The end of June.

A little bit of summer seems finally to have arrived here. The schools are now finished for the holidays and recently we've had a few pleasantly sunny days.

The garden path in June.

On one sunny afternoon we picked a few elderflower heads from the bush growing alongside our garden. I'm trying this recipe this year, it's nice and simple.

I like to use an Ikea samla storage box to make hold my brew! The mixture is bottled after only 24 hours so it doesn't clutter up the place in this form for too long.

Having been complimented on the taste of last years effort but criticised on my presentation I got my resident graphic designer to make me up some labels.

Much better! I bottled it on the 24th June, it will be ready to sample two weeks from then, so just another week to go.

We've also had the usual end of term outings. N's toddler group visited Finlaystone (yes, we went there last year too, it's a nice (and relatively affordable) place to visit with children. I expect we'll visit there again at least once over the summer holidays.

On the morning of the trip there was much excitement as the grass in the field across the road from the house was being cut - some tractor action from our very own window!

There are several lovely buildings on the Finlaystone estate, this is the old laundry.

And here is the arched entrance into the walled gardens.

In addition to the gardens, there is a huge woodland area with many activities for the children scattered throught. We were also lucky with the weather and had a lovely day.

And we arrived home in time to see all the mown grass being collected, perfect!

A few days later it was my birthday.

I got some lovely presents, thank you T!

The birthday cake. It's a carrot cake minus the orangey cheesey icing I love so much. I've been eating far too much sugar recently and am trying to reign myself in before I get completely out of control.

I saw a bullfinch in the garden, I wonder if it's the same one I saw over the winter (a photo of him is buried deep in this post, brrrr - does it look cold back then!). It's the first time I've seen one in summer, he was pecking at the seeds from the violas in the flower pot.

Now to today. While A was enjoying her last day of P1 at school. N and I enjoyed a cycle trip with the trailer.

We had company too, though unfortunately some technical issues halted us in our tracks.

A chance to stop and admire the wild flowers, mostly ox eye daisies and clover. Our friend sadly had to turn for home so we sped on to catch up with the others.

Though I did stop a couple of times to take some photos of the daisies.

I do like the daisies!

Soon we arrived at the loch. It was very still and the reflections were crystal clear.

What fun there is to be had with some sticks and shallow water.

Umbellifer.

Then home to collect A from school...

...followed by a rather fabulous Mr Men party in a lovely garden hosted by a very considerate Mum - Bucks Fizz for the grown-ups. It was nice.