They're all going on a summer holiday...

...whereas I'm destined to stay put for all weeks to come. Isn't summer supposed to be the high time of freedom, beauty, truth and love (above all things, love)? But no! Here it rains every second day, thunder storms and hale showers keep one up at nights, there is no one to talk to, and to cap it all, Italy didn't make it past the quarter-finals. Plus the longest 'holiday' I get to have this summer is three whole days.

Now that I got that out of my system, I can mention some agreeable things that have happened to me:

The Good Luck Shamrock my friend P left in my care for the summer is blossoming. Beautiful, pale violet flowers!

My balcony is full of flowers and bright with rich colours, the sort only nature can create.

In a week I shall witness the wedding of two friends: a match made in heaven if there ever was one.

Behind the window I can see a beautiful, peaceful summer evening sky...

I had a lovely midsummer with my family (including an uncommonly prolific photoshoot with my sister):



Our lovely miss Nekku hovered around the grill in the hope of catching a stray sausage.




What is marshmallow but fluffy sugar? Not the most salubrious of comestibles, perhaps, but o so good! (And please note my use of Grammar Hell vocabulary there.)