August - Portobello Beach

A good day

So happy to finally get a bit of sunshine between the clouds and be well enough to get out and enjoy it this morning with a simple blueberry breakfast and some frivolous silvery toenail painting - got to reflect every last drop of sunshine now that we have some. It's my way of pretending I've had a summer holiday. I'm not a pink cardigan sort of person, but i never say no to free cashmere hand-me-downs!

Still got some blueberries ripening on the bushes...



The Clematis/Hops is finally old enough to reach along the fence and then cross over onto the shed, creating a nice floral bower over the secret path between the sheds - which has become even more secret after this years rain made the bamboo grow like crazy...





The Clematis even creeps round in the other direction onto the back side of the shed (yes, in a 3rd shade of bluey green). I hope next year I will have some energy for gardening and can train it properly across the shed wall, I just had it tangled over a small nail this year so it was a bit bedraggled...




I just adore that clematis and grow have it growing on the East fence paired with Goldenrod, Evening Primrose and Eupatorium/Eutrochium...




Finally after 2 years without we got hold of some organic corn. The garden is in shade by late afternoon but I was determined to eat it outside anyway since there was still a lovely warm breeze. Who needs sun when you have a freshly boiled cob on your plate...

A few mid August sunsets

Sunset on 18th August

As I was taking the sunset at the top over a 20 minute period I heard a distant bang and realised that in the distance the fireworks could be see going of at Edinburgh Castle. They usually start once it's dark but on a Saturday they do 2 shows so the first one is early when there is still plenty of light in the sky. I was so beautiful. The 3rd photo is a detail of the clouds over the trees as it intensified.


August 13 2012

August 16 2012

Possibly 17 August 2012

A few early August sunsets

Sunset today (above), last week (middle), and after sunset (bottom).
It's been so nice to have a break from the rain and get some washing dried outside.

Summer Solstice 2012

Sun setting at 10.30 on the Summer Solstice.

Sun setting at 10pm a day later.

The Soltice sunset was quite impressive, for about 15 minutes! I love the way you can see the pale blue and faded mint sky behind the more dramatic gold dusted rain clouds. I was hoping to get a nice shot at midnight since the previous night had looked bloody gorgeous (but could I find my camera? Nope). Sadly it was a bit too cloudy for a good photo at midnight but there were some lovely red hues in the north sky over Edinburgh.

Ulrika Kestere, Hair, Blue Clothes

Ulrika Kestere - Winter horse poster €22 here

Ulrika Kestere - Ice Princess

I was originally directed towards the top photograph by Ulrika Kestere by someone saying she had a similar wardrobe to me. I thought they meant furniture wardrobe but clearly they meant likes to wear lots of different blues with a touch of red. The clothes are nice but it's the photo itself I like most. It is part of a series called "Girl with 7 horses" and she has made this one available to buy as a print here. You can see more of her photographs on her blog Ulicam. I liked the wintery one because I collect blue dresses and have long wanted to photograph them in snow, but it's always been too wet, too cold or too windy. She is tougher than I am.

I was looking at old photos this week and found one of me as a kid on the banks of the Mississippi River wearing blue with a touch of red (loved my bandanna) in 1984 when our parents bundled us all into a Camper Van and spent the Summer driving from LA to New York (having been living in LA 2yrs but returning to live in Scotland). I didn't realise I was doing non traditional hair buns in '84, I thought I didn't bun my hair until college in '89. Ulrika has an animated gif of braided hair that reminds me of why I put up with my really long but infuriatingly prone to tangling hair for so long. I loved playing with it, so many ways to express my mood. But when you have ME every bit of energy is precious and it's pointless wasting it on a daily battle with tuggy hair (you can see the tugs beginning to form a blur in centre of the bottom photo). Last January I chopped nearly all of it off and last month I did it again. But it's nice to find photo's of it long.


Me with my Brother. Watching Mississippi paddle steamer 1984

Me at Big Bear Lake, California 2008

Playing at dressing up - Summer into Autumn

Another spot of pretend shopping from August, inspired by the change from Summer to Autumn. It was before the reds started to show on the leaves and is more about those lovely pale but vivid Summer skies we see here in Scotland on many August evenings. The light still speaks of Summer but there is a noticeable drop in the temperatures as the sun sets and you know Autumn is around the corner and you'll need to start looking out warmer clothes. Most of my warm clothes are Black, Teal, Grey or Red but I love the idea of some Mustard/Yellows that so perfectly link the late summer Rudbeckias and Heleniums that are then overtaken but the yellow leaves of many of the trees.



Items shown in the composition are: 1. Wool blend coat by Pink Martini 2. Look From London Laugh On Tights 3. El Naturalista Shoes - Spring-Summer 2010 4. L'annello in titiano realizzato da Michela Nosè. Photo: Fondazione Politecnico di Milano 5. Techno PULL & BEAR pvc - Be.com 6. Green Butterfly photo from Layoutsparks.com. 7. Cally Creates: a drawing from The 4 Day Sketchbook, 1991 8. Illustration from source that had no credit (if you know the name please leave a comment) 9. Yellena James - Gallery

Rudbeckia 'Rustic Dwarf'

Annual Rudbeckia - flowering for a second year

Damn slugs completely demolished several perennials this year* including Helenium and Eupatorium, but these Rudbeckia 'Rustic Dwarf' have almost made up for the loss with their late summer colour. I have a few perennial Rudbeckia but these ones were sold as Half Hardy Annual seeds so I was most surprised to see them growing with great gusto in this their 2nd year (having not been very impressive last year).

Not only are the much more floriferous with the flowers sporting several colours, every one of them like an autumn roast dinner, but they also grew to twice the height, about 2ft instead of 1ft and have the happy habit of being ignored by the slugs. I'm hoping they'll return every year, but to be sure of more I'll sow what remains of the seed packet. Even in areas where I only put a few (to test where they'd be happy) the individual flowers that have arisen have been so varied that they give lots of delight. This and my perennial Rudbeckia plants are all tracked here.

* we couldn't do the usual protective measures because the constant rain made the clay soil/grass inaccessible for most of the year.