Harry's toes

I have just finished the most wonderful course called picture summer from Tracey Clark. We had to photograph toes the other day and my son Harry let me photograph his, I'm not a great fan of feet generally so I added some flowers to his as they were typical male toes. He was very obliging and for being my muse I had to make him french toast.

daisies

who can resist the allure of daisies.

Royal Ascot

This flower is so beautiful, I thought it would make a wonderful fascinator for Royal Ascot.

sweet shot tuesday

Today is sweet shot tuesday.

The Sunday Creative

The prompt for today is 'naked' and a peeled grapefruit is the epitome of naked I think.

August break

The very talented Susannah Conway is starting the August break - for a month we will be uploading a photo a day to our blog and flickr, it is a great idea and can't wait to start it.

On a theme of food

I think I will post a food theme for the next few days. If I take the lemons below I can squeeze the juice into my pestle and mortar.

sweet shot tuesday

I'm participating in sweet shot tuesday and thought lemons make a nice shot. So perfect in everything especially in summer placed in a large cool glass of elderflower cordial.

flowers from the garden

Picking flowers from the garden and bringing them into the house, a perfect way to start the day.

summer light early morning

summer mornings in England are perfect for catching all the bugs on the roses as they drink from the morning dew.

My garden shed

Summer is a time when the garden needs so much attention, constant pruning and weeding and general tidying as everything continues to come to life. I love my garden but when I sit in it I see all that needs doing!

the morning after rain

My lupins looked so beautiful in the morning light

Dior Rose

This is my beautiful Dior rose after an early morning shower of rain

Horses

I took the dogs on a lovely walk this morning before it started to get hot. These horses looked so beautiful in the morning light.

Speech Day

Today was the last day of school for my daughter. The boys had to wear wing collar shirts and the girls long white dresses, it was all lovely - lots of tears and laughter and I can't believe my little girl is all grown up and leaving school.

The last of the clematis

Even though this is one of the final stages of the clematis flower it is still beautiful.

because it's summer and such lovely weather I keep thinking about making gazpacho soup, such a delicious soup to have cold on a summer evening.

serves 4

600g ripe tomatoes, skinned

1 red and 1 green pepper, seeded

1 small onion

half a garlic clove peeled

half a cucumber peeled

1 slice fresh bread, crusts removed, made into breadcrumbs

1.5 teaspoons red wine vinegar

75ml chicken stock

60ml olive oil

a few fresh basil leaves

salt and pepper to taste.

Roughly chop the tomatoes, peppers, online, garlic and cucumber. Mix together with the crumbs in a large bowl. Mix the rest of the ingredients into the vegetables and breadcrumbs in the bowl, seasoning with salt and pepper to taste. Leave to marinate for 12 hours in the fridge.

After the ingredients have marinated, liquidise in batches to a fine puree, then push through a sieve or a food mill into serving bowls. Taste for seasoning then chill.

To garnish, dice a little tomato, pepper and cucumber. Make some croutons by cubing some bread, dousing generously in olive oil and baking in a hot oven (200g/gas 6) until golden. Sprinkle all over the soup, or simply sprinkle with strips of fresh basil.

I'm glad it's the weekend, this time next week the children will be on school holidays - no routine for two months, a lovely thought.

I started the online course picture summer with Tracey Clark yesterday so am hoping to get lots of inspiration. Day one was photographing our thoughts on what summer meant to us, I always think of roses in summer as there is nothing more lovely than a posy of roses picked from the garden.

another lovely sunny day here.