Seven

    Cornflower is seven years old today, and I couldn't let that anniversary pass unmarked, so to thank you all for visiting here, for leaving great comments, for sending me links to interesting things, for getting in touch privately, and for being such a lovely community of readers, I have a little 'birthday present' to give away to one of you:

I was down in the Borders today and stopped at The Mainstreet Trading Company - a must if you're in the area - and there I bought some soap made by Ginger Duck. There were lots of wonderful scents to choose from, but in the end I went for Lazy Days & Sundays which contains lavender and rose geranium essential oils and ... cornflowers!

    We'll have a draw, open to everyone, no matter where in the world you are, and all you have to do to enter is leave a comment here telling us how you'd most like to spend a lazy day (or a very active one, if you'd prefer) or Sunday - forget any practical considerations or the usual constraints on your time and activities and just think what would make a perfect day. Please do have a go.

Comments

[Freda]

Congratulations Cornflower! - that's quite an achievement. Always a good read. (Have you posted daily for all that time?)

[Julia Harle]

Sitting in a rose garden with a beautifully written, exciting and moving book with tea and fruit cake.

[Chloe]

Many Happy Returns

Here's to another seven years and more!

[craftygreenpoet]

Lovely giveaway and congratulations on the milestone!

a lovely birdwatching walk with my partner, then a nice meal out and then oh, a game of Scrabble why not....

[Claire]

Congratulations and well done!
A special day would involve family, friends gardens, sunshine, books and cake!
I visited that book and coffee shop in the summer - I loved the little book nest for children.

[Darlene]

How time flies! I have probably been dropping by here for almost five years and loved every visit, so thank you. Hmmm...well, Charing Cross Road with my blog friends and then a bit of tea and cake. It's the small things unless you count the British Airways ticket price!

[michi]

Congratulations and thanks for the delightful and inspiring blog posts every day! Please don't put my name in the draw as I've already won a copy of Girl with a Pearl Earring earlier and perhaps I could have a chance to go down to the Borders myself. My perfect lazy day...all by myself with books and coffee which is an impossible thing for a mum of a small child!

[Janine]

Happy birthday! A lazy Sunday... To be already camped somewhere by water in our little campervan; for my two daughters to have a lie in so I can have an uninterrupted cup of tea with my husband; then to potter about around a country market and enjoy a long lunch, preferably outside (though without the wasps which seem to be back with a vengeance this year). Then home, and a long hot bath. Bliss.

[Melissa]

Congratulations on your 7 years! Well done!

A perfect lazy day? I won't need to worry about making meals but have delicious meals made for me. A lovely early autumn day with sunshine, puttering in the garden, listening to birdsong. Stretched out on the couch, reading while having tea and cake! Then going to friends for a lovely supper together.

[margaret stedman]

Congratulations on your blogaversary. I do enjoy the eclectic mix and look forward to many more anniversaries to come.

[Barbara]

Congratulations! I so enjoy your blog.

[Alison]

MY perfect day...sitting in the sun in my garden reading, with the rest of the family bimberling about the house doing whatever they like doing...everybody safe, everybody happy:-)
Alison Collins

[Alison]

PS I forgot to add...many thanks for such an interesting blog:-)

[fifiquilter]

Congratulations and many happy returns, Cornflower! My perfect lazy Sunday involves a sunny garden with books in a shady spot, accompanied by cake and tea.

[Rebecca]

I think I'm with Alison, as this is Labor Day in the US, and the last day before my teaching year starts. It's pouring down rain, so my two 17 year olds probably won't go to the Fair (immortalized in EB White's Charlotte's Web in sunnier times!), and so I'll spend the day prepping for the year/week and they'll probably sleep in and then watch a movie! Peaceful yet productive: I love it!

And I do enjoy this blog! Food, books, knitting. . . thanks for all of it!

[Kate/Massachusetts]

For me the lazy day would be spent sailing off the coast of Massachusetts with a great book and good food. The sun would be out, the seas calm, and the sailors happy! Congratulations on seven years! I've enjoyed many of them.

[Georgina]

Congratulations and thank you for a wonderful blog, so full of interest, variety and terrific photography. My perfect lazy day would be spent reading and dozing under a tree in the garden, admiring the results of the previous day's energetic weeding and tidying.

[Ann]

Congratulations on 7 years. It's such a wonderful blog and I look forwrd to every new posting. A perfect day for me is one spent with my dog, Potter, knitting, playing my ukulele and enjoying the changing scenery from my living room along Morro Bay here in California.

[Di McDougall]

Thank you for the blog...for sharing books and ideas and yourself.

This time of the year ( here on the southernmost point of Africa) a lazy day means looking out my window at stormy seas, coffee at my elbow and a lovely book on my knee. But soon soon summer will be here and THEN a lazy day will be a family picnic on a quiet beach and if we are lucky....a whale blowing out there somewhere!

[Wordtapestry.wordpress.com]

Lovely 7 years of blog entries -- congratulations.

Perfect day -- as it's Labor Day, I'm thinking about a cookout/picnic by a lake in the Poconos, underneath the pine trees. The promise of swimming in the water later, followed by talking with friends and family by the waterside, while the nieces and nephews are off berry picking. Truly lovely.

