August has been a bit of a challenging month for a variety of reasons.  Looking for glimmers each day (despite working pretty much non-stop) has been important, and thankfully there have been quite a few.

Here are all of the little things I’ve been loving lately throughout August…

READ

The Pilgrimage: by Paulo Coelho.  Cited as a companion book to ‘The Alchemist’ (which I read – and loved – many years ago), conversely ‘The Pilgrimage’ took me a few weeks to get through and I found it quite hard work.  There are plenty of turned down corners and underlinings scattered throughout it’s pages as there are a lot of useful reminders of simple yet powerful wisdom contained within it.  I just didn’t connect with the character or the story at all, which surprised me as walking the Camino de Santiago is something that I would love to do one day.  I am glad I read it though.

Big Little Lies: by Liane Moriarty.  I watched the TV show a few years ago and loved it.  I hadn’t realised it was a book until I read (and enjoyed) some of Liane Moriarty’s other books and then it registered that she’d written this too.  I was a little hesitant about reading it to be honest – I usually prefer to read the book first and then watch the show/film.  My reservations were unfounded – I couldn’t put it down and finished the whole book in less than a week.  The main differences are that the book is set in Australia (as all of this author’s books are) rather than California where the TV series was filmed, and there is much more detail behind each of the character’s storylines.  It was hard to read in places because of the nature of the individual back stories (domestic violence / sexual assault) and at the same time I liked getting the inside thoughts and feelings of the characters – it gave each of them even more depth.  The TV show was excellent (and the casting was fantastic), the book was even better.  Highly recommend.

‘Big Little Lies’ by Liane Moriarty and ‘The Pilgrimage’ by Paulo Coelho – my two reads this month were very different from each other!

WATCHED

It Ends With Us:  On the flipside to Big Little Lies (above), I read the book of ‘It Ends With Us’ first (way back in October 2022) and then went to watch the film at the cinema when it came out this month.  I enjoyed the book even though it covered tough topics (domestic violence & sexual assault again) and wanted to see how it translated onto the big screen.  I went on my own on a Sunday afternoon and thought it was pretty good, and true to the book.  There has been lots of talk of the actors being much older than the characters are supposed to be but actually, I thought that worked really well.

HEARD

Mimi’s GCSE results:  It’s a long time to wait from the end of the final GCSE exam in mid-June to Results Day at the end of August.  Two whole months to be exact.  That’s a long time to not-know what your future holds.  When the day finally arrived, we got to school as soon as it opened at 9am and Mimi walked in with a friend whilst the rest of us waited in anticipation in the car for her.

Of course she did brilliantly, as we knew she would – all grades 6-9 (Bs, As and A*s).  We are so incredibly proud of her, and we would have been proud no matter what her grades were because we know how hard she’s worked, especially in the lead-up to the exams themselves.  She’s now off to join Ella at college to study A Levels.

A brand new chapter of college awaits Mimi now that she’s finished high school with fantastic GCSE results.

MADE

A summer bucket list wish come true:  Ella makes a bucket list for each season of the year of little (and big) things she wants to do and experience, and on her Summer Bucket List was a trip to Shropshire Petal Fields.  We went last year and both really enjoyed it, so I had to make her wish come true.  I’ve been working a LOT this summer and it feels like we’ve not done much ‘fun’ stuff (although, as I’m writing this blog post I’m starting to realise just how much we have actually squeezed in this month).

It really is a lovely place – there are fields full of pretty coloured delphiniums; bright, smiley sunflowers; and chaotically beautiful wildflowers.  There is also a woodland trail for little ones, a cafe, ice cream, plenty of photo opportunities, kids activities and more.  You can buy bouquets of delphiniums and sunflowers to take home with you, plus bags of dried flowers as well.  This year they added in dog-friendly days and a sunset session.  We were really lucky to have a dry afternoon and blue skies – we’ve decided to make it an annual tradition.

