'Ta dah' in July

July was a month in which we tiptoed a little closer to 'normal'.  For some people it meant rushing back to pubs and work, for us it was a gentle easing of restrictions.  We'll all reach the end post eventually, I'm happy to take it one step at a time!

The biggest 'ta dah' wasn't mine at all really.  It was Max's.  He had his first birthday!  A quarter of that year spent in lockdown, but he's happy to be socialising again!

Hola!  Como estas?  

I've managed to keep going with my Spanish.  I'm not sure if I'll ever be fluent (no, scrub that, I know I won't ever be fluent) but my conversational knowledge is growing by the day.  130 days to be exact.

We've spent a lot of time in the garden, planning a new design and we think we have finally decided what we want to change - even to the point of asking a landscape gardener for a quote.  I have a sneaky feeling that the final bill is likely to be much higher than I am expecting!

I've read two books this month.  I've just finished our latest book club read which was The Vanishing Half by Brit Bennett.    It was really good.  I don't want to give any spoilers but a brief synopsis is that twin sisters are born into a small community in the south of America where the people are predominately of mixed black and white ancestry, with each generation being born lighter than the last.  The girls run away when they are sixteen.  Ten years later, one sister returns to the town with her black daughter, and the other twin is secretly living as a white woman with her husband and daughter knowing nothing about her past.  Years later their daughters lives coincide and all the secrets of the past come out of hiding. It's not a book I would probably have chosen for myself but it kept me enthralled!  But before I read that, my friend who is an author asked me to read through the first draft of her latest novel.  I have to say that I think that this is her best book yet, and that it will sell well when it is released early next year.  It always amazes me how she comes up with her storylines.

We got to the beach!  We have paddled in the sea and felt the sand between our toes!  That felt like a real 'ta dah' moment this year and we enjoyed our day immensely.  

We went to a pub for a meal!  Who ever would have thought that would be worthy of a mention of things I achieved over the month?  But at the beginning of the month I wouldn't have thought it would be something I had done, so here it is, last but not least - we have been out with friends.  Now we've had a little taste of freedom, let's just hope everyone else local to us stays as cautious as we are and we don't have to have a local lockdown again.  I think I have reached the borderline of my comfort zone for the moment!