I have to apologise for the radio silence of late.  See, what I need to explain is that we’ve had a pretty rubbish Spring so far.

Aside from a single glorious week in March where temperatures hit the 20’s, we’ve pretty much had nothing but cloud, rain and ridiculously cold weather.  To the point where the rain and the cold actually broke 100 year old records.  It’s been that bad.  We actually had warmer weather in December.  Seriously.

So, when a week ago, the sun came out and actually STAYED out and not only that, brought with it temperatures at 25-26-27 degrees (around 80 degrees Fahrenheit), well, let me just say that you’ve never seen so much white pasty flesh reveal itself in Manchester before.

As I work full time, I blog in the evenings and weekends.  With the sun not even going down until nearly 10pm now, there was no way I was going to squander that lovely weather and those warm, sunny evenings sat indoors on my laptop (or working on projects!).

We’ve been sat outside in the evenings most every night, sometimes taking dinner on the deck and certainly enjoying a drink or two, just relaxing and enjoying our little garden.  At the weekend, we whiled away the hours with leisurely walks to a local beer garden and finally brought out the barbeque for the first time all year.

See that dappled sunlight?  That was at 7:30pm in the evening.  Sometimes it’s nice living this far north.

It’s been like the grand opening of Summer and I just couldn’t miss it.

Coming soon… PEONIES.  I’m so friggin’ excited!!

Can you spot the Jungle Kitty?

The cats certainly enjoyed being outside again as well, hiding amongst all the plant life that has grown like crazy.

Senna says, ‘Leave me alone unless you are planning on feeding me.’

Or just chilling out on the walkway that’s been warmed by the sun all day.

Pablo as Catloaf.

So I do apologise if you haven’t seen me around much lately.  Sometimes life presents little opportunities to just relax and enjoy and you need to take those opportunities and run with them.  Especially when that opportunity is sunny warm weather in Manchester, England.

It’s supposed to cool down again this week, unfortunately and get back to the normal temperatures for this time of year but at least I can say I took advantage to soak in every single ray I possibly could.  Can ya blame me?

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In other news, the rather fabulous Michele of Hello Lovely featured my living and dining room on her blog this week.   Not only is she brilliantly funny with self-deprecating humour and a warm, generous heart that overflows on her pages, but she’s got an eye for finding some incredibly gorgeous things on her blog that she willingly shares with those that flock there daily (including myself).  Go over and show her some lovin’, will you?

Oooh one more thing… she’s also got an Etsy shop selling vintage finds which you really shouldn’t miss either.  I have a few pieces from her shop and I always feel rather fancy responding with ‘Ooooh it’s vintage, darling’ when someone asks where I got one of her pieces.  Ooooh aaand her mixed media pieces are fabulous.  I featured one of her pieces here, it’s amazing.

Ok, I’ll stop gushing now.  Just go and see for yourself.