Harvest and rain

The sky is a rapidly darkening blue-grey, heavy with clouds, and I can hear the drip of rain from the rooftops and the gentle swish of the cars on the wet tarmac of the street below. Many people I know feel sad on nights like this, mourning the loss of long, light evenings spent outdoors, but I have secret thrill within me, because this is the season that I love.

Tonight I am going to cook cauliflower cheese with purple cauliflower from the farmers' market, accompanied by a spinach leaf salad (grown by Mum) with orange and walnut dressing (oh Mr. Slater, how you inspire me!). I have both leeks and potatoes from Mum's garden in the fridge, calling to me to make a big pot of soup for lunches this week, and a bright orange onion squash on the sideboard (also grown by Mum - I am a very bad daughter for reaping all the rewards of her summer spent sowing, weeding and watering and yet rarely being around to help with it all! Thanks Mum!) which will probably be turned into a Sunday night risotto. I have the recently purchased Season 2 of Gossip Girl to nestle down with as the rain trickles down the windowpanes, and I am planning on having a long bath, my first of the season as I prefer showering in summer, with scented oils and possibly candles if I am feeling very indulgent.

I just had a phone call from M who had arrived home after cycling from Marylebone to Oval, in the rain. He sounded exhilarated. 'It was fun!' he exclaimed, 'damp, but fun.'.

I am glad it is not just me who gets a kick out of this sort of weather.

Four days in

If the first four days are anything to go by, it looks like the August weather is going to be as unpredictable as July's was. On Saturday, it was overcast, with a slight chill in the air, which made me feel far less guilty about the very lazy day we had than I would have done if the sun had been shining. Following a very late night the night before for a friend's birthday, we got back into bed after breakfast and lay, and read, and dozed. Lunch was an indoor picnic of sorts, which we ate whilst leafing through my cookery books to decide what to make for supper for some friends who were coming over. The rain began just as we arrived back from a quick ingredients shop, and we turned the radio on and started chopping and peeling and crushing and squeezing as it got heavier and heavier, falling in sheets over the London rooftops. I was in charge of the evening's main course, and made a Nigel Slater Thai Green vegetable curry, whilst M was in charge of desert, a deconstructed cheesecake (gingernut base, mascarpone and lime cream, mango and passion fruit topping - his own adaptation). It all felt very autumnal with the dark heavy sky and the steamed up windows. I don't want to wish summer away by any means (I still have a summer holiday to come in September, and various summer dresses still to be worn), but some days you just have to go with it.

Sunday of course was a complete contrast, we went to a barbecue in a friend's garden, sat outdoors and drank Pimms and afterwards walked home across Regent's Park, all beneath a clear blue sky.

Yesterday we had more sun, today it was grey and muggy and threatening rain.

Ah, the British summer.

(Oh and I am finally tagging Anna from Book Early with the questions I answered awhile back. I know I am supposed to tag more people, and I really did try, but all my 'newly discovered' blogs seem to have already been tagged by someone else, and I wouldn't want people to have to answer the same questions twice in quick succession!)

Grey Monday

It is wet and grey outside, and this morning, after a very relaxing weekend, I didn't want to get out of my warm bed. Now I am up though, with a couple of cups of tea inside me, it's not so bad, and things are quiet at work at the moment which allows for a bit of cheeky posting.

I thought this was a cheerful image for such a gloomy day; the flowers were left by a friend for my sister when she returned home a couple of weeks ago after a small operation. How lovely to arrive back from the hospital to a beautiful bunch of hand-picked garden flowers sticking out of the letterbox. I couldn't resist taking a few photos as I thought they'd come in handy for a rainy day!

Rainy Saturday

It is just gone six and the sun is only now emerging over the rain-damp garden here at M's parents' home in Northamptonshire where I am staying for the weekend after his graduation day yesterday. I don't mind really as the gloomy weather has meant I don't feel too much like a couch-potato staying in and watching Wimbledon (where Murray is just about to start on centre court, so short post I'm afraid), but looking through some photos that my sister took at a friend's recent dinner party made me long for balmy summer evenings like we had a couple of weeks ago.