So, is summer generally a slow time for blog reading and/or writing? Is everyone outside, bored, hot, “undefinably passive”? It seems everybody is off to pursue their offline activities instead which probably is quite healthy. Unless they’ve moved on to Twitter, she sneered. I tried and I don’t get it. There’s just no way I can sit here that much just to catch one-liners and promotion. It seems if you leave for a few hours you miss all the action.
I do enjoy my online crafting club here in Blogland, I have plenty to talk to you about, but can’t seem to finish up any of the topics. Ok, lots of mishaps around there too (some of which I’ll let you in on), prolonging the process. I think they’re a sign that I should slow down even more – I feel scattered somehow. (and I’m sure Twitter would support that condition indefinitely)
I’m getting bored with the lack of conversation, though. Frustrated is too strong a word, after all I’ve got plenty of stuff I can do, and I do. I can go look for new blogs naturally, but there’s something cosy about having a crowd of regulars, however small, and go visit each other during the week. Don’t you think? But it seems everybody else is also on a summer break!
I haven’t been at it long enough to know if this is an ordinary seasonal slump, so I thought I’d ask. The media is full of horror stories about how nobody can go on holiday, shopping or to the loo without at least their smartphone online and ready to tweet it. So it can’t be just a case of “everyone is outside”.
How do you like to be entertained in the summer season? What would you like to see here, that would make you click your keyboard?
In July I hope to cover topics such as OLAD, a teeny bit of ecoprinting, various processes from idea to cloth to finished item (or not, as it were, mumblegrumble), and I really, really hope to get that painting flowing again, as in that same old “get out of the web of chores that has me running around and then too exhausted”. I think I know what I want to work on next, as a theme, after I’ve murdered those last 4 weather wips. It requires me to be un-scattered however, to find the stories hidden in the backgrounds so to speak. I’d like to do some little online photo exhibitions, but that probably is a thing to save for the shorter days, although they’re great for entertainment because people don’t have to read. 😉
At least it’s been so dry that none of my seeds have come to anything, so I’ve given up on the serious weeding and gardening, which is a huge relief. My back has been killing me – not just the usual muscle tensions, my spine has really been shouting at me in one of my injured spots. It’s not been warm enough to just lounge about in the hammock though, jeans, layers and long sleeves for me most of the time. But it could be worse, we could be having a heatwave! I don’t do well at 30° C.
What does your perfect summer look like?
Colour Cottage 
I’m outside, harvesting, selling, making un-petroleum jelly, soaps, salts and sugars. And now I’m off to the next Farmers’ market. See you when it slows down 🙂
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It is the season for gathering and making. I’ve been playing with sourdough/fermented breads, I find that this, and Ølandshvede agrees with me much better than the commercialised modern grains. As an added bonus, it has taste….
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@”What does your perfect summer look like?…” – being in the mountains… 🙂
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P.S. a close friend has just spent 2 weeks in your lovely homeland… in the countryside, at a farm! for the 3rd time! 🙂
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My perfect summer would be spent at the beach, but no traveling for us this year. Instead, we’re making day trips and I’m experimenting in the art journals. And some knitting, of course. 🙂
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Sometimes it’s good to just stay put and do nothing.
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I’m not doing many of my perfect summer things right now. I’ve got a new full-time job at a health food store. That is fun and necessary for bills, but it’s not farming. Still waiting to move into our new house. Date keeps getting set back (now by another 2 weeks) due to someone dragging their feet on moving out.
I don’t have polite words for that person or situation anymore except to say that the universe has its own idea of timing, and I’ll just roll with it. I still don’t have a garden in because it rains every time I have a few moment to till. I guess I’ll be growing a cool season fall garden this year. My seedlings are languishing in their little cups. I’ve been collecting dye materials and am eagerly awaiting setting up a proper dye space where I can work without being in anyone’s way. I’ve been reading books on fermenting drinks and foods. Want to make my own ginger beer and kim chee. All else is good. Chickens growing, lambs gamboling.
My perfect summer, though, is spent traveling on road trips out West. Listening to cicadas in the evening. Watching long shadows on the lawn.
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I hope things work out, time is such an odd thing. I hope you get your house and garden and less jobbing in the near future. The fermenting thing is definitely interesting, I mean to look into that at some point too.
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Min yndlingssommerferie Hmm. jeg vil jo altid alt for mange ting. Samtidig. Gerne tre uger i Norditalien; honning-, sæbe-, plantefarve- og krydderurteproduktion i min have; afslapning og store is på stranden med familien. Dovne dage i haven i solskin, hvor vi får luget lidt, spist bær og drukket kaffe. Og så regnvejr i passende mængder om natten. Vandre til Santiago … en sommer rækker ikke til alle mine drømme
Så lad os nøjes med at håbe på mere varme i det hjemlige og tid til det meste.
Jeg medbringer ikke mobilen alle vegne, er ikke på Twitter, eller instagram, så jeg kan da godt være lidt svær at finde for øjeblikket. Jeg synes for øvrigt at det er sådan ind i mellem – lige som om alle aftaler: “Næste 14 dage er vi ikke så meget online” Det følger loven om bølgebevægelser som så meget andet.
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Det med at ville det hele, er vist ikke sæsonbetonet… 😉
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I have a feeling Pia that people read the blogs but don’t comment as much because they are viewing on the Ipad or their Smartphones? Why did I put those words in capitals? Maybe it’s harder with a touchscreen keyboard? I wouldn’t know. I don’t have an Ipad or a Smartphone yet. I have a Twitter account but rarely use it. I find the tweets boring. Less than 5 minutes and I switch off. I don’t think you can say things properly in so few words. I recently wrote three blog posts about my past career at one stage but hardly anyone is interested. I don’t know whether to continue it or not. I suppose if we treat out blogs as a diary, then we are writing for ourselves and that does make it worthwhile; or perhaps there are just so many blogs. Who knows. People can be fickle.
I try not to spend more than an hour a day reading blogs, sometimes more, sometimes less. I have about six regular blogs that I follow religiously and the rest I find in the Reader. I read them when they look interesting subjects to me, personally.
Your pictures today are really lovely. Keep blogging and crafting…
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Yes, I think a lot of people are reading on “devices” and they’re a pain to post or comment on.
But I’d also been noticing a lack of blog post from several of those I follow, so I’m hoping it’s just a summer slump.
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I always think, I need to write up a blog entry and visit my blog people! Then I go down my to-do list for the day, and by the time I’m done, I feel spent and ready to put on my pjs, bake something, and take a bath, then sleep. Even if I actually add blogging stuff on the to do list, I still delay in getting it done.
I’m blaming it on filling the cauldron/well, which feels right, anyway. I keep getting inspired like crazy. I imagine that all my mini and big adventures are building up to another novel being written… and several paintings. It’s exciting and a bit frustrating at once.
I hope your back is feeling better. I’ve been switching up my work out routines and it always depends on how my back is feeling that day.
I personally love reading the posts in which you investigate your own creative process. It always paves the way to some interesting discourse in the comments, as well.
As for perfect summer? Ah. This one is very close. Spending days cooking and baking to my heart’s content, bird-watching, drinking coffee and tea lazily, riding bikes, watching lightning storms. Very relaxing so far.
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