August

 Hello August, how is it finding you? I keep thinking I need to do a 30 day challenge and all I have come up with so far is the August Break which Leanne and I participate in every year, it's good fun and easy to do, have a look. I think Susannah Conway has been doing it for about ten years now.

The papers are full of what to take on holiday, what to read, listen to. I decided to make a summer playlist, here it is if you want to listen along and I hope you enjoy it.

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6TIbbSkho5NpSwe3UIMf5P?si=htDCAGKLTl-ApFrupZlfUw

I have just finished Flashlight by Susan Choi and it was brilliant, I'm very pleased it is on the Booker longlist. It is so well written and flits between Korea and Japan and America as past lives unravel. 

Lately I have been out with my camera, mostly taking pictures of flowers and not finding much inspiration but still trying to complete a year of photographs and I have till the end of December to do that. A lot of flowers are finishing here with summer, I love these sunflowers that look like triffids don't you?

I always find seed heads so beautiful

summer light on my kitchen table

Summer time

 We went to Devon last week and sure enough, it rained every single day but it was still lovely to get away. We did a lot of exploring and I made sure to go to the beautiful Tinside Lido in Plymouth, such a different setting to my hundreds of photographs I have taken of Bondi icebergs pool over the years. I wasn't tempted to swim, a few brave souls were in the water and I'm sure on a sunny day it is very tempting. 

We also visited Port Isaac where they film Doc Martin! it was a very pretty village on the water

and drove through Dartmoor where the beautiful ponies roam free. Lots of foals and one pony obviously about to give birth

July is here

 I was thinking about what I would write about this morning. We are in the middle of a heat wave here and London is sweltering, a land of no air conditioning and just as everyone complains about the cold, they now complain about the heat! Wimbledon has started and you can hear the roars from the tvs around us with the open windows. 

My tiny garden is full of colour and my sweat peas are out, as are my new roses, I love pottering and watching it all take shape. The hydrangeas look wonderful and I am determined to continue to pick flowers to put into my flower press and on autumn days I can stick them onto card. Its such an easy hobby and doesn't cost anything. 

Making flower cards

Fresh flowers from my garden

I have been busy going to a few exhibitions in London, one of which was the Cartier exhibition at the V and A - gosh such beautiful things and I had forgotten how the Duchess of Windsor had panthers on every piece of jewellery. The tiaras were so beautiful too, it was a great exhibition. 

My reading list is now very long as there are some truly excellent books out there at the moment. I can't stop thinking about Flesh by David Szalay     his writing had me so transfixed. It's the story of a 15 year old Hungarian man groomed by his neighbour and the life that he lives afterwards. Its very masculine and spartan conversations but it works and it's a beautiful sad novel but truly brilliant. I recommend it for those with boys which are not really able to express their feelings! as a caveat, there is a lot of sex and it reads like a thriller.

Another one is - let me go mad in my own way by Elaine Feeney - its a classic Irish misery book (why are Irish novels always so miserable?) but very well written and kept me going. It is about a woman coming to terms with her past and her violent father and supressed mother. 

I am just about to finish this book - Amongst Friends Hal Ebbott - I was about to give up on it, a story of two couples who have been friends since college but then it suddenly changes and its very very good, I am looking forward to finding out what happens in the end tonight. 

My television watching has failed, I can't seem to find anything to get excited about and it all seems a bit same same, same actors, same plots. I did watch Bridget Jones mad about the boy but I just kept looking at all her botox and face fillers and just felt so sad for her and watching Hugh Grant be a letch with pretty young girls just isn't funny any more I don't think. I am a bit bored of the older women/younger men thing as I really do find it all a bit unbelievable unless you are famous or rich. 

Anyway, hope you have an amazing July ahead, let me know what you are up to in the comments