Into August

 I wonder how much rain we'll get in August? There's not much in the forecast for the first 12 days - maybe just one thunderstorm if we are lucky.......... Seems so odd to say that.

 Usually it's  a mixed month but this first old bit of folklore is so wrong this year as harvest has more-or-less finished. The combines, balers and grain carts were backwards and forwards "making speedy carriage" past the house through much of July.

Dry August and warm

Doth harvest no harm.

If weather be fair and tidy thy grain,

Make speedy carriage, for fear of rain.

Grain lorries from farms further afield also go through the village (although they aren't supposed to) to the huge grain drying and storage facility nearby.  Flour prices are sure to rise again...........

"During the extreme European heatwaves and drought of harvest 2026, intense heat and parched soils have caused cereal crops to dry down rapidly—sometimes below 10% to 12% moisture. This creates severe financial loss from reduced crop weight, high physical brittleness, and commercial rejection by mills"

Looking back at previous August posts, I found all this post about one of my books from 2021....... five years ago and long forgotten!

The lady who painted all the wildflowers did it for a friend who wanted to learn the names of the flowers she saw. She started in 1943 and carried on painting even after her friend died, until 1999, traveling widely and painting wherever she went. She then donated 150 pages of paintings to the Kendal Natural History Society who published the collection as this small book in 2016 - such lovely paintings.

She was a Modern Languages Graduate before WWII when women studied for degrees but were not awarded them but was finally awarded her degree 40 years later. She taught Modern Languages in Kendal and died in 2009 aged 94.

Looking through the book there are so many flowers that I've never heard of. On the August pages above I puzzled over the Ploughman's Spikenard - such an unusual name and something I'd not come across. It should be around everywhere except the North of England and Scotland but only grows on chalky soil. So maybe  not  growing much in our Suffolk clay soils.

Then I looked up the word "Spikenard" and it's also called Nard, an amber coloured essential oil from a flowering plant of the honeysuckle family from the Himalayas.

It's even mentioned in the Bible...............

 

And being in Bethany, in the house of Simon the leper, as he sat at meat, there came a woman  having  an alabaster box of ointment of spikenard, very precious; and she broke the box and poured it on his head. Mark 14:3

There's lots more about this plant on the Wiki pages here.

Now, how about this for a weird coincidence...........I wrote this post several days ago, copying over the piece about Spikenard from 2021, a word I'd never come across before or since. Then on the evening of writing the post I'm reading  the British Library Crime Classic book "Puzzles of The Parish" a collection of short crime stories featuring members of the clergy. One of the tales in the book is a Cadfael (the medieval Monk) short story by Ellis Peters, and it says........ 

Brother Jerome was scandalised "Has he not given them to Our Lady herself?" he lamented indignantly. "Beware of the sin of those apostles who cried out with the same complaint against the woman who brought the pot of Spikenard.............

 Coincidences seem to happen more often than you'd think!

The Last Week of July from the 25th

 After the church tour last Sunday..............

Pink Dots on a map!

The last week of July was HOT again, Wednesday was exceptionally steamy, not encouraging for going far at all........

First of all a catch up with food shop photos.

This was the 4th food shop of July on the 25th

 

Cherries 65p(were still on offer); coleslaw 79p; 1Kg nectarines £2.39; peanuts 59p;  2 x Prunes @£2.49 = £5.58; pack 2 Naans 69p (I cut these in half before freezing); 4 pints milk £1.65; Melon £1.49.

Total £13.83

Then I had to go into town on a market day for sunflower hearts for the birds, as the goldfinches had been feeding their babies like crazy, so needed to spend £5 at Asda to get my £1 car park fee back and called at Aldi on the way in for a couple of things that are cheaper there.

Pack 2 little gem lettuce 95p;6 mini apples 99p;pesto £1.49; 6 large eggs £2.29; 2 peanuts @ 59p = £1.18; pine nuts £1.69. Quickly into the freezer went ice cream £1.62 and pack of 2 Linda McCartney vegetarian ¼lb mozzarella burgers £2

Total £12.21 

 

 As mentioned in yesterdays July financial round up - food for home including above was around about £128, but there were also  meals out with and without family and one coffee out to add to that so it turned into a very expensive food month. 

