My Garden in July 2025

1st - 7th July 2025

Peter built the compost bin earlier this year. The compost on the left is ready to be used. I've added some pots of herbs for decoration and in the far right hand corner of the fresh compost we have potatoes growing. I've told Peter to leave them there, we'll eat them when they're ready.

I've sown more basil and parsley seeds to get a supply going. At the moment Peter is stripping the parsley and basil weekly.

The beds really do need thinning out. There are raspberries, cucumbers, chilli's, herbs, melons and pak choi growing in this one.

My pots labelled as 'peas' have turned out to be pumpkins grown from last years' halloween carving. There are 6 of them in here with multiple flowers. I need to thin out the leafs as they're taking over. I also have tomatoes, radish, parsnip, beans and rhubarb growing here. It looks crowded but there is a lot of space for each plant.

The lettuce is shaded by the parsnips, but I don't eat much of it, so it's not a problem. You can see there is actually space in these beds though. The tomatoes are thriving.

After a trip to Witley Court last month I bought myself a grape vine. I'm hoping we can train it under the canopy by the lounge door.

Stephanie's rose has provided us with a 4th flower. There are several more buds and it's lovely to have it in continuous flower.

8th - 15th July

I wish you could smell the sweet peas. I have them growing in pots all around the garden, the scent is very strong.

There will be pumpkins for everyone this year to carve.

I went away for two nights and the sunflowers have come out.

I was advised to grow the melon plants undercover, but due to the summer we've had it looks like I'll be over run with Cantaloupe's soon.

The first of the cucumbers.

There's a glut of tomatoes. Every plant in the back and front garden either has green tomatoes to ripen or is full of flower heads.

16th - 23rd July

I'm harvesting the parsnips as I need them, they are so sweet.

The strawberries are finished and I think the raspberries are coming to an end.

The cucumbers are really juicy, the figs lovely and soft and there were some surprise radishes.

I've made some space in the raised beds by hanging the cantaloupe melons over the sides to grow so I can plant some more basil and parsley as we're eating a lot of it in salads and with fish.

24th - 31st July

We're away now for a week and on our return we will be making a border in the front garden and sifting through all this soil to level the front lawn out a bit and provide more soil for our hedge to grow in.

 How is your garden doing this July? 

Week 30 2025 One Daily Positive and Project 365

One of our 2 cat sitters for Australia let us down. Mum has stepped in and offered to look after Pushkins. 

No gall bladder surgery for me, thankfully. It's not a choice but the surgeon has said it should be managed by a high fibre, low fat diet, however add gluten free to that and it's a bit of a struggle as most gluten free foods are higher in fat. Looks like I'll be making a lot more meals from scratch. I can't eat jacket potato with beans on forever.

I did get a telling off though for not having sought help with my gall bladder last year, as it could have been worse. But in my defence (and the surgeon fully understood) that as Stephanie died on the operating table, going into theatre was a definite no for me. I didn't need to worry.

202 B12 jab then onto Bromyard to sort paperwork for my new job in September. Got my nails done before going home and stopped for a coffee. Out in the evening to Upton upon Severn for Orange button training.

203

A lazy morning then off to Gloucester to meet DIL and grandchildren. A hard day for us as we used to bring Stephanie with us and we’ll never get used to going to Gloucester and not having her with us. Granddaughter cheered us up with her constant desire to make friends with everyone she sees.

204 

A day out with Mary then a hospital appointment with the surgeon about my gall bladder, they want to manage it with diet for now. So that’s me on high fibre, low fat and gluten free now. Evening spent reading and a long soak in the bath.

205 

Hairdressers for cut and colour. Met Peter for coffee, dentists and home to do some gardening, reading and book campsites and ferry for Northern Ireland.

206 

A lie in and then off to meet a friend at the Welland Steam Festival. Home at 2pm, followed by a 2 hour nap and a coffee out and food shop. Evening spent reading in the garden.

207 

Went out for coffee and to get some photos of Stephanie printed. Home to finish reading my 4th book this week. Packed the van and had a tidy up. Friend dropped round to drop some stuff off and another friend came round for a cuppa, a catch up and cat sitting instructions for the week.

208 

View from the van at our campsite in Scotland ahead of our crossing to Belfast in the morning.

Things to make you smile:

Being charged £65 before I was allowed to see the dentist, who took less than 5 minutes to tell me there was nothing wrong with my teeth, after he'd sent me an email berating me for not having been for over a year and threatening to take me off his list. I'm a private patient. I should be allowed to see the dentist when I need it, like going to the Doctors.

Things that made me happy:

A day out with our grandchildren, homegrown cucumbers, sunflowers and reading.

On the blog this week:

Is life better in the sun?

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Word of the Week - Mornings

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What I'm reading 2025

I started challenging myself to reading a book a week in 2023 and continued into 2024.

Our daughter died suddenly in October 2024 and my love for reading among so many other things just stopped.

And like so many other things, it's taken a long time to get going ago, to do the things I loved to do when I had 5 minutes to them.

I wasted so much time after Stephanie's death, so much time with 'We could be with Stephanie now, but we can't' and I spent hours in the first few months, doing nothing, staring into space, lying in bed, doing absolutely nothing.

I returned to work, part time initially, then slowly a routine, with elements of our old life starting filling our time again, days out, going places where we took Stephanie became visiting places that we couldn't take Stephanie due to her disability. We didn't find things to do to replace her, we found that we just started living again without her.

I was tutoring English in a secondary school from year 7 up to GCSE, I supported a student with English Literature at A Level from 2022-2023.

I read a few books from October 2024 till March 2025, but in April I started again with a book a week and here we are, the middle of July on book no 30 and raring to go for the rest of the year.

January

February

There has been lots of reading with the grandchildren.

And new books bought

I've taken to buying my books from National Trust properties and after I've circulated them around family and friends they'll be donated back there.

One of the things I enjoy doing is looking for unusual titles in the National Trust properties.

Books read for work - re reads:

Treasure Island - Tutor Read in School
Macbeth
The Tempest
Romeo and Juliet
Lord of the Flies
A Christmas Carol

New Reads:
Julius Caesar - William Shakespeare 

March

April

May

June 

I tweeted the author after finishing this book in the DI Claire Mackay series, I was pleased when she responded.

I started this book the beginning of June. I however left the book on a plane and had to order a replacement which I finished later in the month.

July 

Richard Osman - We Solve Murders.

My current read, turns out, I'd only read half of it last year.

What are you currently reading?