#WBOYC in July

 

Now I was very early with my last post regarding the Summertime Photo Hunt so I have been more diligent in getting my WBOYC post.  So even though it seems like we still have almost a week of July to go, here is my round up of the month so far.

J

Joining a 'knit and natter' group has spurred me on to get back to my current project which had gone off the boil!

However, there seems to be more 'natter' than 'knit' so I don't actually get too much done in between drinking cups of tea and eating lunch.  It's good to meet new, likeminded people in a very social environment.

U

Using our voucher for Thai meal which was so delicious, I’d eaten most of it before I remembered to take a photo 😆

Unexpected house guest. Our son has a plumbing emergency that is going to take a few days to rectify so they will be moving here for the last few days of July.  As this coincides with us having Daisy the Dachshund  here while Rachel and family visit relatives who are not dog lovers the house is going to be full!

L

Lovely to celebrate Max’s 5th birthday.  He had a brilliant party with all his class from school enjoying a bouncy castle and treasure hunt based on Minecraft characters - not to mention a lovely cake.

Last day at work for my friend who is retiring.  We worked together for about 10 years before I left and we've remained friends since then.  It was very strange to go back to the school for her retirement party. I'm pleased to have gained another retired friend who will be available for lunches midweek.

Y

Years  - 56, since my school friends and I first met at Secondary school and we still meet up once a year.  It's so good to keep those friendships going and the evenings always go past so quickly.

So over here in the UK we are still awaiting summer to properly arrive. Mother Nature keeps taunting us with one or two sunny days only to play tricks and give us a day of rain and low temperatures afterwards.

Would you like to see a 1 Second Everyday clip of the month so far?

Now please pop over to Deb's World in Australia to see what's been happening over there.

Photo Scavenger Hunt 2024 1st check in

 Just when I was wondering what to write about today I remembered that it is time to check in with the first instalment of the photo scavenger hunt!  

I then re-read the date list and realised that I am a week too soon!  Ooops!

The list of prompts for this year's Summer Photography Scavenger Hunt can be found here on Ruth's blog.

I always enjoy this summertime challenge and happily ticked off a few photos on our holiday in June.

1 Family pet or animal - there was no competition for this one

2 Look up to the sky - and what a gloriously blue sky it was

3 A colourful front door - I'm hoping I can be excused this interpretation, I'm not sure what colour the actual door was behind this curtain, but look how beautiful the doorway surround looks

4 Favourite Summer food - Paella!

9 Moving water - the Mediterranean Sea

12 A place of worship - the church in Soller

Inside and outside views, it really was a lovely church.

14 Your nation's flag

Now, with the football going on and England reaching the final, there was no lack of England flags around locally but I managed to find one in a small backstreet when we were on holiday in Mallorca.

So, seven down and eight to go - are you joining in this year?  

Me on Monday

 This Monday finds us in a bit of a flat mood.  Despite reaching the finals of the football Euro 2024, England lost to Spain.  I think there are a lot of disappointed fans making their way back from the host nation (Germany) today. Let's not dwell on it!

We did enjoy the mens final at Wimbledon though, what a good game it was and I was happy that Alcaraz won.  How lovely to see Princess Catherine enjoying the game with her daughter too.

I enjoyed my Knit and Natter on Friday and I've been added to the WhatsApp group so I think I am accepted as a regular now!  I need to crack on with my blanket so they don't think I'm always on the same project.  I was sitting next to someone who was knitting a lovely cardigan and I am inspired to swap crochet hooks for knitting needles and start a new project for a bit of variety.  Hopefully summer will arrive soon and the thoughts of needing clothes to keep us warm will fade into the distance!

We’ve decided that quite a bit of decorating needs to be done this year and I have started the process by looking at paint charts. As it is hall, landing and stairs plus lounge and dining room, we need to be sure we are happy with our choices.

Neither of these match pots have made the cut. At least we’ve narrowed down the decision, but I suspect there will be several more match pots before a final choice is made!

So where does today find me?  Well, we have a new cafe that has opened in the town park which is dog friendly.  Rumour has it that they bake delicious almond croissants so I think we will be taking a little trip down there later this morning 😊

Have a good week!

Me on Monday

 What a week!  A new government and England won a quarter final football game on penalties!

Our son came over to watch the game with Max and Olive as our daughter in law was at Wimbledon on a work event - how lucky was that?  Centre Court as well!  I was supervising a lot of colouring and drawing in the dining room and I could hear Jon talking to Paul and listing every England game they had watched together and it made me smile so much to realise how precious those memories have become for him.  How do some people remember dates and results from so many years ago?  I guess those memories are very strong!

When I left here last week I was going to a trial pilates class.  It was 'ok' but not something I will be signing up to.  I didn't enjoy it as much as I do my Zumba Gold, which is run by the same instructor.  I liked the first half which was standing up and using weights to strengthen your upper body but once we moved to the mat work I got cramp in my toes and couldn't relax to do the exercises properly!  I am prone to cramp so I think this could be an issue if I decided to sign up for classes.  Oh well, at least I tried!

The other big event of the week was Coco celebrating her thirteenth birthday

We have entered the teenage years! 

 I am supposed to be meeting up with a crowd of old school friends on Wednesday but guess when the England Semi-Final game is?  Yes.  We have a clash!  I'm wondering if the guys are going to want to postpone!  We shall see.  I don't mind missing the game but I know there are some that might.

I have another 'knit and natter' lunch time at the end of the week so I need to gather my wool and crochet hooks ready for that.  I am still working on the same blanket that I was last time, I'm determined to take this project slower than I normally do so they aren't going to see much progress!

