Hot July brings cooling showers, apricots and gillyflowers
Sara Coleridge
Hmm … We’ve had more than our fair share of cooling showers this month, not to mention the odd downpour. But heat has been in short supply. After June’s heatwave our weather seemed to flip and many days this month have felt more like October than July! The meteorologists tell us that this is due to the jet stream getting a bit stuck, pushing a wave of low pressure systems towards us.
Whatever the science, it’s been a bit disappointing at times. But that’s not to say we haven’t had bright sunny days and we’ve made the most of them. I started the month with an overnight visit to my friend Wendy in Norfolk. This was a girly weekend for a small group of us who’ve bonded over a social care project. Yes, I’m supposed to have retired, but I couldn’t resist her entreaties to help out with this one. It was very rewarding to be involved and work with such a great team. And we had a super time christening her new jacuzzi, enjoying good food and plenty to drink, and having a trip on the boat she and her husband Steve keep on the River Ouse right outside their front door!
A few days later Chris and I were at the tennis at Wimbledon, having managed to secure tickets for the first time in years. Although we had some rain we also saw a lot of good play. The highlight was the match between Greece’s Stefanos Tsitsipas and Dominic Thiem from Austria. Tsitsipas won in five sets after a close-fought battle. We had great seats on Court Two and I was able to take plenty of photos!
Later in the month we spent a few days in Hampshire, in the lovely New Forest area. I’ve posted already about our visits to Buckler’s Hard and Blackwater Arboretum, and there will be at least one more to come!
In between these excitements there were the usual trips up to London to visit galleries, see films, eat out and enjoy some walks. The photos below are a reflection of my month with an emphasis on shots less likely to be shared elsewhere.
Technical notes
Most of the photos in Hampshire were taken with my Lumix Bridge camera. The others were a mix of phone and Lumix compact. I got a new phone at the start of the month (a Redmi Note) and enjoyed experimenting with its excellent macro lens so a few are taken with that.
All were edited in Photoshop Elements and many also in Color Efex Pro.
As always I am linking my selection to Ju-Lyn’s and Brian’s Changing Seasons challenge.
I’m trying out a new slideshow block in the hope that unlike June’s post the photos will be viewable on phones! Please let me know if you can’t see them.
46 Comments
rkrontheroad
You are making good use of your macro lens. Love the Pride photo and agapanthus.
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks so much Ruth, glad you enjoyed them 🙂 The Pride event was good fun and kept me well entertained while waiting for my train!
margaret21
On th9s gloomiest and dreariest and wettest of days, this sunny collection cheered me up.
Sarah Wilkie
That’s good to hear Margaret 😀 The weather is rubbish down here too, if that’s any consolation? We’re hoping it improves in time for our trip up north later this month!
margaret21
It could hardly be worse at the moment 🙁
Teresa
Great Wimbledon shot. Such action 👍
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Teresa 🙂 This was the best of rather a lot of photos I took that day – it helped that we had a great view, of course.
the eternal traveller
How exciting to have Wimbledon tickets. I hope to go one day. We were watching the Ashes cricket tests on TV every night and the commentators often mentioned the poor weather. I think we may have had a chance of winning the last test if day four wasn’t washed out. But even so, it was a great competition.
Sarah Wilkie
Ah, the question of how the weather influenced the Ashes. Yes, it was a shame about the rain on day four of the last test, but if it hadn’t been for the rain during the fourth test we’d have won that and taken the Ashes, so on the whole I think the weather favoured you 😀
the eternal traveller
Ah well, we’ll never know. I reckon our openers were on a roll on day four, and if they’d been able to keep going the fifth test might have had a different result. Looking forward to the next series now, on home soil. 😆
restlessjo
Yay! I can see you on my phone but will always prefer the laptop. Too late tonight but I did rather like the lady in blue 💙
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks Jo, good to hear you can at least see them 🙂 I don’t think any photo-heavy blog post ever looks good on a phone but it’s helpful to be able to see them when you have no other device to hand. However when you do get around to checking on your lap-top I think you’ll see that the ‘lady in blue’ is no lady!
restlessjo
Oops 🤣💙
Anabel @ The Glasgow Gallivanter
Great photos, but also much easier to see! I usually read blogs on my iPad and the previous version tended to jump around a lot in terms of size. These are nice and stable and consistent so it’s a thumbs up from me.
