July

I can’t believe that tomorrow is the 1st of August. It seemed the days went by so fast. July was good, I’ve read some pretty good books, see the end of the post for details about them. This month I’ve managed to achieve a few things and I’m quite proud, despite still waiting for some official results.

We’ve almost finished the renovations in the caravan and it had a health-check as well. There are still small things to do, but pretty much everything is in place, looking quite stunning. We’ve also changed the lights in the landing upstairs and replaced the carpet. On top of that, we’ve moved our William Morris inspired paintings (you can read as: puerile doodles) on the landing. They actually look rather splendid there, as all the walls are white and the carpet is grey. Maybe I should take some pictures and share them on the blog.

Festus and I had a lovely moment there, so I asked my husband to take a picture of us.

My husband and I tried a new F1 simulator, near Manchester. It is not as exciting as the one we went to before, in Greater London. Anyway, it was interesting and we would like to go there again.

1. Enjoying strawberries from the farm where we’ve picked our own fruits. 2. Ninja Warrior. 3. Reading Educated by Tara Westover. 4. Festus having a relaxing time in the garden. 5. DIY in the caravan. 6. Strawberry salad. 7. I spent a lovely afternoon volunteering at Croxteth. 8. Peony. 9. My bedroom. 10. Archery & Shooting. 11. Padron Peppers. 12. I bought a sports-strap for my glasses. 13. The Romans. 14. Formula E finale. 15. A slice of cake & coffee at a lovely place on Bold Street. 16. Axe throwing. 17. Went to the gym. 18. Porridge. 19. Clink Cafe, Manchester. 20. F1 simulator. 21. New (at least for me) seaweed-based snacks, with Wasabi. 22. Me & Festus. 23. A lily from my garden. 24. Skateboarding. 25. Pool, at the gym, great on a very hot day. 26. Picture from the a passage above the motorway. 27. Sunflower from my husband. 28. One of the best F1 races ever! 29. Homo Deus by Harari, the book I finished that day. 30. Passiflora. 31. Dessert for today: Black Forest Semolina Pudding.

Besides the Semolina pudding that is so interesting and delicious, I’ve made a delicious savoury strawberry salad, with strawberries that I picked myself from the field. I love going to pick our own fruits.

In July I’ve read six books and I enjoyed all but one. I bought The Queen’s English by Bernard C. Lamb from the Highgrove shop in Tetbury. The Highgrove shop is owned by the Price of Wales, so it was only appropriate to buy the book about Queen’s English from the shop. Besides this very interesting book, I’ve read three must read books: Educated, A short history of decay, and Homo Deus. All these three books are interesting in different ways, but all worth reading. I would also recommend watching Tara Westover and Yuval Harari on youtube, doing interviews. I like how both of them think.

Lastly, I was so annoyed with the English for the natives, it must be one of the most condescending books I’ve read. I mentioned in my review that he says that non-natives will never be able to speak as good as natives. I remembered that today, when I was reading a book by a Russian-born writer, Vladimir Nabokov, that had a couple of acclaimed books, including the one I’m reading at the moment, Lolita. His use of English is magnificent. I can easily understand why the book is a modern classic.

Books I’ve read in July:
Educated by Tara Westover – 5 stars
A Short History of Decay by Emil Cioran – 5 stars
English for the natives by Harry Ritchie – 1 star
The Queen’s English by Bernard C. Lamb – 5 stars
Absolute Certainty and Other Fictions by Pere Grima – 4 stars
Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari – 5 stars