Lacking in inspiration and oomph (a common state, these days), I wandered around the garden, scissors in hand, to find a few flowers to pop in a vase to join Cathy’s Monday vase gathering. We have several types of lavender in the garden and there are two bushes with paler flowers on long stems down by the mini-orchard (I think they are a Lavandula x intermedia). The flowers reach out over the path as if they’re trying to hold hands with the white agapanthus on the other side. There are so many flowers that a bunch won’t be missed. Likewise the mint, which I ill-advisedly planted next to one of the pear trees – this plant seems to be on a mission for world domination and needs to be taken in hand. Snip. Next, I cut a few Japanese anemones. They don’t last long as a cut flower but I do love the way the flowers and buds are held aloft long fuzzy stems (although they do droop) – soft and peachy.
Finally, because my bunch was looking too blue and white, some red Salvia (can’t remember its name). The scent is strongly sage-like (funny that) and mixes well with the mint and lavender. The combined fragrance momentarily whisked me off to the south of France and hot blue-sky days, perfect croissants and sunflowers. Like many others, we are not going on holiday this year but David and I do have some time booked off work at the end of the month. There is a long list of jobs to do in the house and garden but if the weather is good, I think we will mostly be here 🙂
I hope you are well and managing to remain chipper. We are all very up and down but doing our best to keep things on an even keel. The non-exam results are looming so there is lurking tension and no doubt more drama ahead. Oh good. Take care and see you again soon x
acoastalplot 
Good to have you with us today Sam and hear that you are jogging along, albeit up and down. What a pretty vase your blooms are in – I think it must be bigger than I first thought it was? Lovely mix of blooms and fragrances (I love the smell of salvia foliage) – and the picture above your vase must be wonderful when seen in its entirety!
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I’m so surprised to see the Japanese anemone, Sam. That’s a fall flower here, as it doesn’t dare to appear when summer heat is at its most intense. I sympathize with the ups and downs – that’s unfortunately a common ailment at this time. Best wishes.
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Love the painting, vase of beautiful fresh flowers and the view from your deck chairs. Make sure you have some downtime at the end of the month and recharge the batteries. Everything crossed for the non-exam results. Xx
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Plenty of people would choose to spend some of their holiday in your deck chairs with that wonderful view! Beautiful bunch of flowers – I think the smell is almost as important as the look.
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Lurking tension here too, or maybe it’s just me. I agree with Anne that your deckchairs look incredibly inviting, especially with the scent of lavender wafting gently around them and the sea in the distance. Blissful. A wisp of time off here too, we’ll see how that goes. And as you say, exam results, yikes. CJ xx
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What a pretty bouquet. Sitting on your deck chairs would be lovely – we are all doing vacations a bit differently this year, aren’t we?
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Lovely to see a new post from you. You certainly have a flair for photographing vases of flowers – when I try I either get a load of undesirable background (and at the moment with our ongoing renovations it is all very undesirable), or I go in too close and lose the vase. There’s a knack, as my husband annoyingly says about all electrical/mechanical things which I fail to operate. Sending very best wishes for exam results. Having worked in university admissions it’s always a time of year that causes a little anxiety by proxy spike for me. I hope the English exam results are better handled than ours this year in Scotland. Apart from the main impact on the kids affected, I feel for universities, which will be trying to reconcile government targets to admit a certain percentage of students from areas of social and economic deprivation/underperforming schools, with the fact that are the students who in many cases this year have fallen short on their grades because of the system used in lieu of exams.
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I love the painting in the background. I also wanted to say that although I had seen mention of your site for teenage girls – Agnes, I hadn’t looked at it before. I am so impressed. I have a granddaughter at the age that Agnes is aimed at so I will pass the link along to her.
Summer is waning here, (Winnipeg) our strawberry season with sweltering heat and huge downpours was over in the blink of an eye. We had been doing quite well with the virus, but now we are going to colour coded areas when “upticks” which seem to be increasing occur. I also enjoyed reading what meals you are making, and always seeing the glimpse of the sea. We are 2 weeks away from school starting here.
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