July part two: sea swimming and carousels

While July started mild and damp, with lush forests and a well-watered garden, it ended very warm and very dry, and we experienced some of our hottest weather every recorded in the UK. Many schools closed due to severe weather warnings but we managed to avoid the worst of it down here on the south coast, with temperatures going up to maybe 33ºC, while other areas were considerably higher. Most British people enjoy warmer weather - our summers are usually a bit of a joke - but when it is truly hot it is uncomfortable: our buildings are designed to keep the heart in, no-one has air conditioning and it is often very humid as well as hot.

Anyway, it was a proper heatwave. Glorious, when it was the weekend and you could eat ice cream (blackcurrant and liquorice, homemade, with blackcurrants from the garden). 

Wonderful, at the weekend when you go to the fun fair at the seafront with your friends. 

Very different when you have to go to work and spend all day in classroom measuring 30ºC. Also not much fun for Ziggy but we did buy him a cooling mat which helped, and he has a special collar which you soak in water and it stays lovely and cool for ages.                 

The garden sofa came into its own, and out north-east facing garden was cool all evening, a comfortable place to sit. We ate all our meals outside while it was so warm.

There were emergency dashes to Costa in our lunchbreak for iced anything, anything to keep us cool for a little while.

And then the best thing about a heatwave - going to the beach for sea swimming after work.

We got down there at 6 and were gone by 7, and spend most of that hour in the sea.

It really helped, I felt much cooler for most of the evening - at least until we went to bed, in our boiling hot south-west facing bedroom which gets all the sun in the afternoon.

The heat wave came at the end of term as I said goodbye to my Year 6 (10-11 year olds) class. I am told that every teacher remembers their first class fondly and I am sure that is true. They were a really nice group of children, kind and hard-working, and their thoughtful gifts - especially the little messages and cards - were very sweet.

Which takes us into the holidays, the first day of which was spent having a lunch date with John at The Ivy brasserie in Chichester. Great good, beautiful decor and atmosphere - the room was filed that that wonderful sound of people talking and laughing, cutlery chinking on china - something I really missed during the lockdowns.

At home, I have hit the ground running with Getting Jobs Done. All through term time I manage the most minimal of housework, a cursory wipe and vacuum, but in the holidays I empty cupboards and sort piles and try to impose some order on our home.

I tried paint samples and made decisions, as well as giving the kitchen a good scrub, emptying and wiping out the food cupboards, cleaning the fridge and, the worst job, trying to match the plastic pots with their lids.

It is so nice to have the time to potter, to not just clean but also rearrange furniture and plants, give everything a bit of attention and love.

There have been dog walks in which the pathways looked more like autumn than summer, with parched leaves all over the floor and blackberries in the hedgerows.

There has been time to plan meals and cook, to finally explore new cookery books.

We have walked through the local countryside, thinking that the landscape looks a month further ahead than it usually is in late July, the result of virtually no rain.

There have also been trips to the hairdresser for Bella and I, and to get our nails done too. Summer treats. 

The garden is suffering and looking increasingly dry. I have been watering it but anything in pots has really taking a battering due to the heat.

Do you notice that a certain teenage now allows a certain whippet to sit on the sofa next to her? So long as he's on his blanket....

It wouldn't be the start of the holidays without me emptying out all my craft baskets, taking stock and thinking about what needs to be done.

The patchwork quilt (now four years in the making!) continues to grow slowly.

I have two pairs of bed socks which need mending.......

.....plus a hole in the sleeve of a favourite t-shirt......

.....and my favourite and much-mended jeans need patching again.

It's been months since I did any embroidery but I bought these denim shorts in Tescos and think they will benefit from the addition of some flowers on the pockets.

And this takes us up to the end of July. We have been really busy over the last week, decorating our kitchen-diner and re-laying the decking in the back garden. I will show you photos soon when it is more finished - at the moment it is three quarters done, but we are stopping to have a break and relax a bit have some days out and do some nice things together as a family.