Spring-Summer Update (2026) + Happy Lammas!

I normally post on Sundays or Mondays but didn't manage to get this finished yesterday, so I'm posting today instead. :)

We're just over halfway through the year, so it's time for my spring-summer update! :) You can see my winter-spring (first update of 2026) here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2026/04/winter-spring-update-2026-happy-beltane.html

 

Easter was at the beginning of April this year. I baked a frosted white chocolate Easter cake (one if my favourite cakes to make for Easter). I also had a family meal and got a couple of chocolate eggs. 

At the beginning of May I celebrated Beltane. You can see my post about it here: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2026/05/beltane-2026.html

During May I baked some condensed milk after tea cakes for my mum's birthday (using this recipe from Lavender & Lovage). I've made them before and they're nice. 

I also made pico de gallo using this recipe from The Doctor's Kitchen: https://www.thedoctorskitchen.com/recipes/pico-de-gallo 

I made it along with some potato salad (using a recipe from Apply to Face which is one of my favourites) to have some food for the supermarket when I watched the Eurovision Song Contest. I didn’t take a picture but you can see what the potato salad looked like in my May Update post from 2019: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2019/05/may-update.html

 

In mid-June it was Litha. I wrote a post about my celebrations: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2026/06/litha-2026.html

 

I haven't been doing much else apart from going to Happy Café (Action for Happiness' Meetup events).

Here are a couple of photos I took during the spring:

Ship Street area, Brighton- April.

 

Lancing Beach Green- May.

The second one was taken when I went to the beach for Beltane. 

Apart from the tea cakes, I also baked chocolate cupcakes in May. The recipe is another one from Lavender and Lovage and it's actually for a big cake (condensed milk chocolate cake) but I made it into ucpcakes. I've made the cake before. You can see the recipe here: https://www.lavenderandlovage.com/2022/07/frys-condensed-milk-chocolate-cake.html

The weather has been a talking point (more than usual, lol), since we’ve had several heatwaves this spring and summer! The first one in May broke previous records when temperatures got to 34.8C (94.64F) in London and the nights remained hot. 

Then last month we had another one which saw the highest temperature of 37.7C (99.86). Another heatwave is starting this week. I realise that these temperatures aren't that hot for some, but they're hot for the UK and it's not common here. It did get up to 40C (104.F) in some places in summer 2022 though.

So that's it for the update! :) I hope your spring and summer went/have been going well (or your autumn and winter depending where you are!). 

The next sabbat is Lammas, so I've included some information about it below. :)  

Watched: Wuthering Heights (2026).  

Read: Rebecca by Daphne DuMaurier (one of my favourites), Confidence by Roxie Nafousi (non-fiction), The Tenant by Frieda McFadden, A Curse for True Love by Stephanie Garber (3rd book in the Once Upon a Broken Heart series).

 

P.S. It's Lammas (one of my favourite sabbats/seasonal festivals) on Saturday (1st August), so here are a few links with inspiration for celebrating! :)  

Happy Lammas! (my most recent round-up from 2022): https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2022/07/happy-lammas.html

Sumer Salads + Happy Lammas! (my post from last year sharing some salads to make for summer, plus some ideas for celebrating Lammas: https://livingseasonal.blogspot.com/2025/07/summer-salads-happy-lammas.html

 Seasonal Living for Lammas/ Lughnasadh Season (podcast from The Writing Witch): https://writingwitch.com/2024/07/31/astrology-of-lammas/

5 Rituals for Lammas (Substack post from Victoria Harrison): https://victoriaharrison.substack.com/p/5-rituals-for-lammas/