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You could only have been angrier if you had capitalized The Cold Drop. lol Susie!! Rage on, friend. Let’s call it the last of El Niño and we will see if La Niña will give you a better spring next year. A la prochaine!

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Jun 14Liked by Susie Mawhinney

diggin' the cow parsley pic, Susie

🏆

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Ah, ut who doesn’t dig clouds of cow parsley Darren… 🤍🍃

May your weekend be blessed 🕊️

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Hi Sassy❣️ Hi Sonny. Hi Jersey. Hi Susie. ❤️

🌈 Stay dry, everybody.

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Thank you from us all, the weather here is completely mad this year Louise, actually since last November which is ages and ages so I’m truly hoping for a change soon… I hope your weekend is being kind to you ♥️xx

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Stunningly beautiful words and absolutely stunningly beautiful photos, Susie. You have such a talent for both.

Oh how I feel for you. There is nothing worse than a spring or summer that seems not to arrive. I do hope the weather improves and the cold drop goes and drops itself elsewhere, preferably the moon, and the rich warmth of that golden ball of fusion returns to the sky.

Thank you for sharing your experience, even in the pain of the damp and cold.

"I suffer all this, not with grace but unforgivably, vociferously - because purring is beyond me." <<< my favourite line!

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Thank you Nathan, that was my favourite line too...

Since writing this we have had a few days of warm summer sunshine, it has been a balm to the soul and the shivering! A momentary respite apparently but a very welcome one but the general feeling I get, once I've managed to decipher the local patois of 'les vieux' is that summer is going to be fickle this year. Ha, no kidding!

We must just make the best of it and enjoy the sunshine when it arrives... il faut faire avec!

I hope you are feeling much recovered after your painful ordeal, take good care of yourself.

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Jun 8Liked by Susie Mawhinney

How lovely that some sunshine arrived. I hope it continues that way.

Yes, recovering well and quickly, thank you. (Almost too quickly, perhaps... the office is where I will likely find myself come Monday!)

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That is good news but I’m sure another few days R&R would be beneficial don’t you! 😉

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Ah, I feel your pain with the weather, Susie. We had a cold, late spring, but latterly we've had lovely weather in the Highlands; just the odd rainy day. Most unusual!

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Lynn it’s been utterly horrendous, even today when it was forecast with a big ☀️all day, we’ve just had the most awful stormy downpour! I’m glad you’ve had some good weather, although it’s rather worrying too, apparently in Finland they have a heatwave, I’m still wearing fur lined boots - something is terribly wrong… 😕

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This was so beautiful, Susie. Your wee video of the swaying poppy amongst all your lovely words made me feel like I was right there with you. The weather in Scotland has been surprisingly sunny, so hopefully I can send some your way!

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Oh thank you Sarah, as I type this, yet another storm is raging over the hill so every ray of sunshine you can spare will be very gratefully accepted! ☀️

Thank you so much for reading, I’m delighted you liked the poppy, they are very late this year so a happy find for me. Enjoy the rest of your evening 💛

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its SO pretty - all of it!!! Thank you for sharing. XO

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On those rare dry days I can almost believe it’s summer Danielle, then, the hill is a heavenly sanctuary… I’m so glad you enjoyed those moments. xox

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I read this out loud to my six year old son and he loved it!

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Oh Anna, you’ve made me smile! That feels like a win, I’m imagining his smile too. Thank you!

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Jun 1Liked by Susie Mawhinney

This is so kind of you to share Finisterre like this. Thank you 🙏, Susie.

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I was immediately hooked up in your story Adam, my daughter and I are planning the same route before I’m too old and incapable! I’ve loved every word - you’re welcome.

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You write so beautifully, and so evocatively of time and place 🌿✨🌸

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Thank you David for such kind words, and again for sharing them.

- I hope you find some beauty in your weekend. 🍃

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Jun 1Liked by Susie Mawhinney

Susie, these images are just stunning. I'm sure much of it is the landscape and the light, but it's your eye and what it captures. So beautiful.

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You’re very kind Ben, it is a captivating landscape, Mother Nature makes it that way! I am just lucky to occasionally be in the right place at the right time… I’m delighted you like them though!

I hope you find some beauty in your weekend too.

