🙏 Sunday Reflection | Goodbye Summer & My August 2021 Wrap-Up! ☀

Hello everyone and a blessed Sunday to you all. I hope this post finds you all well. A warm, blustery and relaxing August has passed here in the UK for me and now it is time to reflect on what we’ve been doing, reading and watching over that time.

💜💜💜 Life 💜💜💜

With me being off work for the school’s summer break, and with the continuing easing of Covid restrictions, I have taken full advantage of this past month to catch up with family and friends, and jobs I have been meaning to do for some time. As well as enjoying a sunny trip to the Hampshire coast and a fun trip to the Welsh coastal town of Llandudno. 🌊

This has increased my health, happiness and well being overall! 😊 However the changeable weather has not been good for my sinuses, so I have made a concerted effort to add foods to my cooking that will help with them specifically. This has included two new recipes for Coconut Curry Vegetable Soup and Classic Vegetable Soup, which are packed full of onion, peppers, garlic, ginger and turmeric. 🥣

💜💜💜 Reading 💜💜💜

Another positive of all this time off was more time for reading – well in between all those adventures anyway – where I was able to finish all of these:

• The Case For Christ by Lee Strobel
• A Tapestry of Treason by Anne O’Brien
• A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
• Thunder on the Right by Mary Stewart
• Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maud Montgomery

An interesting mixture of books from Christian non-fiction to science-fiction pulp classic, as well as books from two well-loved authors, O’Brien and Stewart, and two new-to-me authors, Burroughs and Montgomery. As you can see from my ratings they were all consistently good to great reads, which makes my pick of the month difficult but I think it has to go to the utterly charming, Anne of Green Gables. 👩🏻‍🦰

I have also continued dipping in and out of the weighty tome The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas and I started reading the Christian non-fiction Miracles by C.S. Lewis. Which overall meant that I finished off with nine books read, one DNF’d and one ongoing for my 10 Books of Summer 2021 reading challenge. 

💜💜💜 Watching 💜💜💜

On the other hand, all this time out and about, meant my new viewing started off very low, but then really picked up the last week of the month, as my sinuses started to niggle and slowed my reading down. Here are the new shows and film I ended up watching:

• Virgin River (Series 3) ⭐⭐
• Sophie: A Murder in West Cork (2021) ⭐⭐
• The Innocent Man (2018) ⭐⭐
• The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (2018) ⭐⭐
• Wild Wild Country (2018) ⭐

While I was little disappointed with the Wild Wild Country documentary – I felt it was much longer than it needed to be, though still very interesting – this was otherwise a very good, consistent selection of viewing. Although difficult to choose, my pick of the month goes to Netflix’s popular romantic-drama Virgin River, in which I enjoyed escaping into the troubles, joys and beauty of this remote Northern Californian town. 🌲

On top of that, I also enjoyed comforting re-watches of Gosford Park (2001), Miss Potter (2006), Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire (2005), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). and Goldfinger (1964). 😌

💜💜💜 Blog 💜💜💜

Finally, here on the blog, after a break for my holiday, came back stronger and busier than ever, with these whopping amount of reviews posted:

• Eragon by Christopher Paolini 
• The Four Loves by C.S. Lewis
• The Comedy Club Mystery by Peter Bartram
• A Princess of Mars by Edgar Rice Burroughs
• Men At Arms by Terry Pratchett
• The Rose Garden by Susanna Kearsley ⭐⭐⭐

I was also able to share with you my first Teatime Bookshop Book Box and My Fictional Crushes, for the weekly Top Ten Tuesday meme; the news of the upcoming R.eaders I.mbibing Peril XVI reading event; and my farewell to the 10 Books of Summer 2021 reading challenge. 🤗

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For now, that’s all folks! I look forward to catching up with you all next Sunday for my regular weekly reflection; and in a month’s time to see how September has treated us all. Wherever you are in the world, I hope you and your loved ones are well: staying healthy and happy. God bless and bye for now!👋

(I have linked this post into the weekly meme, The Sunday Post)

Now in the comments let me know: How you are? What you have been reading and watching? Or please leave a link to your own Sunday post or monthly wrap-up post.