Good Bye July, Hello August

On the whole we had a cracking July from a weather point of view with plenty of ad hoc garden activity going on and the veg plot really sharing the fruits of our earlier labours.

The month started with my 'photography workshop' with Hannah, which you can read about here, and our week's holiday at Number 27, which you can read about here, here and here.

We finally launched our new Coventry Canal Walk Geocache series and have had lots of fun reading the emails as local Cachers find the caches.

The end of the month saw Martin back to London for the last of his weekends working away and starting the process of 'degassing' his first batch of wine, along with the completion of a garden project which has been on the cards for a good few years, the extension of the brick edging around the bottom half of the lawn, which you will be able to read about very soon.

The end of July also heralded the end of the first six months of my new 'Life of Pottering'.  I am still loving it and will go back and have a look at the objectives that I set myself back in February, to see how I have done.  I certainly feel like I've done a lot of new things.  I've really enjoyed being able to be a bit more creative.

We started off August, away in the Peak District, for an annual catch up with a group of old work friends, Jude and Rob and Phil and Sue.  We have met up for the last three years and some of us stop in a B&B and some in their caravan.  So far we've been to Castleton and Rowseley.  This year we stayed in a really nice B&B in Ashford-in-the-Water, which is not that far from Bakewell.

We found a nice pub for a meal on the Friday night, had a nice walk planned for the Saturday, ending up with a BBQ at Rob and Jude's van and then come home on Sunday morning.

You'll be able to read more the B&B we stayed in and what we got up to on our weekend away in a later post.


As I am writing this post, on 4 August, I can't help but think more about Will Sidney and the letter he will have received, 100 years ago, instructing him to report for active duty at the outbreak of WW1.  I will be continuing his story over the coming months, letting you know about his stay in Graylingwell hospital with Pyrexia and his third and final posting to France.

The rest of the month is looking fairly quiet, though we are hoping that this is the month that we finally get the new front gate finished off and fitted.  We've also got a long Bank Holiday weekend to look forward to.

Hopefully the good weather will continue through the month and we can make the most of the garden and get a good few BBQs in, before we need to start preparing for Autumn.