ice boats

Temperatures are soaring here and while our neighbours across the seas are singing Christmas carols flecked with snowy lyrics and hoping that their Winter wonderland may indeed become a reality, we are doing our utmost to keep cool.

Homemade coconut milk and mango ice blocks, constant sips of lemony water, tepid midday baths for poppets and Mummas alike, babes in squishy cloth nappies and not much more. Keeping our Christmas tree topped up in a bid to keep it's jade needles from turning musty brown before the man with the beard pops by, frequent sponge downs with wrung out washers steeped in cool water with a few drops of lavender, cornstarch powder under wee little people's necks to ward off heat rash. And ice boats.

With humidity veiling our clammy bodies and cicadas singing their shrill Summer call we revelled in the sharp coolness that only icy water can bring. Bodies were cooled...time was slowed.

Is it hot in your little slice of this lovely planet? What are you doing to keep cool? Or perhaps it's snowing....I'd love to hear!

Steph x

Small blobs of plasticine were stuck to the bottom of some takeaway containers. A paddle pop stick mast was added. Food colouring was mixed with water in all colours of the rainbow and poured into the containers. A very slow and careful trip to the freezer and a few hours later our boats; adorned with sails,  were floated.