We had the warmest summer in Denmark – a heatwave for months!

The weather was terrific: sunny days stretched endlessly for three months, with only the occasional  heavy downpour to freshen things up.  We had some pretty scary lightning and thunder but that only lasted for at the most one hour, then it was back to sunshine.  One of the lightning strikes hit one of our trees and did a fair bit of damage, but we hope that it will survive.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did up the old greenhouse and planted it up with tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, egg plant, melon and marigolds. The lawn was a lumpy thing, having had years of moles, and overgrown with dandelions, needed attention.  Peter bought a second had mower and got to work on it.  Now it looks OK, and good enough for us to have had a croquet court on it (a bit cross country style, with lots of local hazards, but great fun).

 

 

 

 
As we were clearing out all the overgrowth and dead shrubs, we found beautiful wild flowers everywhere.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the house, we covered up the tatty walls with quilts, so we could move into the house while we decided on a plan for renovation.  We moved a lot of our furniture in from the store and unpacked some kitchenware into a lovely oak dresser that Peter found in a reclamation yard back in the UK.  At least my treasured Spode china is back in use again after 6 years in boxes!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The kittens all settled in very well – it was as if they had always lived there. Pepper (the shy cat) came out of her shell and explored outside as soon as she arrived here.  Pepper became much more confident and was the last in at suppertime – quite a change from her hiding in the airing cupboard all day in the UK. Horus started catching mice and moles. They all spent a lot of time snoozing in the sun, walking in the woods with us and playing.  Peter had to go away a couple of times on business and Horus seemed to think he would like to go too!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The garden grew, the sun got hotter and we spent most of our days outside, trying to get the garden, field and wood in some sort of shape.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We worked on creating a quilting studio for me out of our old three bay garage.  With a lot of effort and very little money, we managed to convert one garage into a well set up quilting area – the next step is to do the second garage bay. Peter found some lovely double glazed windows in a reclamation yard here in Denmark – we have enough for two of the bays, so I’m looking forward to doubling the size of my studio over the winter.  The builders have set up to run power and water across the yard to my studio – all the pipes are set up, they just need to dig a trench “sometime soon”.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In addition to all the work on the house and garden, I did some quilting on my small frame, some more “Dear Jane” blocks and some of the “Quilting on the Square” Block of the Month I’m getting.

So, that was my summer: now we’re moving into the Autumn for my next post!