What do you do when you have a rental car in London on a sunny Sunday?

Return the car early and spend the day at home!

Haha, I know what you’re all thinking:  “Riiight. Who are you and what have you done to my brother/boyfriend/hot role model.”

But I kid you not.  The point of renting the car was to see the two gardens I visited on Saturday.  True, the original plan had been to find some cute B&B and spend all the next day at the beach.  But it doesn’t work to spend all weekday hours at the office and then try to find a last-minute booking on the day of — and the thought of doing out-and-back road trips through London traffic twice in a row made me want to gnaw off my arms and legs.  Plus, that hour I spent on the beach on Saturday night kind of scratched that itch.

What I really wanted to do was use the car for an early run down to the Columbia Road Flower Market for a haul of summer flowers . . .

. . . stop back at the flat long enough to put them in water . . .

. . . and then return the car early and walk back home along the canal . . .

. . . stopping of course for 5 minutes of sunny relaxation on a brightly colored canal-side beanbag . . .

. . . before spending the rest of the day deep cleaning and reorganizing my flat.

So that’s exactly what I did.  And I loved it.

After smelling the lilies at Sissinghurst, I had to have lilies for my living room

Pillow from Egypt!

Hard to top this guest bedroom:  peonies AND the Empress Josephine.

Man I love sunflowers.  Also?  That big turquoise vase used to have a crack that leaked. But I totally fixed that with some spray rubber sealant.

My window boxes are coming along!  But I feel like we’re still a few weeks out from their prime.