Photo An Hour: 7/12 – July

We're way into the second half of the year and man has this month been a hot one. Once again, I'd tried a few different times to set out and complete the challenge this month but got distracted by journeys and just generally being out and about. So I'm hoping next month's will be a little more exciting, this just takes place on another sleepy Sunday in Little Flat HQ, Newbury.


10am // Letting Mr Moon sleep in a little later since we had an early start the previous day with helping our friend Long move into his new flat.


11am // Catching up on some blog posting while I have a little peace and quiet.



12pm // Baking bread, looks like it was a lot more successful than it was. Curse you, Paul Hollywood! & Sorting out bits in the garden.




1pm // Playing hide-and-seek with Doll and chowing down on lunch's pudding of tasty fresh fruit salad ♥


2pm // Heading into town.


3pm // Bread Check!


4pm // Afternoon snacking, I think the beetroot ones are my favourite.


5pm // Looking up recipes with Mr Moon to find a side dish for dinner.



6pm // Trimming lettuce & Moon decided on homemade onion rings, boy were they good!


7pm // Time for wine and cheese! We had the onion rings too, obviously, but the cheese took so much longer than expected so we 'accidentally' ate them first.


8pm // Taking a rest in the garden after all that cheese.



9pm // Terrible cupcakes rounded up my evening, before the first episode of Ray Donovan, which we're weirdly super-into now(!!!)
We've had a few exciting weekends with a lot more to say, it would really help me with editing down if I focused on one of these for them. With tomorrow marking the start of a new month, and July - with it's gorgeous weather meaning I took more photos than ever, I hope to really reign in my Photography a little in August, maybe take some 'specified' challenges and see how it goes - what is likely to happen is you'll still be getting a mean dose of what I did at weekends though...

Charcoal Challenge.

I've been meaning to post this a little while, but I think I just lost a little steam. I was pretty excited when MoneySupermarket.com asked me to take part in their Charcoal Challenge a few weeks ago. It fell when the weather was brilliant and on a weekend when our friends, Dan and Kirstin just so happened to be in the area.

As there were only four of us and I'm much more of a foodie than I am a decorator, I spent the majority of the £50 budget on tasty treats for the early evening event. I actually went over by around £20, but I'm super grateful to Money Supermarket for giving me the opportunity all the same - plus for the amount I bought, I actually ended up getting two barbecues that weekend in the end, plus a whole lot more food to save up for the rest of the month!



Made with passionfruit & mango juice, these were pretty good, just wish we'd skipped on the aesthetics and left out the raspberries, didn't add much to it.



Pimm's, Desperados and Snacks o'Clock! ♥



Corn on the cob will always be one of my favourites, but barbecued corn on the cob might just be the top spot of my favourite barbecue food.


Fruit, meringue and ice cream for pud :)


Managing to get our silly solar lights working, candles did a much better job at lighting the way...

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BBQ Take 2!


...a little less fancy but just as tasty ♥


I wish I'd focussed a little more on our guests than the food, but I was, as is often the case, pretty interested in putting food in my face so I think that's how it mainly worked out.

My favourite purchases for the challenge are a toss-up between the Belvoir Fruit Farms Elderflower Cordial - it's how I found out about their great photography competition (which you can still vote for!) - and the ice-lolly moulds, an absolute bargain at £2.50 from Sainsbury's and we've used them so many times since we got them, even if we didn't actually end up eating them for the occasion we'd bought them for.

I'm not sure whether I even have a shot in winning the prize, as I'm sure many others got way more creative, however, there are definitely few things better than a couple of drinks in a sunny garden with friends and it sure was fun to indulge for the evening!

Oh my, it feels like an age since our last barbecue, what with last weekend's turning out to be a bit of a wash out (Thanks, British Summertime), hopefully we'll be back on track by the time this weekend rolls around again.

Monday Resolutions.

[x]
I'm feeling creative, after finishing up Sunday evening with some real-life scrapbooking and watching the visually stunning Only God Forgives, I'm starting the week feeling a little more inspired than usual.

This week I hope to:

1. Sleep more.
2. Catch up.
3. Keep drawing.
4. Read more.
5. Concentrate.

Come on, Monday, let's do this!

Locals.

One of the things I really enjoy about living in Newbury, aside from feeling pretty safe, there's a great sense of community. I relish in the ridiculousness of Britishness - the kind I was photographing for Malden Fortnight a couple of years ago. We some how stumbled on Newbury Carnival last weekend, there was a wicked parade with bagpipes and everything, it really made for a fun couple of hours.


I think they were selling children's hats, but not entirely sure, creepy.


Wonder how many actual hot chocolates they sold in the 32°C heat.








You really have to admire people who are willing to dress up in thick, furry costumes with the sun beating down on them.


Gotta love a morris dancer.




The coolest vehicle of the parade and he still looked sad.


Costa to cool off with some ice-cold drinks.


The signage for the butchers in town is one of my favourites, it's recently been re-done, can't even begin to describe the font-appreciation.
Does your town put on fun summer events with parades and funfairs?