July Highlights

Hello! Such a lot has happened since I was last here, these July weeks have been absolutely frantic. A feel as though I am racing to keep up with the days and weeks at the moment. But here is a selection of July's highlights, a whirlwind tour of life over the last few weeks.

I finished my teacher training course and now have qualified teacher status. A PGCE is no small undertaking and covid really did not help matters but not only did I do it, I also enjoyed it. No-one is more surprised than me. We celebrated with flowers, burgers and cocktails and I am really excited to start teaching my own class in September. I am still teaching until the end of term but don't have the university work to do any more which is a huge relief. 

Other highlights have been more of the every day variety, but no less lovely for that.

:: A trip to the beach on Sunday (welcome respite from the sudden, relentless heat) and our first swim in the sea this year.

:: Picking the sweet peas. I fill tiny vases and jars and dot them around the house so that I can always smell them. Sometimes I add a few other flowers from the garden, like roses, lavender or giant daisies.

:: My first manicure in a really long time.

:: Ziggy turned four. 

:: Weekend baking with Angus. He is suddenly obsessed, going through all my baking books, sticking post-it notes in recipes. He favours anything chocolatey, or anything that I would probably avoid because it sounds a bit sickly, like these jaffa cake cupcakes. 

:: Watching the Euros on the TV. I can take or leave football, but did enjoy watching this.

:: Double rainbows.

:: My bedside reading pile. I am just finished re-reading The God of Small Things for book club, and loved it as much as I did first time round. Iris Murchoch's A Fairly Honourable Defeat was hard going to begin with but I have started listening to it on Audible and now am completely gripped. Our current book club choices have been quite weighty so I do have some crime fiction in there too, for light relief.

:: Baking my first sourdough in a few weeks and discovering a surprisingly lively, bubbly starter in the fridge producing a really nice loaf.

:: Iced coffee drunk while wandering around the garden barefoot on a weekend morning.

:: The poppies that came up in the back border, the palest apricot pink.

:: Reaching the half way mark on my A Stitch A Day embroidery sampler. June was full of greenery and garden things, a birthday (John's), a school residential trip (me), flowers, football, fresh fruit and my second vaccine. 

:: Our new shed is up, painted and almost finished. I will do a proper post about it soon but here's a photo of it before we painted it.

:: The most beautiful walk through the local countryside a couple of weeks ago, with everything so damp and incredibly green, a typical wet English summer.

And that is all my news. We have three more days left of term - we've almost made it without a bubble closing, fingers crossed we get to the finish line - and then the summer holidays begin. I hope you're all staying safe and well, and cool too, given this bonkers hot weather. Take care.