High Summer

Sonata:

Not that it's blazingly hot or anything ... in fact it's rained more often than not lately ..... still , it's definitely August . The streets are empty as those that can , get away to sunbathe and shake their heads at strange foreign ways . But , having holidayed earlier , I'm at home and pottering.

I'm tidying again and discovering forgotten summery treasures like these sample cards for French ribbon , for some reason buried in a box of knitting patterns

And trying to rescue the coffee table which , after forty or so years of service , looks ready to turn up its toes , while listening to silly audio books like "Five Red Herrings "by Dorothy L. Sayers or "Dr Finlay , Further Adventures of a Black Bag " ( we who purchase our audio books in car boot sales take what we can get ) . And doing as little cooking as possible while eating what used to be called An Ample Sufficiency :

This is just a warm salad of grilled chicken breast , marinaded in Ras Al Hanouf , olive oil and lemon juice , over rocket and new potatoes . Simple and good ....... though not photogenic !

And talking about food , grandson , until recently omniverous , will now only eat fish fingers . His desperate mother , fearing scurvy , has taken to making smoothies of increasing diversity . He took a sip of one of the latest and put it down , " I don't like cold soup " . She feels that maybe the sesame seeds and cucumber with apple , carrot and yoghurt version had maybe an ingredient too many.

And finally , because I now seem to have millions of buttons , I've listed a few sets on Etsy . There'll be more over the next few days .