Rounding Up June

What a fleeting month June has been. I wish it had lingered a little longer. I love the long hours of daylight and this year we've been lucky with the weather - lots of dry sunny days, a couple of hot ones but mostly just warm which for me is just fine.

Today was A's last day at nursery and after the summer holidays she will be starting school. In Scotland the summer holidays run from the end of June till the middle of August and you start school in the year you turn 5 (with a couple of months leeway for those born at the start/end of the year for advancement/deferment), prior to this children are entitled to 12.5 hours per week at nursery from the age of 3. She has been very happy at the nursery and today was tinged with a little sadness as it was the last tme she'd be there.

Anyway, I've some catching up to do for the past week...


I went charity shopping, haven't been for a while. I didn't see any bargains at first, then I spotted this little tea set. I took a closer look - it's a complete, undamaged 6 place set with serving plate, sugar bowl, and cream jug, all for just £6.

Just a shame that I don't actually like tea! But I have friends who do, so perhaps one day we'll play at afternoon tea - a good excuse for some more cake baking if nothing else.

I also found a wool shop I hadn't been in before and succumbed to some more yarn for the blanket.

We went to Finlaystone for our toddler group day out. I've been here several times but have still to fully explore the estate. The children always love the pirate ship though it's starting to look a little worn out and bits are starting to fall off. There are quite a few different play areas throught the woods.

There are also some more formal gardens with some beautiful plants. We always tend to zoom through these though, on the way to other areas which are more interesting to children.

The celtic knot maze was popular. We spent about 5 hours at Finlaystone (the good weather helped) and will probably be back for another visit over the summer. Next time we'll go with hubby as he's still never been, what a treat!

Last year I was lucky enough to be given a bottle of a friend's elderflower champagne. I was so impressed with it I though I'd have a go myself. We even have an elderflower bush growing right alongside the garden so the only effort involved was buying the lemons. However, though I started it off on Friday it still hasn't started to ferment. I've added a little yeast and still no action. I fear it may end up down the sink/on the compost pile, sadly.

I've still not been able to manage a Saturday morning cycle, but we did get out on a little Sunday morning family cycle along the cycle path to our usual destination. There has been a new addition to the cycle path art work since I was last along this way.

We had been hoping to see a model boat racing event, but I think it must have been cancelled due to the windy weather. There were plenty of real boats out on the loch instead.

I liked the dramatic skies in the above photo. We have had some rain in the past few days, just as well as the garden was starting to get a bit parched, we'd even had to buy a hose to water the veggies.

I also took a little break from the blanket and made this owl as a graduation present for my niece, no idea as to whether or not she'll like it but I enjoyed making it and was pleased with the result. It's based on this pattern.
I also managed to clear enough space at my desk to work on another pair of tealight holders. The robin is a gift for A's nursery teacher...

...as is this badge, the design for which A drew herself. I also picked a bunch of flowers from the garden, I wish I'd taken a photo as they did look quite nice despite our garden somehow being a little sparse for flowers at this time of year.

So now it's summer holiday time, and tomorrow it's my birthday. Hubby has taken this book into work with him to plan a cake, lucky me!

I've been a little remiss in my blog following recently due to lack of spare time but hope to manage to visit my usual blogs very soon and I'm very much looking forward to catching up with everyone's news...