Sunday in the garden

The first mint tea of the summer

Strawberries growing in baskets

Knitting in the sunshine

Perfect Sunday

Grand Canyon

At the last minute we sneaked in a
trip to the Grand Canyon. It wasn't
on our schedule originally as we have
been twice before but being this near
it was impossible to miss.
Although we have been before and
can even lay claim to being among
the 5% of visitors who have actually
hiked below the rim of the canyon,
the sheer size and majesty still took
my breath away.

Petrified Forest

Back in the USA later this week so
I had better speed up with the story
of the last trip!
From New Mexico we headed back
west for our flight home but not before
visiting the Petrified Forest National Park
where trees have turned from wood to
amazing coloured rock over a period
of hundreds of years.

Autumn colours New Mexico style

Next stop on our trip was Santa Fe,
New Mexico which was like a slice of
Spain in the middle of the USA.
being back in the city after a couple
of weeks hiking the desert and taking
steam trains into the mountains it was
time for some shopping and some art,
namely the Georgia O'Keefe gallery
which conveniently had free entry on
the day we arrived and was gorgeous.
As well as admiring the paintings we
were able to watch short films narrated
by Georgia O'Keefe describing why she
came to settle in New Mexico and how it
influenced her art.

View from seat 57

Durango to Silverton

This is the steam train we caught from Durango
to Silverton - 3 and a half hours each way so
just as well that the scenery was breath-taking
pretty much all the way.

Mesa Verde

On our way to our next destination of
Durango in Colarado we stopped at Mesa
Verde National Park to see these amazing
cliff dwellings built around 900 years ago.
At some point the cliff dwellers left
abandonning their homes and nobody knows
quite why though a prolonged draught seems
the most likely explanation.
The houses were built over several stories and
you have to climb down ladders and crawl
through tunnels if you want to see it all!

The Open Road

I am addicted to Road Trips when I get the chance
for a holiday. For me nothing beats roads as empty
as this and space as big as this (maybe because I
live in SE England which is great but just has
nothing on this scale!)
Here we are en route to Moab and this is where
Forrest Gump famously stopped running and
announced "I think I'll just go home"
As for me I was too busy enjoying driving further
from home with two and a half weeks holiday
still to go.

Rainbow Bridge

After a couple of nights at Zion it was on to
Lake Powell and a boat trip to Rainbow Bridge.
The story of this bridge is that two Navajo
warriors descended to earth on a rainbow after
travelling into the sky to see their father.
The rainbow then set in stone and is still there
today.
The bridge is sacred to the Navajo people who
ask that you don't touch or walk under it.
It takes around two hours on the boat to get
there followed by a short very hot hike but it is
definitely worth it. Spectacular!

Hiking the Narrows

We have just returned from 3 weeks
road trip round several States in the
USA. This was definitely one of the best
things we did while staying at Zion Canyon
in Utah. The Narrows trail is as its name says
Narrow so at points the only option is to
hike actually in the river!

Brighton beach huts

The first day of my "staycation" dawned
hot and sunny and started with a walk
along the beach to one of my favourite
breakfast places Woodies.
I love the beach huts - very much a symbol
of Brighton.
No pictures of breakfast -we were so hungry
it was all gone before I thought of photos!

Lavender's blue

I am just coming up to the end of two weeks
off work but at home before heading off to the
USA on proper holidays.
Theoretically that should have meant more
time for blogging but somehow it didn't work
out quite like that!
I have however been busy, catching up with
family, making cookies, gardening, sewing,
making apple chutney and apple and blackberry
puddings with the fruit in our garden and
visiting the Banksy exhibition in Bristol.
The pillows above are filled with lavender,
making my sewing room smell fantastic.

Jam today

Jam today and for many days to come following
our trip to the farm for raspberry-picking this
Sunday.
We had originally planned to go fruit-picking on
Saturday but were stopped by torrential rain
all afternoon. Sunday, however was dry & sunny
so we visited the farm shop for crusty bread and
ate ploughmans in the cafe there before picking
nearly four kilos of raspberries most of which are
now jam, some topping a raspberry & redcurrant
cake and some waiting to be made into puree for
freezing.

Food Glorious Food

Just returned from a weekend in Scotland
visiting family. The travelling was horrific -
anyone contemplating travelling by Easyjet
should take note that it is anything BUT easy!
In fact it is more like a giant obstacle course
with as many difficulties put it in the travellers
path as possible - the moral of the story is that
as ever you get what you pay for and when you
don't pay much you don't get much!
Travelling aside the weekend was fab especially
the food which included the puddings above
served on gorgeous flower printed plates.

Patchwork skies

This week I have been doing lots of patchwork

but it is for a present so I can't post photos yet

Instead some patchwork like photos of our

July skies. True to form the British summer

has brought lots of variable weather this month!

July skies

Been taking photos of the sky this month.
The summer weather has been fab this year
(though not so good this week sadly) but we
seem to have spent lots more time than usual
in the garden enjoying sunshine and blue skies
and it's still only early July.

Mint Tea

Also been growing mint for mint tea
just like they served me in Valvona
and Crolla in Edinburgh -
but of course free!

How does your garden grow?

Usually my garden just grows weeds but this
year I have aimed to keep the view from the
kitchen window looking good. So for the last
four months the tubs have been flourishing.
How pretty these Verbena are - wish
I had planted more. You can just see the
Nasturiums starting to grow next to them so
hopefully they will feature on the blog in due
course.

Strawberry time

Yes its that time of year - we went strawberry-
picking last weekend and made loads of fabulous
strawberry jam the next day.
The rate it is disappearing at we may have to
make a return trip while it is still strawberry-
picking season!