July

 July split into two halves for me. I really enjoyed the first part of the month. Here’s what I was doing then:

Hosting my sister and nieces from New Zealand.  We did the usual touristy things - walking the walls, ice creams by the river, trip to the zoo. 

Going with Kate to see the musical Six at Storyhouse theatre

Dog walking in the Cheshire countryside.

Eating berries I’d grown myself for breakfast. I had a good crop of raspberries and blackcurrants. The blueberries weren’t so good this year so I let the blackbirds finish them off. I also had a few morello cherries from my newly planted tree, a surprise as I’d been told not to expect any fruit for three years. 

Going to London for the weekend to attend a wedding party.  A beautiful evening in the grounds of the Royal Chelsea Hospital. 

Meeting ganching in the Tate Modern during my visit to London. 

All good so far and then:

Cancelling plans for a birthday visit to Kew Gardens because of extreme hot weather warnings.

Waiting over two hours in Euston for delayed train back home. The whole rail network appears to be falling apart in this country especially routes up north and this was not a strike day. Paul had to come to pick us up from Crewe as we’d missed the last train back to Chester by then. 

Feeling grim and then testing positive for Covid on the morning on my birthday.  I’d felt a bit hot and headachy the night before but put it down to heat and exhaustion of day in London but there was no arguing with the two lines on the test the next morning.

Worrying that I’d been a superspreader all weekend.  Thankfully I have only heard of one other person I’d been in contact with who had caught the virus,

Drooping around the house feeling very sorry for myself for the last two weeks. It hasn’t been much fun even though I wasn’t that ill - just like a cold really . But I’ve felt very tired, lethargic and lacking in any motivation to do anything. Still not feeling great.

Pulling myself together to attend Kate’s delayed graduation ceremony this week. We stayed in Sheffield for the evening and went to a ‘bring your parents’ evening at the Students’ Union. Good fun though I was absolutely shattered the next day,

Cheering myself up this weekend now I’m feeling a bit better with a visit to a very impressive local garden and an outing with Kate to see her friend acting in an open air production of ‘Little Women’ in the Grosvenor Park. 

Enjoying my own garden now that we’ve had some rain and it is all looking a bit greener. 

This is what I’d like my garden to look like. NGS garden opening