Sarah Wilkie
That’s helpful feedback, thank you Anabel 🙂 I was using the default WP slideshow up to now but I’ve added a different slideshow plug-in that’s only a little more fiddly and offers more viewing options. I’ll use it again for future posts.
grandmisadventures
I love that deep orange and bright yellow of the flowers- just sings with summer 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you – our weather may not be great right now but our roses and begonias seem to be thriving 😀
Jane Lurie
What a great series of images, Sarah. Exciting you attended Wimbledon and your action shot is excellent! Love your portraits and your florals, too. 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks so much Jane 😊 Yes, I was very happy to secure those Wimbledon tickets and plan to try again for next year as we had such a good time there!
maristravels
Hi Sarah, I’ve managed to find your blogs via my Reader (which had disappeared for a while and even now I have to undergo a convoluted to get it back but here I am. Loved this post and am intrigued by your phone photos, they are really good. I’ve been thinking for some time of getting a phone with a better picture mode than my Sony but didn’t know which one (advice from assistants always seems to revolve around the highest price so I can’t really ask advice there and all my friends have high-end I Phones which I’m not prepared to buy). So, next question is, could you let me know which model you favour? I’ve been looking online and it’s confusing to say the least. My instinct is to go for the latest model but some of the advice online seems to be to go for one of the older ones. Can you help? email me at maritravel@gmail.com for ease of comm.
Sarah Wilkie
Such a pain for you having to go around the houses to find me Mari – thank you for persevering 🙂 I’ve emailed you about my phone, hope you got it OK?
thehungrytravellers.blog
A decent month despite the autumnal weather, obviously! I’ve never made it to Wimbledon, tried several times years ago but haven’t bothered for quite a while now – you were lucky to catch such a good match, especially a 5-setter. Kind of glad we missed July this year, it doesn’t sound like it played ball this time around.
Sarah Wilkie
I hadn’t bothered trying for Wimbledon for ages and I wasn’t initially successful this year. But I was told I could have priority for returns and after checking and finding nothing a few times these ones popped up and I grabbed them! No, you’re not missing much as regards the weather, although we’re getting a few nice days in between the wet ones!
Mike and Kellye Hefner
Ah, life in July – just gorgeous shots, Sarah.
Sarah Wilkie
Thanks so much Kellye 🙂 We’re having a good summer even if the weather isn’t always as good as we’d like!
Mike and Kellye Hefner
It looks like you’re making the best of it though. We’re having a heat wave – our typical July.
ThingsHelenLoves
A happy, busy month. Enjoyed the slideshow, especially the shot of the seals. Made me smile!
Sarah Wilkie
I was thrilled to see that mother and baby so far from the sea! Apparently the mum would have had to pass through at least one lock to get there. She’s been a regular fixture on that bank for several summers now and the locals had nicknamed her ‘Neil the Seal’, not being experts at identifying seal genders! When the pup was born about a month before my visit they realised they needed to come up with a new name but I don’t think they have as yet. Meanwhile they’ve been great at cordoning off that patch of bank with tape and putting up signs warning people not to frighten them 🙂
Anne Sandler
Great slide show Sarah! I loved the macros from your new phone and the tennis shot was amazing.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Anne 🙂 The macros with the phone were the rose and the sunflower. Also the Spitalfields, vintage clothes market, bridge, Saatchi gallery and cinema ones 🙂
Amy
Beautiful slide show, Sarah! I love the delightful colors of nature and various captures or people.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Amy, glad you enjoyed the ‘show’ 🙂
bushboy
A fabulous slideshow Sarah. The flowers are stunning and you always do street photography so well. Soiunds like a fun month.
Thanks for joining in The Changing Seasons 🙂
Sarah Wilkie
My pleasure to join in Brian 🙂 I don’t think I’ve seen your post yet to link to but I will edit this to include it in due course.
Sue
Lovely gallery, Sarah!
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Sue 🙂
Sue
Pleasure!
TheRamblingWombat
I think the weather has been unseasonal right across the planet for the past few years…. can we blame Covid ?
Sarah Wilkie
I think we know what’s to blame Albert, and it isn’t Covid (or even Brexit, our other favourite target for blame over here!)
TheRamblingWombat
100% Sarah
Heyjude
A lovely gallery Sarah. Looking on my phone I can see the captions OK this month. The only issue is that the block is quite long so on a smaller phone, like mine, I have to scroll up/down to view the image/text.
Sarah Wilkie
Thank you Jude 🙂 I’m glad you can at least see the photos. I don’t think it’s ever ideal looking at blog posts on a phone but I’m happy they’re at least visible!
wetanddustyroads
You had luck on your side to see such a great match at Wimbledon! As always, your colourful flowers catch my eye – the poppy is lovely.
Sarah Wilkie
We were very lucky at Wimbledon, both with the weather and the matches scheduled on our court 🙂
Easymalc
Strangely enough, we had a Jersey Tiger Moth in our garden last month too, and it’s the first time I’ve seen one. Great selection of pics again Sarah.
Sarah Wilkie
And you’re in the south west where they are supposedly more common! Glad you enjoyed the photos this month 🙂