Good things in August

I've never spent August in England before, and it turned out to be the coldest August of my experience. We wore jumpers and light coats for most of the month, and it rained a lot. Apparently this is not unusual. I even turned on the radiators last week. The sundresses I bought in Virginia back in June haven't proven to be the most practical of purchases, but I guess it means I'll have almost-new clothes ready to wear if we ever take a holiday to someplace warm!

Good things that happened this month:

1 - Cream tea and carrom with people from church. Our new carrom board was much admired.
2 - Anthony recently finished reading a book on cryptography. Today, he left me a note in cipher.
3 - I cracked Anthony's message. It turned out to be a Vigenere cipher in Latin! (I needed a little help from the cryptography book). The resulting message: antonius lauram amat et deum propter lauram laudat.
4 - This was a hard day, but I bought some peaches at the local fruit stand. I love peaches.
5 - Another hard day. Started reading The Nine Tailors by Dorothy Sayers. A little slow to start, but really good once I got into it. Lord Peter made an obscure reference to David Copperfield that would have sailed clean over my head if I hadn't recently reread it, and also quoted one of my favourite Hopkins poems. I love Lord Peter's habit of unattributed referencing -- it feels like a game of wits between Sayers and her readers. I wonder how many I missed...
6 - Anthony and I went for a walk round Hampstead in the evening and watched The Pursuit of Happyness.
7 - Some friends from church came for dinner and we read Much Ado About Nothing aloud in parts.
8 - Anthony and I made old-fashioned mint raspberry lemonade and enjoyed our respective books.
9 - Had tea with Isobel.
10 - Paul's baking class with Marian.
11 - Productive day in the British Library.
12 - Helen and Jess came down from Oxford for dinner.
13 - Delicious Korean meal with one of Anthony's colleagues and his wife.
14 - We went to Costco this morning and they had wild Alaskan salmon -- fresh! This made me very excited. Then Nick and Laura from Oxford came for dinner.
15 - Anthony and I felt like an adventure so we walked to Regent's Park. Nice to see the sun after a week of rain!
16 - Made pickles.
17 - Nice conversation with my mum on skype.
18 - Was encouraged today in my job search.
19 - Had work to fill the time.
20 -Went to RHS Wisley with Marian. Bought "ornaments" -- an agapanthus, a crocosmia, a semper vivum for Anthony's collection, a sage for my kitchen herb garden and a collection of spring bulbs.
21 - Went to visit Joe in Oxford.
22 - Worked in the garden and watched House of Cards.
23 - Made cookies for Anthony and talked to Julie on skype.
24 - Picked blackberries and made a pie. Hampstead Heath has some of the nicest and most accessible berries I've ever come across. I picked seven cups in just under an hour.
25 - Didn't feel well today, but managed to finish a couple of jobs I really didn't want to do. Small victories.
26 - Had a delicious Lebanese lunch with Becca, who stopped briefly in London on her way to South America. Such a treat to see her.
27 - I practiced Boggle for most of the evening. Chapmans beware!
28 - Anthony and I took a long walk around central London and talked of many things. Shoes were mentioned, but I don't think ships, sealing wax, cabbages or kings featured in the conversation. We walked about 12 miles in total.
29 - Finished the House of Cards trilogy. Season 3 was rather a disappointment, but we had a lovely homemade pizza to go with it.
30 - Anthony and I went for another walk -- this time around Regent's Park, but turned back early because our legs were tired. Spent the late afternoon reading.
31 - Began working on my next paper. The goal is journal submission by the end of September. Two pages a day...