A Long Day in the Lovely Sun

HarlingDarling's birthday is on Wednesday but we decided to have a garden party today. A few of our friends still work, and the weather on Wednesday looked dodgy so this glorious sunny Sunday seemed a much better bet. And it was!
Read all about it on Jan's blipfoto entry...
My part in it was helping set everything up in the morning, baking my 3 sorts of bread, making sure everyone had a drink, putting the hammock up and being generally helpful. It was a really fun time. Our various groups of friends dropped in, stayed awhile, and then headed off again, so there was always room to sit and spread out out a little.
As the day wore on it got warmer and warmer and those shade umbrellas became more in demand. The dog in the picture, Mika, is a 4 year-old short-haired collie that Lars and Annika have taken over recently. The previous owners said she was really hard to control but 4 weeks with L and A  seemed to have worked wonders.
As it started to get a little cooler the last guests went home but even as we cleared up it was still pleasantly warm.  I finished off with a quick walk down to the lake just after 10 o'clock, when the sun had gone behind the hills. The half-moon was just above the trees. (You can see it in this mid-afternoon picture too) The two peewits swirled around me as I walked through "their" field, two Canada geese cruised out into the lake, and two cranes feeding on a recently ploughed field ran(!) up the hill away from me. Assorted birds warbled and sung in the still air. I saw no-one else on my walk and it felt like nature was putting on a bit of a display just for me. I must do late walks, or late cycles maybe, more often, not the white nights are here.