August 2025

It wasn't the best of starts to August as I came down with a sickness bug. Eleanor had been sick at work on the Tuesday and continued to be ill once home, Jack was sick later that evening, Jacob was sick during the night, Mick started with the bug on the Thursday and I succumbed on the Friday. Daniel and Jasmine had gone to the Edinburgh Fringe that weekend and they got it too, luckily not quite as bad as the rest of us. I think it may have been something which Eleanor picked up at a baby group as her friend's little girl was sick too. It lasted a couple of days.

We've had some lovely days out this month, Temple Newsam Farm with Jack, and Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival, both of which I wrote about in previous posts, as well as Whitby. I enjoyed getting my Yorkshire Dales fix as well as some sea air.

It was Mick's birthday on the 14th, this is now his last year in his fifties, the big 6 0 next year. We enjoyed a really lovely meal out. We have a very good Italian restaurant within walking distance of our house and they do the best lasagna I've every tasted. We've also enjoyed some coffees (him) and teas (me) out, with sweet treats included too, of course.

I've read two books this month.

The Chalk Pit by Elly Griffiths is the ninth book in the Dr Ruth Galloway series and probably my favourite so far, though it's hard to choose really as they're all so good. I keep saying this one or that one was my favourite as I work my way through them, they just seem to get better and better. I really enjoy the mysteries but the characters and the complicated lives they lead are as equally fascinating. There's another development between Nelson and Michelle in this book which will definitely set the cat among the pigeons.

I'm still enjoying reading the classics and The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins is one I picked up this month. It's quite a hefty book but it kept me intrigued and engrossed the whole way through. It's so well written and has definitely stood the test of time. I sometimes wonder how a particular book has become a classic because I don't rate it, but I suppose reading is subjective and just because one person likes a particular book, it doesn't mean that everyone will. I definitely give The Woman in White a huge thumbs up and thoroughly recommend it.

The Thursday Murder Club landed on Netflix on Thursday, I've been looking forward to watching it. When I heard who had been cast in the four main roles I thought that Helen Mirren, Celia Imrie and Ben Kingsley were exactly right for the characters of Elizabeth, Joyce and Ibrahim, but I just couldn't see Pierce Brosnan in the role of Ron. I thought he did a good enough job but when I read a book I get a picture of what a character looks like in my head and I just think that someone like Ray Winstone would have made a better Ron. I enjoyed the film but not as much as the book. Mick's never read the books but he enjoyed the film.

Believe it or not, I've seen Christmas paraphernalia being loaded onto the shelves in certain shops. Yes, in the middle of August! I thought I'd better pick up a few autumnal bits to add to my seasonal decor before they clear it out to make room. I love the candles which I picked up in Primark, not a shop I usually visit, so pretty.

I've had a little break from knitting things for Jack but I've now cast on another Baby Aosta Cardigan by The Knit Purl Girl. This will be the fifth one I've knit for him but they fit so well and look lovely on, as well as being cosy, so Eleanor asks for this same pattern each time, just a variation in the colour. I'm knitting this one in King Cole Cherished DK in the Pebble colourway. Jack's growing like a weed, he needs lots of new clothes.

We're now approaching September, my birthday month. I can feel summer slipping away as we head into autumn but I'm still hoping that the lovely weather we've been having will hang on for some time yet. Time will tell.

Something To Crow About

For just over a week during the month of August, the village of Kettlewell in the Yorkshire Dales stages its Scarecrow Festival. This is the thirty first year that it's been held, and we've visited quite a few times. In fact, I've blogged about it before:- Kettlewell Scarecrow Festival, More From Kettlewell and It's Scarecrow Time Again. 

Car parking is just £4 for the day and a trail sheet, if you want one, costs £1. Where else could you have such an entertaining day out in such a beautiful place with the stunning Yorkshire Dales scenery as a backdrop, for the princely sum of £5?

There are different trail sheets for adults and children with a bit of a scarecrow quiz to solve as you make your way around the village, taking in all the scarecrows.

I love that the whole village seems to come together for this event, there are some brilliant creations and there's a wonderful atmosphere. Refreshments are on sale in the village hall, or if you prefer, there's three pubs and a tea parlour.

There are so many scarecrows that I couldn't possibly take photos of them all, so instead, I'll show you just some of my favourites. First up is the Dingle Dangle Scarecrow with his flippy floppy hat. This is one of Jack's favourite songs, we'll definitely have to take him to see the scarecrows when he's a bit older.

Maleficent. I've never seen the film but I knew who she was. There are some scarecrows that I don't recognise but I still enjoy seeing them.

A Chinese dragon. The work that goes into some of these creations is amazing.

I loved this one, a Yorkshireman celebrating Yorkshire Day (which is on the 1st of August) with all things Yorkshire related:- Yorkshire Tea, Tetley's Bitter, Wensleydale Cheese and a Yorkshire Pudding.