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Garden bin was emptied so I started filling it again with all of  this years old  raspberry canes. I thought about  getting rid of the raspberry bed if summers are going to be so dry making the seeds so hard that I can't eat them, but they went into the freezer for jelly making so not really wasted.

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Good Grief - Balsam Hill are advertising their very posh, very expensive artificial Christmas trees on TV in JULY - it shouldn't be allowed!

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Despite holidays and grandparent duties there were still enough people at the over 60's Keep Moving Group to cover costs which is good.

This week I'm grateful for

• Still being able to use hose to fill water butts for watering food crops
• Plenty of good reading
• Vegetables from the garden and greenhouse
• Finding things to fill blog posts this week - not sure about next week!

July Financial Round-up

Awful news of the tinder dry Heathland fire on the Suffolk coast around Dunwich. The caravan site where I stayed last year was evacuated and National Trust land and part of RSPB Minsmere destroyed. I hope they can get it under control. So much of the area along the coast there is heathland including a lot of land around Sizewell Nuclear Power Station!.....worrying times. My Youngest Daughter and EGD are about 5 miles south of the fires but if it got to them the power station would be in danger too. 'Luckily' huge swathes of land have been cleared for the new railway and  associated Sizewell C works between Leiston town and the fire.

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 State Pension is paid every 4 weeks and July is the month for me this year with two payments which always makes the bank balance look very good......for a while.

In 2025 July was my lowest spend month and I hoped for similar in 2026 as the only known extra above all the regular monthly outgoings was the virus protection for the laptop.

Just the usual income of State Pension, County Council Spouses Pension and interest on savings.

The regular monthly outgoings are Council Tax, Broadband and phones, diesel for the car, charity, the variable monthly electric bill, plus  the annual lap top virus protection those totalled  £413.

Smaller expenses were for a new frying pan - the second I've bought in a year as the first replacement was dreadful. Bits used in the bathroom, cholesterol reducing drinks and paracetamol in the 'Health' column and a few car boot finds for grandchildren, Sunflower Hearts for the birds and Finally I ordered a pack of six new filter cartridges for my water jug.

My personal expenses were just exercise group, a couple of secondhand books from the library 'For Sale' shelves and the new Black n' Red note book from a boot-sale (to use for accounts when I've finished the one in use) that I mentioned at the start of the month.

Food spending for at home was around £128 (including visitors), plus there was also some food/coffee out with and without family ..........so not a cheap month foodwise at all. 

image from google freepik

Pennies Pinched.................

• I've gone back to making 400g loaves in the bread machine rather than 500g, saving money and calories. Still 50/50 wholemeal/white flour and a good money saver.
• Climbing French beans from the garden
• Courgettes from the garden
• Cucumbers and tomatoes from the greenhouse
• Beetroot from BiL's garden, I gave him a packet of seed and he sowed an extra row for me.
• Few figs from the garden before wasps moved in
• No books bought online
• No 'products' bought
• No clothes etc bought
• Used saved apple peelings and the too seedy raspberries to make 3½ jars of compost/mixed fruit jelly
• Saved all of 19p by clicking the "no hurry" button when ordering the water filter jug cartridges.
• Dishwasher only used every other day
• Washing machine just used once or twice a week and washing dried outside of course.
• Make sure to always get refund on car -park ticket by spending £5 in Asda when going into town.

And Looking forward........................

August is another month with only one known extra above all the regular payments, that's for half year sewer and water charges. Last year (and February this year) this was a big bill because I'd not realised there was a problem with the bathroom loo.....which I got fixed in March...........so hoping for something a bit smaller this year, although it's £97 for standing charges per half year without even using any water! Google AI tells me  the average cost for 1 person, with a water meter for water and sewer is between £350 - £450 per year, I hope I'm at the lower end of that total. "Water poverty" is counted as spending more than 5% of total income on water and sewer bills, and the way water bills keep rising and summer droughts, we'll all be there soon.