I’m going to start with the most amazing news, of course. You might have already seen that I’m going to go to Oxford to read history. I’m so excited about this. It took two years to get to this point and I couldn’t be happier.
You can read more about it here, when I talked about Oxford, why and my plans for the next years.
Besides that amazing news, I’ve watched a few TV shows that my dog enjoyed as well. Octopus in my house was such an amazing show and quite sad at the end, but worth watching.
Festus loves animal programmes and, when the screen is down, he gets very excited, as he sees the animals life-size or even bigger. He would never jump on the screen though, as he learned that when he is too excited he needs to back off. We’ve imposed that rule, but we don’t even have to tell him anything any more. He just turns around and goes to his place to calm down and, after that, comes back. It’s both great that he knows when to stop and hilarious at the same time.
With the beautiful weather we had, we spent a bit more time in the garden. Festus had his toy or a snack (raw carrot).
We also made BBQ a couple of times. This is our vegan BBQ, with a bit of fake meat. We didn’t eat all the fake meat in one go. Lots of veggies that we’ve had then. I made roasted potatoes with whisky sauce, twice. It is a Royal recipe.
Bake Off started at the end of the month and I plan to bake along. As usual, the jokes aren’t that funny, they complained about genoise sponge. Anyway, I’m going to bake because I love the challenges. My first bake was the Wedgewood Cake for Cake Week. It is a fruit cake with a pistachio marzipan centre.
I loved baking and decorating it. Recipe is on my food blog, CookStyle – Wedgewood Cake.
1. Lunch at Castle Street Townhouse. 2. John Lennon at the Double Fantasy exhibition. 3. The book I was reading, Lolita. 4. Desserts from a new Chinese bakery. 5. Smoky bread. 6. A bit of sewing. I’m making new curtains for the newly renovated caravan. 7. Festus watching TV. 8. My husband and Festus are enjoying a “chat” in the garden. 9. Cats in the window at the Cat Cafe, Liverpool. 10. Playing at home an escape-room sort of game. 11. W Series at Brands Hatch. 12. Changing the tires (the day before). 13. Crisps. 14. Peanut Soup. 15. Book I’m reading at the moment: How the French Won Waterloo by Stephen Clarke. 16. I went shopping using he new vegetable bags, so I can cut down on single use plastic. 17. Coffee date. 18. Toast, a beer with a difference. 19. Preparing a new batch of items I’m not using for the charity shops. 20. Admiring the Victorian catalogue, a sort of an Argos catalogue, but from the 19th century. 21. Snow Park. 22. Visit to Veolia, the recycling plant from Liverpool, for open days. 23. Taking pictures for a very important post, when I’ve shared that I’m starting my studies next month. 24. Starting a new book: Fires of faith by Eamon Duffy. 25. Royal recipe: potatoes and whiskey sauce (older picture, but I made it again). 26. Shisha. 27. Round-up with bakes from last year, to mark the start of a new year of Bake off. 28. Beautiful ivy. 29. I baked lots of biscuits and a cake. 30. Updating my diary. 31. This weekend I’m going to spend my time reading.
At the time I made this post, I finished 5 books. Starting from Friday afternoon and all the weekend, my husband and I made a “reading retreat” at home. This means we are not watching any movies or TV, except for the F1 race, and we spend all the time reading or talking about the books we are reading. As I want to focus on that, I made this post on Friday morning, using pictures I took the day before. I will consider any books I’m going to finish this weekend as part of the September round-up. All the books are reviewed on Coffee and Books, if you want to see them. I’m going to take some pictures during the weekend and I might make a post about the reading retreat idea.
As for the books I’ve finished in August, two of them were really special. Lolita was such a fantastic book. I enjoyed reading it and I will read more books by Nabokov given the opportunity.
Books I’ve read in August:
Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov – 5 stars
Jiddy Vardy by Ruth Estevez – 2.5 stars
Henry VIII and the men who made him by Tracy Borman – 3.5 stars
The Victorian Catalogue by Dorothy Bosomworth – 5 stars
How the French Won Waterloo by Stephen Clarke – 5 stars
Looks like you had a great month! Those BBQ + cake look delicious!
I just saw the Cake Week episode of Bake off here in the states and I have to say your fruit cake is more beautiful than any of the ones I saw! You would have won — at least in the beauty department, and I’m sure it tasted just as good!
Aww, thank you so much for your lovely words. xx
I love the idea of a reading retreat. That’s kind of brilliant and you read some good ones.
The wedgewood cake is just gorgeous. Just fabulous. I am in awe!
And again, three cheers on Oxford!
Festus watching TV is so cute. 🙂 How funny that he has to step back and regain control when he gets too excited!
Congratulations on going to Oxford! And for such a great subject, too – I love History I am sure it will be an amazing experience!
Your cake also looks wonderful – I’m not one to bake, but I do love seeing what other people bake 🙂
Julia x