Week 28
Night scented flowers and naked bike rides
Hello!
What a week it has been here in the UK, and in England in particular. A very pleasing election result INDEED and then England into the final of the Euros! - apologies to those from elsewhere but there has been a very unfamiliar sense of optimism and happiness around here and it has been lovely. The weather is NOT matching the national mood unfortunately, but if that could pull its finger out and give us some proper summer then everything will have slotted very neatly into place.
This is our community post in which we track the changes and happenings of the year, week by week. I tell you something that I have seen/smelt/eaten etc this week that feels like it particularly belongs in THIS week of the year, and then you tell me yours, in the comments. At the end of the month we make it all into one big beautiful poem of comments, and you can see June’s here.
I have two this week! A smell and a sight. What a sight…but first:
Night scented flowers
These are, I think, Nicotiana alata, which I bought as plug plants from the corner shop in spring and planted into two big pots either side of my garden steps. They do not grow as massive as Nicotiana sylvestris, the classic night-scented plant, and so they work in containers. These are looking beautiful and are now so beautifully fragranced, but only at night, quite late into the night, when you are locking up and just step outside to check up on everything and then get drawn out in your slippers and over to breathe them in. They are wonderful and very much at peak whiff.
World Naked Bike Ride
I am actually not often in the centre of Bristol but somehow I have several times accidentally coincided with this event?? Yes accidentally! I was in a café with a friend at the weekend and suddenly lots of naked people were cycling past the window and we realised we were in the middle of Bristol’s go at the World Naked Bike Ride. I remember being in town with my kids lots of years ago when they were toddlers and pulling out of a carpark only to be swarmed by it. We just had to sit and wait while the tide of naked riders washed over us. Hilarious and mortifying to the kids in equal measure.
Anyway perhaps it is taking place in a city near you! Maybe you’ll join in! But you may have to wait a year now. I imagine it happened this week in particular because this is when you are least likely to hit a freezing cold day, which would not be ideal… I imagine they felt very free and had a lot of fun.
That’s all from me. Now over to you: what have you seen/sniffed/eaten/made this week that felt particularly ‘this week’? Answers in the comments below.
the first small batch of apricot jam - tangy and bright at the sun.
I enjoyed the naked bike ride photo, although I slightly wince at how that might be sitting on a narrow bike saddle - some chafing and squishing I would have thought - ouch!!