Enjoying the Last of the Summer Season

Feeling grateful in late August

Sketchbook swallows

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Late August

Change of heart in the dreams I bear—

Green leaf turns to brown;

The second half of the month is here,

The days are closing down.

Love so swift to up and follow

The season’s fugitive,

If thou must, make rapture hollow,

But leave me dreams to live.

Change of heart! O season’s end!

Time and tide and sorrow!

I care not what the Fates may send,

Here’s to ye, goodmorrow!

-William Stanley Braithwaite

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I am feeling grateful for being able to sit in my garden to type this blog. I have come to the table knowing that I want to write about the end of the summer season and making the most of the sunshine days. I woke early this morning, so early that the sun was just starting to rise. I went downstairs to make a cup of tea and enjoy the sun rising. However, as I grabbed a blanket to get cosy on the sofa, I pulled up the blinds to see a sea of misty white, blanketing the garden. There was no sunshine casting shadows across the lawn, just a white mist hanging over the borders where I could just make out the teasel and fennel seed heads standing tall and still in the heavy morning air. There was a chill in the air and everything outside was damp, it felt like Autumn was knocking at the door.

I love autumn but I am also determined not to wish the last of the summer season away. The second flush of roses have appeared in the garden, along with my fiery coloured dahlias and yellow echinacea and rudbeckia. I harvested a small batch of blueberries this week, which I had for breakfast, feeling surprised that some had survived considering the onslaught from the blackbirds. In the greenhouse I have harvested a few cucumbers and tomatoes successfully, hoping that the last of the green fruit will ripen before the temperature drops.

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Last Days of August

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I have decided to make a conscious effort to make the most of these last few days of August, come rain or shine I will make sure I see and take in the visitors to my garden, appreciating the bees, butterflies, dragonflies, moths and even the slugs and snails. The late flowers still going strong and the house martins still nesting in the eaves of the house. These last days of summer will continue to feed my soul, to remind me to appreciate my surroundings, not to take the natural beauty of summer for granted. I sit here typing this whilst listening to an aircraft passing in the sky, the birds singing, the house martins flitting around and the gentle hum of nature. I feel grateful and truly blessed to be here and present in this moment. When the season changes and it’s time to retreat back indoors I will look back on this summer day with fondness and gratitude. Today is a good day.

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“This is a wonderful day. I have never seen this one before.”

- Maya Angelou

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I hope you manage to get outside this bank holiday weekend, come rain or shine. Don’t forget to just take some time for yourself, to just stop, to use all of your senses to enjoy the simplest of things. For me, I hope to get some rock pooling time in with Audrey and you never know, if the sun makes an appearance I may treat us to an ice-cream.

Wishing you all a fabulous bank holiday weekend and don’t forget to check out my YouTube channel where I share with you my latest art supplies, paintings and inspiration. There is a video titled “The Gardener” where you’ll get a sneak peek of my garden. Don’t forget to give me a like, comment and subscribe, it motivates me to carry on doing what I do…

Love & light,

Clare 💜🙏