Happy Thursday

“Just living is not enough. One must have sunshine, freedom, and a little flower.”

Hans Christian Andersen

In today’s issue, we’ll take a look at:

• The flowers worth waiting all year for

• Four ways to make summer feel longer

• Could you afford a pet emergency?

• Sunset of the day

• What to do when your electricity bill keeps climbing

The Flowers Worth Waiting All Year For

For years, British flower farmers have played the underdog. More than 80 percent of cut flowers bought in the UK are shipped or flown in from abroad, leaving small local growers competing against an industry built entirely for scale.

Then people started asking a simple question: where do these flowers actually come from? For imported blooms, that's surprisingly hard to answer. They pass through so many hands on the way that no one can tell you much about how they were grown. Shoppers also began wanting something other than the identical bunches at the supermarket, reaching instead for looser, airier arrangements that look like they came from a garden.

That curiosity found the growers. When Lucy Copeman started her flower farm near Bedford, an hour north of London, hers was one of the only ones around. There are at least fifteen flower farms in the area today, and even with all that company, she still sells out nearly every week. So many small farms have opened across the country that the British government recently created an official category for them. This means that the industry can finally be counted and supported like any other.

Buying flowers this way does mean letting go of the year-round supermarket selection, because you only get what's in season. But most people find that's the best part, since the bouquet on your table changes as the year does. Plus, you don't need to be in England to try it. Simply stop by a farmers’ market or a roadside stand this week and see what's blooming nearby.

Four Ways to Make Summer Feel Longer

Summer always seems to sprint. One week you're pulling out bathing suits, and the next you're unboxing sweaters, wondering where the months went. Here's the quirk behind it: your brain doesn't bother saving what feels routine, so ordinary days leave almost nothing behind to look back on.

That's why a season can feel full while you're in it and thin the moment it's over. The good news is that you can give your brain more to hold onto, and it comes down to four small habits:

• Turn off autopilot by asking yourself what you're doing right now

• Try one tiny new thing each day, plus one bigger new thing each month

• Protect your downtime, because an overloaded schedule speeds time up

• Write down your day by hand, which locks the memory in

Pick one of these and give it a try. You might just find the rest of the summer stretches further than the calendar says it should.

Sunset of the Day

Reader Kenneth sent us this sunset from Playa Hermosa, Costa Rica. The sun dropped low behind the palms and turned the whole Pacific gold. Look closely and you can catch it flickering through the leaves, right before it slipped into the water.

Some evenings just ask you to stop and watch. This looks like one of them.

Thank you to Kenneth for sharing your sunset with us! Want to be featured next? Send us your best sunset photo.

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