opium poppy seed heads from my garden allotment, courtesy of the neighbouring plot, from where they have spread. i've been cutting them before they go to seed so they don't fill the place up. wouldn't mind if they were white, my favourite,  but that particular level of magenta garishness with violet spots just isn't in my scheme of things. let's see if the poppies i actually sowed will ever make it this year... they are dark purple and ruffly like peonies. that's already quite extravagant for me.

we are having strange weather, hot and humid to the point where it's so misty it's kind of not hot anymore. i was taking my cardigan off and putting it back on again the whole time while picking redcurrants today. managed to burn my cheeks, so i am looking very glowing but feeling less than vigorous, still.

summer is a time for reading, if any, and the library has been very good to me lately. i've resorted to reading the flavia de luce mysteries as translations, since i never bought them in english as my own birthday gift last year. i hear there's to be a tv series and i'm cautiously looking forward to seeing it one day. awaiting reading, under a cake dome to protect it from the teeth of a certain rodent, is the autobiography of cheeta, the hollywood chimpanzee.

sysi looks like he might have been a silent film star in a past life. he is one handsome, cuddly bear, although he still hasn't become the lap rat i am hoping for. next week he will turn ten months old. i watched some videos from when the rats were younger, and even sysi was so small, although he was a big hunk even then... but savu was just a wee mouse! sysi weighs about 750 grams now and savu is somewhere between 630 and 640 grams. it's going to be a challenge to keep sysi from getting fat once he becomes a lazy old man. so far there's been enough fuss each day to keep him reasonably lean, but i know i should play with them both more. i should also keep moving more, but that's a whole another story.

has it really been a month since my last post?! time has flown by, and i feel like i'm still recovering from the flu i had, so haven't been up to much for the past weeks. my garden is growing and berries are ripening, why i am at home blogging instead of out there, i do not know... chamomile is doing really well on the plot so next spring i will sow tons more. first calendulas from seeds sent from ireland are opening up and i wonder if this is the year i will make some salve with them at last... this photo looks like an intriguing recipe: calendula, chamomile and sea buckthorn leaves!

felt really proud of myself after making waffles for breakfast last week. somehow i always start to think it's such a major operation it's not worth it unless it's for like fifty people... i mean, come on, it's quick and easy, and afterwards you wipe the waffle iron clean and back to the cupboard it goes. this was a fun recipe with just a cup (2 dl) of (vanilla) quark, one egg, and half a dl of flour, rice flour in my case. they were so good with honey and bilberries, the sugar dusting on top was for the photos only, although i do love my sprinklings...
 

on saturday my friends and i drove to a nearby bird watching tower by a lake to do some mushrooming. we pretty much filled our baskets with chanterelles on the duckboard walk over the marshland, but some lovely views with a breeze awaited us, as well as a sampling of tasty russulas among the birch woods. saw two cranes, too. later we went to another little lake and my friends were brave enough to jump in (plus they'd had the foresight to pack swimsuits) but for me the water was too cold. back home, we ate chanterelle sauce with new potatoes, went to sauna and had bilberry pie for dessert. the whole day felt like a summer cottage vacation and technically we didn't even leave town limits.

the previous week i visited forest home, stayed the night there to have some more time for foraging, but mushrooms were still in the bud, and i only brought a tiny cup for bilberries,  because i thought there wouldn't be many but i was wrong... it's really bothering me at the moment that i can't just walk out the door and into the bountiful woods whenever the time feels right. of course there's plenty to forage in town, but i miss my 'own' forest a lot.

i took a long walk to the seaside that morning, wild roses were everywhere. i like how regally they arch the thorny branches over the view. the scent is delicious, too, not too boasty.

would never have noticed this squirrel had it not dropped the cone it was holding upon seeing me. there was also a deer in what's left of the woods in our property, probably the one that always lurks there, somewhere. the rain started pouring down, so my further foraging plans were cut. my timing was not the best, but my mother again had a blast minding the rats for me.

it's a tiny chair, but savu really has grown into a big boy. he just always seems small in comparison to giant sysi... he's still a handful and always up to no good. there was some construction work (sigh...) on our street and the stress from the noise really brought out the gnaw in him... he has since calmed down but there are small teeth marks everywhere, including the left toe of all of my shoes! sysi continues to love cuddling but abhors the thought of sitting on my lap for it still. savu has taken part in the petting more and more, but i don't know if he really enjoys it or just imitates sysi. they are both an ongoing mystery to me...

i really ought to be picking redcurrants right now, and there's a ton of other chores, so this'll be it for now. i'll make a garden post soon, i promise. and next week is lace week in rauma so i might actually have some new things to blog about. wish me luck so i might have the energy to make redcurrant curd and waffles...

soft ratty, warm ratty
giant balls on bucks
happy ratty, sleepy ratty
brux, brux, brux...