Despite the lack of carpet, bare ceiling, lack of skirting board, and paint-splattered step stool-cum-bedside table, I think they were comfortable in our newly painted guest bedroom.

A visit from my parents wouldn’t be complete without some kind of family DIY project. Andrew and I are keen to fence part of our front garden, to make it dog safe. The patio door will eventually lead straight out into this space, but currently we climb out here through a window, using a set of homemade steps. This fence is a huge improvement on the green plastic temporary fencing we were using before. We managed half the fence with Mum & Dad, so hopefully over the autumn Andrew and I will finish the second section. Luckily that part is mostly hidden behind trees and bushes, so the temporary fencing is less obvious now, whilst still being dog proof. I spent a happy few hours today planting up the new border on the off side of the fence. I’m not really able to plant on the right side, since the dogs run free in this area and tend to trash any newly planted seeds. I’m still trying to figure out how to get around this problem, since there are so many plants I want to put in the bare ground you can see above.

We also bought a new chair for our birdwatching station (the name for this chair-foot rest combo), since we were using an old chair of Andrew’s parents, which wasn’t really our aesthetic. It’s wider than a normal one person armchair, which means it’s perfect for cuddling a dog, whilst reading or watching the birds. It’s quickly become everyone’s new favourite napping spot.

I joined a local beekeepers association, after finding out someone at work is the treasurer, and very much enjoyed this apiary visit. There was tea and home baking on one of the hottest days of the year. Everyone was very friendly and I’m hoping next year might be my year to get bees again.

The garden has been super productive so far, a fact for which I am incredibly grateful and amazed. Having started the growing season with such high hopes and so many plans, I’ve gradually had to drop ideas and change tack many times, as renovation life has overtaken me. So many seedlings and plants have died from lack of care, I’m embarrassed to admit. I’m very much appreciating any plant that is robust enough to get on with things, despite me forgetting to water them, or letting other things crowd them out. I’m planning a garden round up post towards the end of the season, to summarise all the things that have gone well this year, and the things I would do differently in the future. I have so much to learn as a gardener!

I made rhubarb and red currant jam from fruit from the garden, and it is so good! Tangy and sweet, perfect on yoghurt with fruit and nuts as an afternoon snack. After spending too long labelling these jars with an analogue label maker, I played around in Canva to work out how to make my very own Craft & Thrift labels for my preserves and pickles. Although I love the look of an old-school label, I occasionally give jars away, so it’s nice they’ll now have a ‘proper’ label with ingredients.

I had to harvest a lot of the tomatoes before they were ripe, to avoid losing them to rot (a mistake of my own making for not thinning them out enough) so I used this YouTube recipe to make pickled green tomatoes. Of course, now I’m going down a fantasy rabbit hole wherein I run my own stall at a farmers market…

My current project is gathering brambles every few days from my overgrown hedgerow, to turn into bramble jelly. I’m keeping them in the freezer until they stop producing, then I’ll make a big batch. Depending on how it turns out, I might give them to people for Christmas. A jar of sweet & spicy pickled tomatoes and a matching jar of bramble jelly, labelled with my Craft & Thrift labels sounds quite sweet I think.

Despite planting 5 Landrace Desert Spirit gourds, I’ve so far only got one fruit. We’ve named him Gourdon and I love checking on him every day. He’s actually turned a bit more orange since this photo was taken. My plan is to use him to decorate the house in the autumn, then cook and eat him (sorry Gourdon).

I’ve been trying my hand (feet?) at trail running and despite some false starts, I think I’m going to love it. I’ve been several times with Rosie Toaster, our new baby ex-Guide dog, and she makes a really good running buddy. I’ve got some trail plans for the autumn, before the weather gets too cold and slushy.

There has barely been any sewing around these parts, since all my sewing stuff is packed away in various boxes and cupboards. I did manage to over-dye 2 men’s shirts and a sweatshirt with some navy Dylon. I’m wearing one of the shirts below, to an art exhibit and makers market date with a pal (plus my Modern Sewing Company Worker Trousers), and the sweatshirt in the photo above posing with Andrew and the fence. Both have been worn so much more since dyeing them.

Wherever you are, I hope your summer has been full of joy and you’re excited for the new season. Thanks for reading to the end, if you made it this far, and I’ll hopefully see you with a bit more frequency from now on!