July Week 5 Daily Peeking.

Hi everyone!

I wasn't sure if this was going to be week 5 of July or an early Week 1 for August, but a bonus week for July it is!  I emailed to and fro with Jennie to confirm and it was great to catch up on all her news.. life seems busy for us all at the moment, but so long as we are all well and not stood still then there is still something to blog about!

Soooo .. and easy peasy one this week, hope you manage to pick it up early in the week as I thought it may be a good week to just hark back on the 365+1 and have.. 

'a photo a day'

'free choice'

Show us what is happening in your day..

And as a starter this is my day yesterday (Sunday).. a Spa Day with my eldest for her birthday, it was lovely, so lazy, so relaxing I almost fell asleep three times!

(The only thing is they are not my pics..)





.. so let us see what is happening in your week.. the funny, the routine, the happy, the sad.. or just the plain brilliant photo opportunity!        
                                                  Kathi x

July Quote Challenge

July Quotation week 

Hello, how are you all enjoying this summer heatwave? Just as I was getting used to it, today is cloudy and a little cooler but it means that I can get jobs done indoors!

This week my quotation comes from Voltaire. 

He was born in Paris and named François-Marie Arouet, the youngest of the five children, from a noble family of the province of Poitou. 

By the time he left school, Voltaire had decided he wanted to be a writer, against the wishes of his father, who wanted him to become a lawyer. Voltaire, pretending to work in Paris as an assistant to a notary, spent much of his time writing poetry. When his father found out, he sent Voltaire to study law, this time in Caen, Normandy. Nevertheless, he continued to write, producing essays and historical studies. Voltaire's wit made him popular among some of the aristocratic families with whom he mixed. His father then obtained a job for him as a secretary to the French ambassador in the Netherlands, where Voltaire fell in love with a French Protestant refugee named Catherine Olympe Dunoyer. Their scandalous elopement was foiled by Voltaire's father and he was forced to return to France Most of Voltaire's early life revolved around Paris. From early on, Voltaire had trouble with the authorities for even mild critiques of the government and religious intolerance. These activities were to result in numerous imprisonments and exiles. One satirical verse about the Régent led to his imprisonment in the Bastille for eleven months. While there, he wrote his debut play, Œdipe. Its success established his reputation.

Here is this week’s quote

“Appreciation is a wonderful thing: It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.” ~ Voltaire  -  French author, humanist, rationalist, & satirist (1694 - 1778)

So this week what do you appreciate?...The weather? Your family? Friends? Collegues?  Let’s see lots of photos this week!

I will leave you with another Voltaire quote which will make you laugh....

“I hate women because they always know where things are.”  ~  Voltaire 

Have a good week everyone and hope you can manage to blog

Love Lynne xx

Nostalgia Challenge: Food Glorious Food.

Well isn't this weather glorious! Even with brilliant sunshine and perfect 'school holiday' climate we English still talk about the weather! I have been so elusive from blogland of late, just so much going on and all my good intentions seem to evaporate as days run into one another!  I am going to make big effort to come back to it this week, but meanwhile here is my challenge..

Early in the year when I planned a rough idea of the monthly prompts I had favourite places down for July but we have all shared stories of holidays and homes which have included places, so I am tweaking it a little, but I am sure some of you will be able to link favourite places from your past with this weeks theme...

............ tell us about your nostalgic memories of food!

Summer salads and fruit always makes me think of when I was about ten years old, my Mum would work from 8 til 1 and I would quite often make her a salad on a plate..just as she usually did for me. She always said it was so much nicer eating a salad someone else had taken the time over, instead of throwing it on a plate yourself.  Now I feel the same and this every evening Jordan made us a lovely salad we have just eaten with jacket potatoes.. thanks hun!

As a kid salad for me was very basic but now we big it up with everything from raw mushrooms to jalapeños and anchovies..and good old Heinz salad Cream has been replaced by Pizza Express dressing, or if I have some 'Sally's Hot Sauce' from Helzephron Herb Farm!

I also have horrendous memories of salad from school.. I had to hide grated carrot in mash to even begin to eat it for school dinner, it still makes me retch..!!