Little Red Riding Hood. There's plenty of scarecrows to appeal to children.

There's scarecrows for the adults too. Rob Burrow, rugby league player who sadly died from motor neurone disease last year. This won a judges award.

There was a wonderful scarecrow display commemorating the 80th anniversary of VE Day. The scarecrows here represent each branch of the armed forces.

The civilians are represented too, evacuees being sent away from their parents.

Even Winston Churchill's here. This display won best in show.

If you didn't get a ticket to see Oasis, don't fear, you can catch the boys at Kettlewell.

Or if Oasis aren't your thing, how about Elton John?

I don't think you can have any festival or event these days without Harry Potter popping up somewhere!

Even the church puts on a display of scarecrows, and they're usually excellent. I love this vicar reading his sermon.

This lady is making sure that there's plenty of refreshments for visitors to the church.

The flower arrangers are making sure the church is suitably decorated for harvest festival.

And the choir master is making sure that his choir is well rehearsed.

Another one for the children (or big children!). Mick used to make out that the kids wanted to watch Sponge Bob but I know he secretly wanted to watch himself!

This was my favourite scarecrow. I'm not a fan of Jeremy Clarkson and don't watch Clarkson's Farm, (is that what it's called), but I thought this was brilliant.

A close up of Jeremy himself, I think they've got a pretty good likeness, haha.

The grim reaper, least said.

There were a couple of Peter Pan themed scarecrows, I liked this Tinkerbell.

Oh, don't I know how she feels. Having the need recently to ring Sky about a problem with my account, this could quite easily be me!

I don't know who these two are, do you? They could be me and Mick.

The Scarecrow Festival is over again for another year but if you ever get the chance to go I can thoroughly recommend it. These are just a very small selection of the scarecrows we saw and I'm sure you can tell that a lot of work is put into making them. It takes a good two hours or more to see all on offer, but make sure you leave time for some delicious refreshments too. What a great day out.

Old MacDonald Had A Farm

Three weeks have now passed since Eleanor returned to work after her maternity leave and we've been looking after Jack. I'm trying to think of something nice to do each week while I'm looking after him so last week we decided to visit Temple Newsam Home Farm. It's a place I've visited since I was a child so it was nice to introduce Jack to the animals there.

We were in luck, there were cute piglets, a highlight of any farm visit for me.

What a fancy goose, look at all those beautiful feathers.

There were different types of sheep. One thing this farm is missing is detailed information about the animals, or actually, any information at all about the animals.

Jack was very interested in the cows, and the cows were very interested in Jack, they followed us the whole way along the fence.

The donkey's are always a favourite. There's two at Temple Newsam Farm, the other one was in his shelter.

More piglets. Jack was a little unsure of being so close to them, especially the Tamworth which would insist on poking his snout through the wire. So cute.

There's lots of different types of goats at the farm, big and small, but one thing they have in common is that they all climb.

The donkey paid a little more attention to us on our way back round.

Bless this cow getting comfy in the hay. This is a Vaynol, one of the UK's rarest breeds of cattle. You can read more about them, and see more of the farm, if you click on the link at the start of this post.

I think Jack was a little overawed by it all, but at least he's seen all the animals he sings about on Old MacDonald's Farm.

July 2025

The lovely weather we had in spring and early summer has continued into July. It didn't seem that one heatwave had finished before we were in the throngs of another, and whilst there was a short break between them, we were on another unexpected holiday which you can read about in my last post. We've had some rain too this month, we were desperate for it, a hosepipe ban in our area came into force on the 11th and other water companies have introduced hosepipe bans since.

July has seen some big changes for us. Eleanor has returned to work after her maternity leave so we're looking after Jack for her. Well, I say we, Mick's at work himself, though he works from home more often then not so he's around most days, but it's me who's supplying the childcare really. Eleanor's gone back part time, working Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, and she's already back into the swing of things, she enjoys what she does which is good. Jacob works shifts so some weeks I won't have Jack all three days, or I may have him for less hours, it just depends what shifts he's on that week. It's started off well, Jack's such a happy little boy so he's a pleasure to look after, but my goodness, he's a live wire and keeps me on my toes. I'm trying to think of nice things to do with him while I've got him so we took him to feed the ducks and swans at Roundhay Park one day, though he was more interested in the pigeons which were gobbling up all the dropped bird seed on the side of the lake.

We haven't had many days out again this month but we did manage a trip to my beloved Yorkshire Dales last weekend. It would actually have been my sister's birthday so we took some flowers to put in vases at the memorial stone we have at the crematorium, which is on the way to the Dales, so we decided to carry on with the journey. It's a while since we've wandered around Grassington so that's where we headed.

I've read four books this month.

