Summer collage

The strange weather of today - thunderous downpours that were over before you knew they'd started, warm sun, great gusts of wind that snatched doors out of your hand - had me indoors cooking for much of the afternoon before pounding up Glen Massan for my exercise and back to turn up the oven. It also meant I wasn't in the position to do much noticing of photos, so the collage is what's new in my rapidly-overgrowing garden: a purple phlox, a rose that was in a pot for our Ruby wedding 9 years ago but which I planted out this spring; two little nasurtiums from a pot seeded by last year's flowers, and the sight of the bright acid yellow plant in my front garden, taken from my bedroom window when I happened to look down instead of out at the view of the Clyde. It kinda took me by surprise - wasn't expecting it so soon.

Other than that, I was reminiscing at dinner about the odd things I did as a child, probably before I was ten. It began because we were eating lamb and I left the circular bone in for its effect on the gravy. I remarked that I used to save these bones from gigot chops, wash them, colour them red and blue (I had special pencils that when wet made a paint finish) and thread them on a string. 

Yes, like a necklace.

Another memory was creating a shiny round ball - about the size of a small bowl (as in playing bowls) - out of clayey mud in the underground air-raid shelter in which we played in our 50s childhood. It weighed a great deal, and somehow I coloured it a sort of purple colour. I don't know what became of it, but I know I had it till after I was married ...

Him indoors asked if I was allowed to do these odd things. I suspect my parents viewed my eccentricities as interesting pointers to my future self ...

And tomorrow it's July. Already.