Summer Has Come From The Sunny Land ...

... finally!

And what a joy it is after so long in the waiting. And not only is the sun shining and the skies are blue but it is really hot. Of course there are plenty of places in the world hotter but 27 C feels pretty hot after the long spell of damp and chilly grey that has been the history of the UK summer so far. Not to waste any time, (because you never know, the sun may be here today but it may be gone again tomorrow or next week!), I have taken the Roman poet, Horace's advice of "carpe diem" at his word and, as far as other stuff has allowed, I've gone a bit lazy and summery for the last few days .

Lazy And Summery 1: There has been breakfast in the garden in the very early morning - one of my all-time favourite summer pastimes at the beginning of a hot day when even early in the morning it's warm outside and everything has a quiet completeness about it that simply isn't there once the day has got started properly. Drops of dew dance in the sunlight that is already beginning to dry them to nothing; just the pigeons are cooing gentle good morning noises; the frenetic swallows have not yet taken off in their swift-wheeling, calling flight that will criss-cross the blue sky like flashing, indigo sickles later in the day; the flowers that have closed up overnight are thinking about silently opening their petals to the sun and there is virtually no other noise at all. The odd car perhaps but almost nothing else. I love this time - it's as if time itself stands still for a moment or two and holds its breath before exhaling and moving on. And if you can catch it over breakfast, even if work is calling you and the business of the day is waiting, the day is somehow always better for being begun like this.

Lazy And Summery 2: There has been sewing in the garden later on, once it is too hot to sit out in the direct sun. An after-lunch idyll among the humming bees and drifting scent of sweet peas intensified by the heat. My mother always used to cart her sewing machine outside in the summer -  I recommend it. And I've had several containable sewable projects just right for an hour's sewing before the rest of life has cut in. I've been doing more sewing than crochet in my spare time lately - I think it's having my elderly sewing machine repaired and serviced and given a new lease of life that's triggered my amateur sewing mojo!

Lazy And Summery 3: The moment has come for my Summer Has Come From The Sunny Land blanket to sun herself! She is quite small as blankets go - about 36" square so more of a throw really than a blanket but I love her. She is everything I hoped she would be - summery, light and reminiscent of wallflowers, sweet peas, roses and lavender. I half expect to smell these flowers when I hold her to my face!

The pattern is Attic 24 Lucy's Summer Garden Granny Squares which you can find here and I've used a mixture of the Sublime yarn I bought on my Teensy Yarn Spree back in February and some Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino that I had in my stash. I added a border, the first I have done for a blanket which I modelled on Lucy's picot border that she added to her Granny Stripe Blanket which she shows how to do in her post here.

I think I should possibly have increased the number of stitches at the corners more than I did as they have a tendency to curl a little but not enough to worry about.

Hope you too are enjoying a bit of Lazy And Summery - life needs a bit of it in my book!