I've thoroughly enjoyed the Woolworths Girls series but it's with sadness that I came to the end of the latest one, New Horizons for the Woolworths Girls, as this will be the final book in this series. The author, Elaine Everest, died last year and this was her final novel. My mum was a Woolworths girl and met my dad when the firm he worked for at the time was doing some refurbishments to the store where she worked. I liked how Elaine Everest captured the mood of the time in which she set her books, and there were some great characters whose lives evolved throughout the series. I'll definitely miss these stories.

I took The Bookshop of Secrets by Kerry Barrett on holiday with me but I didn't get very much reading done, I might have read a chapter a day, if that. Set during WWII but with a difference as the location in this book is Lisbon, quite unusual when reading a WWII story. Very lighthearted and rather far-fetched, but I did enjoy it. I liked the characters who were all quite different from each other but all united in their endeavour to do their bit for the war. An easy read.

My Darling Boy by Helen Cooper has a good storyline, two boys who had grown up as best friends with one ending up killing the other. It's billed as a psychological thriller with twists and turns a plenty which you won't see coming. Well, I did see them coming and I guessed every one of them, and even though the book is written with each chapter taking you to a different period in time which could be confusing, I still enjoyed it. Not fantastic but okay.

Someone on Instagram recommended Anna O by Matthew Blake to me after I'd read The Silent Patient last month. A similar storyline, a medical murder mystery, guilty or innocent. The two books are also quite similar in how they're written, short, punchy chapters. Anna O delves more into the psychology aspect and sleepwalking, if a person can be held accountable for their actions whilst unconscious. On paper, this is right up my street, but I didn't love it as much as I thought I would, just a little bit long-winded.

My niece got married four years ago and her mum and auntie grew and arranged all the flowers for the arrangements at the venue. The main theme was sunflowers so packets of sunflower seeds were given out at the reception so that each guest could grow their own. I added them to my seed tin and forgot all about them until I was going through everything in there earlier this year and came across them. I wasn't sure they'd still be viable having been stashed in a tin for four years but I gave them a go and they've been a success. There's two different varieties, both yellow which are my favourite. The hoverfly seems to be enjoying this one too.

I didn't go and see Wicked when it came out at the cinema but I loved the stage show when I saw it back in 2014 so I've been looking forward to it being shown on Sky. It was released on Sky Cinema this month but I was a bit disappointed in it, I found it overly drawn out to the point it was getting boring. The live show lasts for about two and a half hours whereas the running time of the movie is two hours forty minutes, and that's just the first part, the second part is released in cinemas later this year. I definitely won't rush to watch it at the cinema but I shall watch it once it's released on Sky, purely because I've watched the first part, but what I've seen so far wouldn't make me want to watch it a second time.

I've finished off the first section of my Vertices Unite shawl by Stephen West this month and even though I haven't been doing very much knitting just lately, I've managed to get the second section completed too. The stitches from this section have to be kept live and put on hold, but I shall be starting the third section now with another colour change. There's lots of crafting I'd like to be getting on with but I just don't seem to have the time, I'm busy with other things just now. I'm making the most of the lighter evenings, there'll be plenty of time for crafting once the nights start drawing in again.

I'm pleased to say that after coming home from our holiday in June and discovering that she was being made redundant, Jasmine has found a new job and she starts next week. Her employment with her previous employer ended yesterday so there's only two days that she won't have been in employment. She and Daniel are heading off tonight to meet friends at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Both Mick's and Jacob's birthdays fall in August so those celebrations are coming up, and there's a bank holiday in the month ahead too. Lots to look forward to.

Archie's Bowls

One of the hardest things when a loved family member dies is sorting through their things and deciding what should happen with them. It's the same when a much loved pet dies. I knew that I'd take Archie's beds, bedding and towels, along with some other bits and pieces, to the Dogs Trust, it's a charity we've supported in the past and they can always make use of these things. I got everything washed, dried and folded ready to go quite soon after Archie died but it was quite a while before I could actually part with them. It's the letting go, isn't it, another little piece of him gone. 

Of course, we didn't take everything, there's some things we kept, like his bowls. I decided they'd make good planters and they'd be somewhere I'd see them everyday, just like when he was still here with us. There's no holes for drainage so I made sure to put plenty of little stones in the bottom before I filled them with compost. This was Archie's water bowl. I chose a delosperma Red Mountain and I think it looks lovely when the sun's shining on it.

It doesn't look quite so good when it's covered in shade, the flowers hide away.

I did the same thing with Archie's food bowl. This is a saxifraga White Blush though it isn't looking quite so good at the moment as the flowers appear in spring. We enjoyed them while they lasted and I'm looking forward to it flowering again next year.

I have lots of pots and containers in the garden so these don't look out of place and they're a reminder, as if I need one, of Archie.