Trying to keep cool on a sweltering Sunday

Just popped on line to tell you not to expect much of a posting today.

Sweltering here, so just chilling out with family and baby - who is sound asleep on a blanket on the lounge carpet with the ceiling fan gently whirring above him. He looks wonderfully peaceful and cool.

Early I took him out into the garden and put his tiny baby feet on flowers and leaves so that they could feel the different textures. He chuckled with delight and put his feet together to pull the flower head of leaves up to his chubby little hands and stroked them. He moved his feet over the different textures and was fascinated.

I let him feel the great big thick hosta leaves and tapped his hand on their rough ridges and he patted them and they made a papery sound when they rubbed together. I put his face near the perfumed roses and I know that he could smell them a he stopped cooing and stayed motionless each time I did it.

I pulled leaves from lemon verbena, chocolate mint, apple mint. spearmint, rosemary, lavender and lots of herbs as we walked around and each one I crushed and put to his nose to smell and he was and cooed and chuckled each time.

I hovered him over my aromatherapy bed, which you see in yesterday's post if you page down, and you should have heard him as I gently put his bare feet onto the different flower heads and showed him how to move his feet so that they tickled him. He was so entranced that he would have stayed there all day, but my back was giving out so after a while we sat on a chair next to a raised bed and he watched the bumble bees to-ing and fro-ing on the blue geranium that tumbles down over the side of the bed absolutely mesmerised.

He chuckled when a pigeon flew up from the lawn in front of us and he nearly twisted his head off to follow it's path. As it flew close over our heads you could hear and feel the draught of its wings flapping - baby just was amazed and seemed puzzled as to where it had gone.

We spent about ten minutes in the chicken pen - Dilly, Pumpkin, and Freckles were all out and busying themselves scratching in the grass that is in there and pecking for insects. His head twizzled as he looked from one to the other and their happy little contented clucks really caught his attention. He was spell bound. Each bird was busying doing different things - like taking a drink, having a feed, scratching about, playing hide and seek under the big day lily, and behind the logs, dustbathing in the shade - it would have kept him transfixed for hours.

Baby almost shrieked with chuckles when I opened the door and gently moved Freckles to reveal a nice little egg - which was perfectly clean, and I gently stroked it on his chubby cheek so that he could feel how smooth and warm it was.

It was with great reluctance that I had to take him in - in my younger days I could have stayed out there as long as I wanted.

He was well protected with a sun hat on, and long sleeves and trousers - it was just his little feet and hands that were bare.

Perhaps he is now dreaming of sunshine and smells and clucking bantams - who knows - he is certainly having a long sleep for a day time nap!

Off to prepare lunch - couscous coated salmon fillets, new potatoes, aspargus that son and dil have just gone to get from the farm, cherry tomatoes drizzled in virgin olive oil and fresh oregano from the garden.

Dessert - a meringue I made last night, filled with cold, but cooked gooseberries from the allotment, and summer pudding mixture of strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, cooked in their own juice.

With double cream or ice cream.