And now it's all over

So that's it ! That was summer! Next week I am back at work and autumn is well and truly heading our way. It has been the wettest summer for a hundred years but the Curate and I have had a great time. What has made it so fantastic? The public celebrations set the tone, from the Royal Jubilee to the Olympics and now the Paralympics.  On a personal level, perhaps it is because The Curate knows he is at the end of his training and we can begin to look forward. Perhaps it is because I have made decisions regarding my work. Perhaps it is because both sons are back in the UK.  Perhaps it is because we have managed some stress free time away, we have caught up with family and managed to take two very well behaved dogs with us. Perhaps it is because I have taken full advantage of living near the moor and have been able to ride regularly. All in all - an excellent summer!

So now what? Job adverts and applications become The Curate's focal points while he carries on serving in his present parish. After a summer of officiating at weddings, he is fully wedding trained and he has become quite an expert on the practicalities of various wedding dress designs. He has managed to not drop the rings or step on the wedding dress. He has lost his sermon and had to go looking for it during the hymn singing and managed to conceal his panic. He has calmed excited bridesmaids and handed hankies to bridegrooms.

Perhaps the secret to the success of this summer has been to ignore the weather and totally immerse ourselves in all that has been going on. After all, skin is waterproof!

Granny's Garden

My mother's garden is beautiful at the moment - a true English garden, hidden from sight behind a village house. What a wonderfully relaxing (dry) place to start our holiday.

 The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses.  ~Hanna Rion

 

One is nearer God's heart in a garden
than anywhere else on earth.
  Dorothy Frances Gurney

Remind me .....this is summer.

From my gardens.

It's raining again and I do not want to get up. I would rather pull the duvet over my head and doze, listening to the radio murmuring, masking the sound of rain driving at our bedroom window. But I can't, this is a three service Sunday which means I get the early dog walk so that The Curate can get off to church. The rain means socks, wellies and waterproofs - in July - I ask you! 

I have been willing the flowers in our garden to open but I fear this weather will either set them back a bit  - or flatten them. Fortunately I have been photographing the few that dare to open in my shady garden. With the wonder of technology, I can put them all together in this collage (and miraculously duplicate them) and dream of what my garden might be!