[Rosie H]

Happy birthday, Cornflower! I have a one-year-old daughter, so the perfect day of which I dream would begin with a lie-in, and then cuddles with said daughter, who would be in the mood to cuddle rather than to shriek and kick. Husband and I would take daughter swimming in a lake or lido, and have a picnic lunch. In the evening daughter would go to bed and sleep, while husband and I had dinner with three or four close friends, and followed this with board games. I would then have a night of at least eight hours sleep!

[Rosie]

Happy Blog Birthday! My lazy day would involve a long, leisurely walk in the countryside, preferably with some old churches to visit. (I still treasure my copy of The Morville Hours that I won in one of your giveaways in the past, so don't enter me in the draw this time!)

[Mary]

Happy birthday. Could I have a lazy Monday instead as then there'll be nobody on my favourite stretch of beach?

[Danielle]

Congrats and happy seventh Birthday! I suspect I have been following you for most of them and it has been a thoroughly enjoyable experience. Here's to many more wonderful years! :) My perfect day is spent reading of course--or maybe working on some (long neglected of late) needlework!

[carole]

Congratulations Cornflower for what must be by now, many hours of happy viewing and many wonderful book recommendations. It can't be easy to find something to impart to us most days for seven years and yet you have done it, with style and grace.
Perfect day would be with family and a few close friends, by water, sunny with a delicious picnic, a good book, and an optimistic world!

[marianne]

a cup of tea (strong)in my favourite cup, radio 4 (obviously), knitting (always), then friends (a must), more food (has to be delicious but not necessarily fancy) and beer (mmmmm mmmm..) or prosecco (mmmmm mmmm but with an italian accent). And then an early night. With fresh bedding. So not that specific really.
Happy blog birthday and thank you for keeping us entertained and informed! x

[Jade]

Many Happy Returns! Thank you for your wonderful blog.
My perfect lazy day would be to start the day with coffee and scones or cakes on the balcony of our apartment, drive to Tel Aviv to take in a gallery, picnic lunch in a park, home again for an afternoon nap (while the older children watch a movie) and then an easy supper.
Don't enter me in the draw. We just returned from a week on the Riviera (doesn't that sound grand...) and the only thing I bought there for myself was a pile of Savon de Marseille soaps.

[Karoline]

Happy birthday to the blog. I was lucky enough to have a lazy Sunday for the bank holiday thanks to the grandparents taking the children to stay. There was waking up slowly with a good coffee, stitching & reading along with an afternoon meandering round Rievalux Abbey. Bliss!

[Ann]

Congratulations! Many Happy returns of the day! I really enjoy visiting your blog and all the many places your excellent links take me to. Regarding Sundays, where I've just moved to, I have a veranda with a view and on each side majestic gum trees that whisper. Sitting there with a pot of tea and a good book is Sunday Bliss - rain or shine!

[Dark Puss]

Lazy day - what on earth is that? What would I like to be doing this Sunday (great weather down here and in much of mainland Europe) would be to go walking in the mountains (perhaps the Vercors plateau)with some good friends, to watch the wildlife, find a few autumn flowers and end the day with an excellent meal and good wine. If I could then spend the following day in the physics laboratory of my choice that would be pleasure indeed! Perhaps to round it all off I could ask Katie to play for me the Reineke 'Undine' Sonata before the dinner (we'd need a pianist too of course).

[Margaret Powling]

To start my lazy day I would enjoy breakfast out, perhaps at the bistro overlooking our local harbour. (Breakfast in bed if in winter, of course!) Then a walk either by the sea or in the country (where I would collect shells or leaves) to work up an appetite not for lunch (a good breakfast would suffice) but for afternoon tea in the summerhouse (in spring/summer) or in the sitting room (autumn/winter) - cucumber sandwiches, smoked salmon and cream cheese; scones, clotted jam and cream; rich fruit cake and light and airy lemon sponge and of course, loose-leaf tea properly brewed in a pot. If time allowed, a visit to a gallery or museum or a visit to our favourite local NT property, Coleton Fishacre. Dinner would be something simple, just soup, cheese & biscuits and fruit, and then a good book until bedtime. Perfect!

[Cornflower]

Not quite daily, but often enough (and since I started Cornflower Books I usually write two posts a day - madness!).

[MzTallulah]

Congratulations, Karen! Both blogs are a lovely and inspiring read. My ideal Sunday would include lots of knitting, some baking, gardening and reading, and a long hot bath with essential oils and a mud mask. Hope to be able to read Cornflower for many more years!

[Deirdre]

I'm away from my usual blog reading home, so, I missed sending my congratulations on time! I've enjoyed many of your blogging years (maybe most of them?) and send a "cheers" and a hope of many more! I've left your link on various computers over the past weeks - look out for new readers!

[dovegreyreader]

Happy blog birthday to yooooooou, and well done for writing not one but TWO blogs, Karen! As for a lazy day...I have had one or two this summer and it involves a combination of gravity recliner, dappled shade, a jug of elderflower cordial to hand, the Tamar Valley in front of me...and being bitten to death by horseflies:-)

[Dancing Beastie]

Catching up too late for the competition, but just to wish you a belated happy anniversary - and thank you for such a consistently stimulating blog. it's always a pleasure to visit Cornflower.