#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.

#WBOYC The February edition

Last month Australian Deb from the other Deb's World used the initials from her WOTY to highlight things she'd done in the month so I am brazenly blog-lifting her idea as a different way of seeing 'What's been on my calendar'

F

Feeling tidier after having a hair cut - I feel like I need a change next time but can't decide whether or not to go shorter

E

Eating and exercising.  Two meals out with friends and four Zumba lessons.  I need to keep/get fit because I have been busy arranging something to go on our July calendar, we have ...

B

... Booked our summer holiday - We have a week in Sicily on the calendar now, I'm anxious to leave winter behind so it is lovely to have something overseas planned even if I do have to wait five months!

R

Reading our online book club's choice All the Broken Places by John Boyne.  This is the sequel to The Boy in the Striped Pyjama and was a good pick.  I'm also reading A Man Called Ove which is now a film with Tom Hanks in the main role.  I'm really enjoying it and think that Tom Hanks is the perfect actor to play the character of Ove.  

U

Unpicking a few rows of crochet that I tried to do while watching the last episode of Happy Valley - honestly, I'll never know why I thought I could concentrate properly on both at the same time! Have you been watching it?  Such a brilliant drama - the acting was superb. Want to see how the blanket is coming along? There is at least one mistake that I know of but I'm hoping that no one else will notice it!

A

Also booked a long weekend away in May to one of our favourite places in the UK - Southwold.  This will be Coco's holiday too as we've booked a dog-friendly cottage.  In fact the whole of Southwold is dog friendly so we feel very comfortable taking her with us. 

R

Returned our Covid tests to the Office of National Statistics.  Every month we are sent a PCR test and a blood antibody kit which we have to return within 14 days.  It helps the ONS calculate the amount of people who may have Covid without having any symptoms.  In return for us doing that we are sent a £20 voucher - we've been doing this for two years now and I'm wondering how much longer they will ask us to continue.

Y

Yes to all the pancakes on Shrove Tuesday! We can have pancakes any day in the year, why do I only think about making them when Shrove Tuesday appears on the calendar?

So would you like to see how February looked so far - 1 Second Every Day?

Now please pop over to the Australian Deb's World and see what she packed into her busy February!  
 

#WBOYC

 So tell me, 

What's been on your calendar this month?  My month started off with a pretty blank canvas, very little socialising going on.  But thankfully as the month unfolded, the calendar gradually filled.  So what have I been doing?  Well

Watching, listening and reading

TV Happy Valley, Firefly Lane, Amanda Holden and Alan Carr's Italian job (which has made us seriously consider Sicily as our holiday destination this year!)

Podcasts - Jane Garvey and Fi Glover "Off record" is still one of my regular ones but I'm still not sure if I enjoy it quite as much as their old podcast "Fortunately"

Books - So Long Chester Wheeler.  I'll be writing a little more about this in a future post.  It was our online book club choice and I read it very quickly as I couldn't put it down!  After that I read a book which won't be available to the public until next year.  My friend Dani is an author and she always lets me read her latest book before it goes in for its final edit. Again, this was a storyline which had me hooked from the very beginning.  It a shame that I can't share the story with you as it is isn't even close to publication yet but I promise that nearer the time I will tell you more.  Spoiler alert - it's good!

Crafting

We don't need any more blankets.  We have more than enough blankets. When there was a new 'Crochet Along' on the Coastal Crochet website I resisted, I even encouraged my friend to do it.  I definitely wasn't going to make it {you already know where this is going don't you?} Then I started to see people posting their versions of it on the group Facebook page.  Then my friend finished hers and said she enjoyed it so much she was going to make another for her sister.  I weakened.  I saw a picture of one that someone had done in dark blues, greens and pinks.  It would look perfect in my lounge.  I had some left over pink wool that I could use.  I would only need to order 3 other colours.  It would cost hardly anything to make. I'll be putting away my Christmas blanket so it really wasn't going to be another blanket, it would just be replacing that one.  So anyway, this is how far I've got ... 

Childcare

Six sessions of picking up Leo and Rosie from school and giving them their tea

Three days of looking after Olive

One evening of babysitting coming up at the weekend too!

Playing with words

I've found a new word game.  It's called Wordiply and it really makes you think.  You are given three letters that you have as a starter word and you have to find the longest word that includes those letters. You have five goes.  The other day the letters were ANT and I thought I had done well to come up with 'fantasmorgorical'.  Sixteen letters, but two letters short of their longest which was 'transubstantiation'.  I do like to start the day with a word game to get my brain working!

Exercise

Zumba started again after the Christmas break.  Although I try and convince myself that dog walking is a good exercise, it just isn't the same as doing an exercise class.  The bathroom scales are clearly not working properly as the numbers had gone up too high 😉  I'm sure it couldn't have anything to do with our pre Christmas socialising ... can it? Anyhow, I attended four sessions of Zumba this month and thoroughly enjoyed every one.

Haircut and colour for me

Of course the day that I had a hairdresser's appointment booked was also a windy and rainy day.  Which means a 'putting up your coat hood and sprinting back to the car' mission to try and come home looking more presentable than when you left!  After spending a decent amount of money on two hours pampering you want to look neat and tidy for more than five minutes.

Just a haircut for Coco

We ended last year with concerns about Coco.  She had made the top of her head bleed and it didn't seem to want to heal.  Well, to be fair she was a little rascal and kept opening up the wound.  When she's excited after a walk she will come in, roll around on her back and rub her head on the floor.  If you have a dog, you will know what I mean!  I was convinced that she had disturbed the skin so much that it had turned black which could only mean that gangrene was setting in.  (Dramatic?  Over reacting?  Moi?) So back to the vets she went where they cleaned it all up, and reassured us that the 'gangrene' was in fact a scab of blood which, when removed, showed that the skin was nicely pink underneath.  

Anniversaries

The 20th January marked another year without my dad in my life.  Even though 35 years have passed since he died, when I see that date on the calendar I always feel sad to think of all the things that he has missed over the years. 

On the 31st January it will be the anniversary of me passing my driving test.  Forty seven years ago 😳 I remember that we woke up to snow that morning and my instructor called to say we would go to the test centre but he doubted the test would take place.  How wrong could he be?  Maybe I wasn't nervous because I thought it wasn't going to happen but anyway - I passed first time! 

Eco-warriors

This was more on Paul's calendar than mine (partly due to the fact that it was pouring with rain on the day it was scheduled) Our local climate action group has organised for a community orchard to be planted on our northern parkland.  

Several local groups have been involved including the local school, Leo's Beavers group and the volunteers of the southern country park.  So on Saturday they planted over 30 trees to attract pollinating insects and over the years, hopefully have a community orchard that everyone can enjoy.

Socialising with friends

We had friends over for tea and cake - I love baking cakes so having people over is a great excuse to get the mixer out; coffee and walnut sponge this time.

The other time that we socialised I fancied doing a dinner with a theme and as it was Chinese New Year we invited friends over for dinner.  I wasn't ambitious enough to cook a Chinese meal myself, especially when there is a take-away Chinese restaurant about 5 minutes away from us!  

You'll notice that I didn't provide knives and forks - it was chopsticks for everyone! {although knives and forks replaced them quite early in the meal}

So that was my January so far.  Would you like to see how it looked in a video of 1 Second Everyday ?

This post is part of a theme organised by the other Deb at the other Deb's World.  Please click on the link, and pop over to read her blog and see how life was this month on the other side of the globe!