I’m going into town this morning to find a present for Max as he’ll be 5 at the end of the month. At the moment he is very keen on Minecraft but I’m tempted not to go down that route as their interests can change so quickly at that age and by the end of the month he could be into something totally different!  Wish me luck!

Me on Monday

Last week contained  ‘Splosions’ and ‘Vegetables days’

On Wednesday Olive couldn’t wait to tell me ‘Nanny, we had a splosion outside our house yesday’ and indeed they did! A bus caught fire and exploded just two doors along the road from them. 

You can just see the skeleton of the bus in amongst all the smoke. How scary, but thankfully the driver quickly evacuated the passengers when he noticed smoke coming from the engine and no one was hurt. Jon said their house literally shook when it exploded into flames.

Then when I picked Leo and Rosie up from school the following day Rosie excitedly told me (or so I thought) they were having a vegetable day on Friday. Vegetables Day? I said.  'Yes, we can wear what we like'  I couldn't see how on earth they would dress up as a vegetable and felt sure that if a broccoli costume was likely to be needed, I would have heard about it much sooner!  I should point out that at the time she was skipping away in front of me and chewing on a sweet (It has become a tradition that I take a small treat with me when it's my days to pick up and chewy 'randoms' are a favourite!) It turns out she wasn't saying 'vegetables day' but 'break the rules day' "Nanny, you are silly' I was told in no uncertain terms!  She had already planned a sparkly dress, glitter in her hair, sequinned shoes and some lipstick.

We've had a full on weekend.  Rachel and husband were invited to an adults only wedding on the south coast so were staying overnight.  We had Leo, Rosie and Daisy here from 9am Saturday to after lunch on Sunday.  They are little bundles of whirlwind energy and I was exhausted by the time we waved them goodbye in the afternoon.  They do not stop.

So today finds me trying something new.  I have booked myself onto a trial pilates class.  My husband regularly does a pilates class and really enjoys it so I thought I would give it a go.  I figure that the relaxation part at the end is well deserved after our busy weekend - not to mention the stress of the England football game last night!

Have a good week x

#WBOYC in June

 It's the last Friday of the month so time to have a quick round up of what's been going on over here.  The month of June should surely have been the start of the summer shouldn't it?  Blue skies, warm sunshine, long days, meals taken outside ... let's see what really happened!

J

Just managed to sneak in a trip to our nearest beach at the weekend.  I do love a walk along the sand and the sight of a line of beach huts.  We have friends who moved to a village close to Frinton on Sea and they invited us for Sunday lunch last weekend.  The weather was glorious and when they said 'do you fancy popping into Frinton for a seaside walk?' I was quick to put on my sandals and sun hat.

U

Unknown local vineyards.  England is not famed for its wine industry so you would have thought I would have known we had a vineyard less than an hour away wouldn't you?  However, it wasn't until we were gifted a vineyard tour as a Christmas present that we discovered it.  I booked the tour for mid June, assuming that the weather would be nicely warm, but as the date approached, and weather forecasts still showed the likelihood of rain I wondered if the tour would go ahead! luckily the rain clouds blew away before the tour and we had a really interesting tour followed by a rather delicious tasting 😊

N

Nuptials! My cousin got married and it was the first wedding we’ve been to since our children got married seven years ago. They make a perfect couple, they had met at school, lost touch, both married and had a family with other people, both divorced and then found themselves working at the same company. The rest is history, they lived together for years then when it was a leap year in 2020 my cousin proposed to him! It then took four years to decide on a date. 

E

Excited to feel the sun on our holiday to Mallorca, it was absolutely glorious there.

So it was a busy month and happily the British sun finally made an appearance ... how long will it last though?

Let's take a 1 Second Everyday look at how the month unfolded.  Then please pop over to Australian Deb's blog to see what's been happening on the other side of the world!

Me on Monday

 We had a belated Christmas present this weekend. Our son and daughter-in-law gave us a voucher for a vineyard tour and wine tasting and the summer tours officially started in June so we booked ourselves in as soon as we had a free Saturday. 

Now we had no idea we had a vineyard 35 mins drive from home, what a lovely discovery. The weather forecast was for light drizzle but it stayed dry for the hour we toured the vines and listened to the history of the vineyard and how the soil and weather affect the grapes.  It was really interesting and I learnt a lot.

As our climate is changing and temperatures are rising the conditions for wine in the uk is becoming very similar to France which means that we will have a larger wine industry.  Saffron Grange only make sparkling wine (I have no complaints about that 😊) and we tried one white and two rose

I had already drunk half of each glass before I thought to take a photo! We then had a cheese platter of a variety of cheeses that I hadn’t tried before and all in all it was a great way to spend a morning.  Naturally we brought home a bottle of their sparkling rose even though it was a bit more than we normally spend on wine, but it seemed much so more of a bargain when I checked how much they charged for it at one of the big hotels in Cambridge ... £80! How can they justify almost doubling the price? 

The logo for the vineyard is a woolly mammoth.  Apparently when the ground was excavated, evidence of woolly mammoths was discovered. Hard to believe they were roaming the countryside near us all those years ago! 

We ended off a very busy weekend (meal out with friends Thursday, friends over for the afternoon Friday, Vineyard tour Saturday ...) with a trip to visit our friends who live about 5 minutes from our favourite nearest beach.  The weather was glorious and after lunch they suggested a walk along the seafront.  A lovely way to end the visit.  As we had Coco with us it was a perfect excuse to walk on the sand rather than the hot pavements, it was quite busy!  Obviously we weren't the only ones to head for the nearest coast when they heard the weather report.

This week will be a little less busy than the last one although it ends with a sleep over for Leo and Rosie (and of course Daisy) as our daughter and husband are going to a wedding which is adults only.  Wish us luck!