Joie De Vivre?

[cover photo credit: via Heather Chuddock, photographer Alison Gootee]. It’s Sunday and I am currently away but if we are to go by the weather forecast, summer should definitely have hit the UK in a big way. There is something that is just SO great about coming down in the morning to sunshine and opening the skylights in my kitchen.

Bonjour bonjour, mes amis and I am writing this in a panic because due to me going to Marrakesh on Saturday, I am currently cramming writing four posts into three days which is faintly stressful but, worry not, achievable. I cannot tell you how much I am looking forward to a mini break. Honestly, SO MUCH. All of my kids have been away on short breaks already this summer and I have watched from afar (well, via Life360) as they eat, drink and be merry without me in the sunshine but now, it’s MY turn.

[cover photo credit, AD]. As I write this, I am sitting at my desk on Saturday evening in deep discomfort for several reasons. Firstly, I did a Reformer Pilates class on Thursday and it almost killed me. When I’m doing Reformer, I love the stretch and am always quite pleased that I am not bad at them. However, give it two days and my stomach muscles are in utter agony and I realise that despite the fact I can do the moves, I don’t do them often enough and my body complains. A lot.

This week, I am embarrassed to admit that I have moaned A LOT. I cannot stand moaning, from me or from others. If there is one thing guaranteed to irritate me, it’s a privileged influencer whinging on. I am allowed to say this, being a privileged influencer. I’ve been working on Instagram for over a decade now and I have always maintained the same ethos - never complain, never explain - and it’s always worked well.

Before you start reading this, I have to caveat it with the fact that this week, I have been working with NO INTERNET thanks to a misunderstanding with Virgin Media which means I have today been waiting in for a new box which has not actually arrived and which, if I am to believe the tracking app, is still sitting in bloody Leeds and not in my living room making my life significantly easier. FFS.

Good morning, Substack friends and I cannot believe that we are almost in July. JULY! This year is flying by but I don’t mind one bit, as long as the sun continues to shine (although maybe not QUITE as shiny as it has been in the UK this past week). I’ve had all three of my children at home this weekend (I’m writing this on Saturday) and this morning, I had to drop my daughter and two of her friends to York Races.

Good morning my Substack friends and if you’re in the UK, you will either be a) really happy that we’ve got hot weather or b) complaining that it’s too hot. One or the other. I can confirm that I fall securely into a) and have no issues whatsoever, although I do come with a history of stifling conditions as I grew up in Hong Kong where ceiling fans came as standard and if you walked out of air conditioning it was like heading straight into the path of a hairdryer.

Good morning as I write this, I am in the VERY best of moods. There is no real reason for this. In fact, today is the hottest day of the year so far in York so I should really be being massively British and complaining about it. But no. I love the heat.

Good morning and what a day to be alive here in the UK! The sun has been shining and my courtyard has been getting some hardcore use by both my family and the animals, a great success all round, in fact. Which is handy because I paid the bill this week and could well have gone into a decline had I not thought it was working perfectly and was worth every penny. Which it was, worth every penny.

Things have come on apace in my mini courtyard and this weekend, I headed to my local garden centre to choose plants for the raised border. It’s not a massive border but I’ve made the most of the space that is there by building it along the super sunny wall that gets the majority of the light, using sleepers that we lined and filled. This border is the only planting area, aside from two large pots and a collection of small pots that will sit on the back of the bench and hope to survive.