Project 365 – August

August arrived and with it rain and more chilly weather – more like what we expect from british summertime I guess!  August was something of a pottering month for the most part, always busy though!

A theme running through the month is my lack of patience with growing sunflowers – I did not know it could take so long to go from bud to flower…  Well now I do!  I have managed to successfully grow one flowering sunflower!  That it is less than a metre tall is something that I should probably be proud of – it isn’t easy to grow such a small sunflower!  By the end of the month there were plenty more buds showing, but I suspect it will be frosty at night before they get anywhere the speed they grow at!  I’m not holding out a great deal of hope!

We got back out on the bikes in August – be it out in the New Forest or cycling round the park after work for some fresh air and exercise!

1st-7th August

At the beginning of the month I had a work trip across to Zurich, I didn’t see a great deal of the city apart from when I was in the aeroplane but I did have a nice walk to work along the side of the lake.  My flight went from London City airport which was the first time I had been there – very interesting, definitely a steeper take off than I thought possible from the type of plane I was on!

We were privileged to visit the Tower of London and listen to a sunset ceremony.  You may have heard that 800,000 ceramic poppies are being planted here up until November to mark the centenary of the Great War – one poppy for every one of our servicemen than paid the ultimate price for their country and our freedom.  I don’t think the scale of how many people that is had hit home until I saw it as poppies…

Mid month was all about watching how slowly a sunflower actually grows – however it did eventually flower!  The weather improved too which meant lots of time on Southampton common either running or cycling!  Great to get fresh air after work!  I have also concluded that commuting home from  London isn’t always so bad – Mr P is very thoughtful and brought mini bottles of wine for us, so while I worked – I could at least start relaxing!

8th-15th August

We had a great day out at the Red Bull Air Race which was a nice surprise!  And even better news – the ladies rugby team won the World Cup, our friend Sophie was even interviewed on C4 news! Funnily I had watched this news because Mr P thought he would be on it as he walked out the door of Number 10 when there was an interview going on, but instead – there was Sophie!

My team runs on their stomach, so we had a great steak lunch, and a very slow afternoon as a result!  End of the week and Mr P had a little bit of sailing on the Hamble and then headed of to Cornwall for a dinghy national championships!

16th-24th August

Bank holiday weekend with it was  ‘changeable’ weather wise – Monday was terrible, it rained in a monsoonal fashion, I didn’t even get out of my PJ’s!  Fortunately plans for a picnic with friends was the day before in better weather (although still chilly for August)…

Bank holidays make the following week harder as it goes down to 4 days, I made it even harder and took 1.5 days off work from that – so I had a busy couple of days getting a weeks work into less days!  But there was a jolly good reason and that was to head to Cornwall to see friends, family and of course Mr P!

25th-31st August

The weather was chilly, but it happily didn’t rain for a great deal of my visit – although there was more than enough!  We were based in Marazion on the first night – and the view from the sailing club across to the mount is quite spectacular.  The next night we upgraded and enjoyed ourselves at The Old Coastguard in Mousehole which is a gorgeous boutique property (more to come soon).  The following day we caught up with friends in Falmouth and had a lovely evening sail in the Carrick Roads sunshine!  End of the month and the sun was back – so our darling car continued to impress us with a roof down drive home from Cornwall in the sunshine!