High Summer at Home

It’s been a long hot summer in London - endless warm sunny blue-sky days. The parks are all parched and bleached, but our miraculous dry garden planted in grit and shingle is thriving and full of colour. I feel a bit like Leo Lionni's eponymous mouse hero Frederick - storing up the colours of the summer for the months ahead… gathering arm-fulls of flowers to dry on our red I-beam

The nights are too warm at the moment for a blanket, but our rather grumpy cat Kenneth is so fond of snoozing on them that we pander to him and throw a Coggeshall blanket on the bed during the day time.

Rather than put the blankets away for the summer though, I have hung a couple of them on hazel poles - I love the tactile quality they bring to the space. Below is the Blythburgh hanging on the wall in our little spare-room.

In the image below is the Thaxted blanket hanging in the main living space of our little cottage. I love the way that the score lines in the weave construction echo the ribs in the painted wooden paneling. The hazel pole is almost burnished as it catches the afternoon light.

I feel overwhelmingly fortunate that our little cottage holds a treasury of beautiful, thoughtful objects; many made by friends of ours - pieces which really resonate with warmth and meaning and human touch. At risk of sounding sentimental and hackneyed, I feel like Frederick with with my own high-summer harvest.

Our latest addition is this beautiful mobile by our friend Keith Murray. It’s got a wonderfully playful movement - something between a planetary model and a gyrating hula-hoop. It sits on the top of our ‘dresser’ and catches the breeze.