So come on, tell us about your memories of food from your past, here's a few examples:

• special treats
• comfort food from childhood
• school dinners!
• family recipes
• traditions 

And a few picture favourites to start you off.. 

Col's favourite Domino's Vegaroma with extra jalapeños, 

fruit for breakfast,











 and anniversary tuna nicoise salad he cooked me back in April!












Here's the linky..

Let's reflect July - End of the lucky week

Hello everybody,

as always for the positive words we had so far, I wish the lucky week won't finish just now but stay with you as long as possible.

Thank you so much for participating.

I wish you a good July, it looks like the weather really decided for summer now, so at least we can't complain anymore it's too cold for the season. I am sure it's only a question of days though before we start complaining it is too hot lol.

You still have plenty of time to upload something if you want via the link of the previous post.

Have nice holidays if they are in the calendar. I now live you with Kathy and we see each other again in the 2nd week of August.

Take care all of you, Anne xxx

Let's reflect - July

Hello everybody,  

so we are officially in summer now. I don’t know if you really noticed the change where you are, but here in the south of England, excepted a heavy hayfever that really annoys us and some incredibly hot days out of the blue, it is still pretty dull and wet.

But hey, no reason to complain,  on July 5 1978 it was recorded 9.1 °C in Okehampton (Devon), so let’s be happy with what we’ve got . . .

That’s the problem with preparing posts in advance. Since yesterday it’s hot like anything, lol.

Today we start the second part of our Let’s reflect challenge with Lining and our first word starts with the letter L.

I chose : 

Lucky

If I had to be this word’s advocate, I would say it’s a very misunderstood and misjudged word because the first thing that pops in mind regarding Lucky is about game, playing, gambling but Lucky has so so much more to offer as we can have so many reasons to be lucky.

So this is your challenge for this week. Tell us about your lucky moments, your lucky people or your lucky charms.

The View Challenge: July

Well done to Lynne for getting us back into blogging a bit more last week. I have been thinking about photo a day again for next year. I have swung from using my iphone for nearly all my photos last year to using my big camera nearly all the time this year and not taking many snaps. So I think I will either host a photo a day challenge or find one I like. Not sure yet, but I would like to find a better balance between the 'big events' and the 'little things'.

Anyhoo.

I am using the lovely poem from Sara Coleridge as usual.

The Months

January brings the snow,

makes our feet and fingers glow.

February brings the rain,

thaws the frozen lake again.

March brings breezes loud and shrill,

stirs the dancing daffodil.

April brings the primrose sweet,

scatters daisies at our feet.

May brings flocks of pretty lambs,

skipping by their fleecy dams.

June brings tulips, lilies, roses,

fills the children's hand with posies.

Hot July brings cooling showers,

apricots and gillyflowers.

August brings the sheaves of corn,

then the harvest home is borne.

Warm September brings the fruit,

sportsmen then begin to shoot.

Fresh October brings the pheasants,

then to gather nuts is pleasant.

Dull November brings the blast,

then the leaves are whirling fast.

Chill December brings the sleet,
blazing fire, and christmas treat.

During the week I went up to tackle the next part of my self-imposed challenge to walk the South West Coast Path between Ilfracombe and Braunton. We started at our front door to tackle the first bit.

 It has left me pretty ashamed about how infrequently I leave my front door and get onto some of the most stunning cliffs a mere few minutes away. I look at the backside of these cliffs every day, I walk around this side but just haven't got over the other side and I am bewildered at why not! So I have been up there every day since at 6am to get my fix of the sea, peace and quiet (and exercise), before I go out into the madness of school run, work, etc... 

I now have plans to get up there as many mornings as I can, and if not in the morning, go in the evening. 

Looking at it from the viewing point right at the top I think it is a point where you can actually see the sunrise and sunset from the same point. There was a thick sea mist rolling in.

I will be testing it over the next few days and weeks, if the sun co-operates. I know where the sunrise is, I just need to get up there for sunset.

 I know that these aren't gillyflowers, but they are very pretty and Mum is investigating what they are. Viv, do you know?

Ok, i'd love to see your view photos if you have time?