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Jun 1Liked by Susie Mawhinney

I loved reading this and feeling that endless rain feeling which hardly ever happens in LA but happened a lot where I grew up on the east coast. I was just talking with someone about that incredible burst we used to get when the sun came out and it started to get warm again. These photos are beautiful and I love that Margaret Atwood quote.

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Thank you Deirdre, I would gladly send you every drop of rain we’ve had here, usually by the beginning of June I’m wondering when the next drop is coming! We had a burst of sunshine this evening which felt like liquid gold on my arms, it lasted all of 23 mins… yup, I timed it… I know, sad isn’t it! The month of May has been so rotten though…

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I sympathsise. It has been a predominantly 'dreich' spring here not far from the North Sea on the Scottish Border, but yesterday and today despite the persistent N/NNE wind it has been dry and sunnny. This is timely. Although the birds round us seem to be managing, we have a Tree Sparrow nest behind an old window frame, and this morning the first fledger flopped down and has now made it up into the rowan tree. We cross our fingers. As I write, this one and the remaining siblings are all being fed. They gain some security close to the house and for food we have more habitat than garden. Tree Sparrow is now rated an endangered species in the UK.

Sympathy also with leaking roofs - a long story here but this year has probed our weaknesses. What next? Brace yourselves: enjoy summer restoratives while we may! I look at weather maps and see extraordinary high temperatures up in Sweden and Finland just now - Finland: "Mixed clouds and sun this morning. Scattered thunderstorms developing this afternoon. Very warm. High 26C." Apparently 28C forecast for Helsinki.

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Thank you for your thoughtful reply Philip, the weather patterns are so very worrying, I can’t help but wonder just what to expect in ten or twenty years time when the changes of the past twenty are so evident. We have experienced wet summers here before but never this cold and wet..

Also frightening is the diminishing number of species of birds and butterflies in the UK. Not only either…

I wish I were surprised by the Tree Sparrow but I have friend who tells me the same. She adds a new one to an already long list too often.

Leaky roofs apart, I will enjoy summer no matter the weather, although sunshine is preferable if not only to top up the Vitamin D levels for the long winter ahead. Enjoy the warm weather Philip!

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Beautiful photos and words Susie. I love seeing your photographs of the world around you. Simply amazing. I also loved Adam's story of his walk along the Camino.

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Many thanks Matthew, I am slightly obsessed with the light on my hill, which makes me delighted you enjoy the photos… Adams pilgrimage caught my attention, not only for his amazing writing but because my daughter and I plan to walk the same route one day not too far away!

Have a great weekend.

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Thank you for wonderful words and images.

We have a cat that is not destined to loose her extra layer of winter insulation this year. By mid-March she has become ever so slightly round! Then the weather changes as the day light lenghtens and she is up and down trees, climbing fences and generally on patrol. This year she is still curled up in whichever blanket is closest to a human.

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As I type this I’m listening to torrential rain and the clattering of yet another storm Andrea, I am sorely tempted to join her. And this, after my forecast said to expect sunny weather all week…

Thank you so much for reading, I wish you warm days ahead. ☀️

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Jun 1·edited Jun 1Liked by Susie Mawhinney

Susie, this is a truly lovely post. And yes – but at least your tomatoes are triffiding! Here everything's suffered from cold and wet – until the last two days when we've been able to plant out sweetcorn and also the tomatoes. NOW things are leaping forward.

And still there's drought in eg the Pyrenées Orientales... And I'm still grieving the absent swallows, for we have very few indeed :-(.

But HOORAY about Sonny!

Oh I'm an armchair camino traveller, so that's another one to check out. Thank you. Rx

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Hi Roselle, it’s been rather exhausting and very frustrating… my garden will produce nothing this year except tomatoes if we don’t have some sunshine soon… even the tomatoes looked a little sad this evening. I’m trying to remain the optimist though!

These strange, and becoming more and more frequent, weather patterns are terribly worrying, in Helsinki this week they’ve had temperatures of 28c… nothing is normal anymore.

But yes, Sonny and an orphan lamb named Jersey and the day after, totally unforeseen, two ladies to join them. I am so relieved to have sheep back in the meadow, I have felt inexplicably bereft without them for more reasons other than the way my poor little flock were killed.

I’ve dreamed of walking the Camino with my daughter since she was born Roselle… it needs to be soon though!

Thank you for reading as always, wishing you warm sunny days… xx

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