I've posted about some of what was happening in June already. There was Ally's birthday, a simple weekend and James' Art Show and Award.
But here is how the rest of June shaped up for us.
On the whole June was a remarkably hot and sunny month, but there was a tiny blip in the weather when Storm Hector hit in the middle of the month. We had 60mph winds for a couple of days and since I saw my clematis taking a battering outside I decided to cut off the remaining two huge flowers and bring them inside so that they would last a little longer.
Thankfully the storm was just for those two days and the sun soon returned.
We enjoyed an evening with friends at a bbq at their house. My contribution to the evening was some free from apple pie...
....and some not free from caramel meringues.
The following day was Father's Day and so I made some free from Strawberry Tarts with the pastry I had leftover from the apple pie.
June saw me catching up with an online friend, who I met through blogging. We had lunch in the National Gallery of Scotland when she was passing through Edinburgh.
If you've been following us for any time you will know that June always means a visit to the Royal Highland Show and this year was no different.
Well, it was a little different in that with the amazing weather there was no threat of rain for once and so we didn't need to bother carrying around jackets with us 'just in case'. The sun shone all day long, and in fact it didn't rain once over the whole four days the show was on - which I think must be something of a record as it almost always rains on at least one of the Highland Show days.
This year was also a little different because James and Calum were both performing at the school show with both their school wind and jazz bands.
We arrived at the show nice and early, taking the train and tram to the showground and missing all the traffic chaos around it.
We were so early that Fraser had the whole play bus to himself when we visited it at the show.
I think we have our picture taken with this pig every year!
The highlight of the show for Fraser was meeting Kevin the Carrot! We had seen online a couple of days before the show that he would be there and so I had told Fraser. On the day of the show we headed to the Aldi's tent quite early on to look for him but were told that he wasn't arriving until about 12.30. So we went back later on but he still wasn't there. We went back a third time and he STILL wasn't there! Poor Fraser was getting really disappointed by then. Finally, a fourth time, we went back to the tent and as we arrived we saw Kevin walking towards us from a distance. Fraser ran over to him and hugged him straight away.
He was so happy to see him that he wouldn't stop hugging him! The lady who took our family photo with Kevin took lots of photos for us just to be sure there was at least one good one and Fraser is hugging him in every single on of them!
His day was made after that :-)
The hot weather was great for messy play as we could do it outdoors. Fraser and Ally had a bowl of Oobleck outside every day. Oobleck is great fun - just mix cornflour and water until you get a gooey consistency. It will form a ball as you squeeze and roll it, but then will turn liquid again as you let go.
It was so great to wake up every morning to blue skies and bright sunshine.
And to know that the weather was set to continue the same for days.
We got the big paddling pool out of the shed, knowing that we would be able to be out in it every day for a couple of weeks.
Last summer we had organised a Teddy Bear's Picnic for our church toddler group for the last session of the school term. It poured with rain that day and so we had to have our picnic indoors. This year we organised the same again and the weather couldn't have been more different! This is Fraser and his cousin waiting for everyone else to arrive.
Fraser had been looking forward to bringing his favourite teddies to the picnic for a few weeks before hand!
This pool was so refreshing as the temperature headed towards 30C and above.
In the last week of June, on the hottest day so far, with the thermometer hitting 32C (I've never known it to be that hot with us), it was James' school Leaver's Ceremony and Prom and so he was dressed from head to toe in wool. He wore his dad's kilt and his uncle's jacket and waistcoat, and looked rather dashing in them don't you think?
The Leaver's Ceremony took place in the historic Greyfriar's Kirk.
And so the photos afterwards were in the old kirkyard.
After the ceremony all the leavers were bussed to their prom, and hubby and I took the chance to go out for a child-free meal together. We had left Calum in charge of the other boys and he assured us it was fine to stay out longer and have some dinner together, so we did!
The constant sunshine did wonders for my strawberry patch.
The sunshine was also great for bringing all the rest of my gardening on too. It was especially helpful after such a cold spring meant that things were really late in getting started.
These sunflowers below were planted as seeds by Ally and Fraser.
These are my carrots and onions. I have other veg boxes too, but once you've seen one you've seen them all so I shan't bore you with them all!
And these pots brighten up the front of the house.
Do you see a bit of a recurring pattern here for our last couple of weeks of June?
School finished up on the last Friday of June, and we celebrated with a bbq on the Saturday. My brother and his family came round and all the younger kids enjoyed a splash in the pool first.
And that was June for us. It was the sunniest June I can remember for a long time (as I'm sure you gathered from this post!) and we certainly tried to make the most of the good weather while it was here.
Now I'm all up to date I can get started with my Summer Holidays Week One post before week two gets too far underway!