Ella amongst her most favourite flowers – delphiniums

And again, this time amongst the sunflowers (which are one of my favourites)

WORE

This ring by Atticus

AND FINALLY…

London:  I spent two afternoons in London in August – one right at the start of the month, and one right at the end.  The first was to hang out with my soul-friend Peter.  He was over from Ireland for a long weekend with his family – his partner and son went to see a show together, so I borrowed him for a few hours.  We walked and talked and took photos and sat in cafes and laughed and shared stories and it was everything I didn’t know I needed.

Peter and I at the ‘Heart Wall’ in Notting Hill that we unexpectedly stumbled across, which I was thrilled to discover!

The second trip to London was our final adventure of the summer holidays.  I took Lola and Ella to the Taylor Swift Songbook Trail at the V&A Museum. (Mimi is not a Taylor Swift fan and didn’t want to come – she’d already made plans to see a friend anyway).  I tried SO hard to get tickets for the Era Tour concerts in various locations and just couldn’t manage it, so this was very much a consolation prize but I figured that something was better than nothing.

Lola has only been to London once before, when we were invited to visit The Foundling Museum and got to meet Jacqueline Wilson – but she was very little at the time and doesn’t remember that trip at all!  She had one extra request – to see Buckingham Palace – so we headed there first before making our way to the V&A.  It was hot, extremely busy, very noisy, and there were long queues for everything, but it was worth it – it was incredibly cool to see actual outfits that Taylor Swift has worn and to learn more about the stories behind them all.  The free exhibit is only on until Sunday 8th September so if you want to see it you’ll have to be quick.

Taylor’s dress from the ‘Speak Now’ album era

The three of us at Buckingham Palace – look how happy she is!

Sophie:  We hadn’t seen Sophie since uni finished for the summer break back in May – she’s been busy working and doing her training for her counselling placement, which forms an essential part of her Masters degree.  She spent a few days with us in August and it was really lovely to have her here.  I asked if I could take some photos of the four girls in the garden and they said yes!  Delighted, I grabbed my camera immediately before they could change their minds, and I managed to get quite a few shots that I really love.

All of the girls together and my new favourite photo

Cannock Chase:  There are several places on Cannock Chase that we used to love to go on walks to, old familiars that we rarely stray from.  We haven’t been to any of them for ages though, so when Ella asked if we could go for a walk I jumped at the chance.  We decided to head up to the place we call ‘The Heather’ and I’m so glad we did because the heather was out in all it’s glory and the whole place was spectacular.

‘The Heather’, one of our favourite walks on Cannock Chase

Mimi:  Mimi went to spend a few days with my Mum and stepdad in August, to try and break up the long post-GCSE summer break a little bit.  Ella went last year and really enjoyed it – this time it was Mimi’s turn.  We popped into a little place called Cheslyn House and Gardens on the way there because they had an art exhibition on that I thought Mum and Mimi might enjoy – it was interesting to see and Mimi spent ages looking through the artist’s portfolios that were also on display.

Mum and Ray certainly kept Mimi busy for the three full days she was there: they had a daytrip into London to explore the Tate Britain; they went out for dinner; they took her to see the house I grew up in and my old primary school; and they went on a local nature walk as well.  She had a brilliant time – it’ll be Lola’s turn in two years once she’s done her GCSEs!

Cheslyn House and Gardens was such a beautiful little place.

________________________

All-in-all, August turned out to be an unexpectedly busy month, especially when I remember that I was working full time throughout it too.  I usually try and slow down during the summer holidays a bit, and it just wasn’t possible this year.  The girls had lots of quiet days though, which is definitely a good thing ahead of the intensity of the back-to-school transition in September.

Chapter eight of 2024 has come to a close and we are officially 2/3 of the way through the year and on the cusp of a new season.  September is my favourite month and I have a feeling that the next four weeks are going to be full-on.  My first aim is to get everyone back into a rhythm with school and college.  I’m also travelling a fair bit, work is ridiculously busy and there is a whole heap of behind-the-scenes stuff going on that needs my attention.

I hope that you found plenty of little things to love throughout August and that next month promises to be full of good things.

With love,

Chloe x