Monthly recap: August edition

August. Summer. Holidays. It just hasn’t really happened this year has it? It’s all felt rather glum and gloomy, with hints of sun but it certainly has been wetter and greyer than any previous summer I can remember, but then June was incredibly hot and dry, a clear sign that climate and weather patterns are changing rapidly now.

Despite this I still managed to squeeze quite a lot into August so if you’ll please indulge me I’d love to share some of it with you!

I think one of the biggest things to happen in August for the shop was attending the Taunton Independent Market, held monthly in Castle Green. It’s a fantastic event, and was my first time there in well over a year. I think I went to one within a month or two of opening!

This time around was amazing! I was on the main paved area, close to the Winch or whatever it’s called now. It was great to see so many familiar faces, and a real treat to chat to many new people too and introduce them to some fresh eco-swaps. While I won’t be there in September as I’ll be attending the Bridgwater Vegan Fair I will be back to the Independent Market in October and I’m already planning on upping it to a monthly occurence next year.

In the shop maybe the biggest new release was the Essential Oils collection of three bars from Shower Blocks. Each of the new scents smell wonderful, there’s Cedarwood + Eucalyptus, Lemon + Rosemary, and Sweet Orange + Bergamot. Made with 100% natural ingredients and with the same level of lathering the original range is known for.

The last week of August was finally time for a summer holiday for us and we caught the train up to north Wales to stay in Porthmadog. Neither of us had been there before and we had a great time exploring the town and the harbour, and then walking across to Portmeirion which is a surreal place on the coast which the best way to descibe it I think is if Wes Anderson and Salvador Dali were to make a village together!

Then we headed even further west along the peninsula to Abersoch for the bank holiday weekend which again had some spectacular views and was such a lush time. Also during the week I decided to switch my Duolingo learning from Danish to Welsh. I’d love to keep both of them going, so if you’re a Welsh speaker I’d love to practice sometime when I can say more than just good morning or good afternoon.

To finish up this month’s roundup I’d like to quickly mention the allotment as I get asked about it a lot and to be honest I have been feeling quite a lot of shame and guilt around the subject over the summer. I just haven’t been able to give it the time it deserves at all this year, and then when I am able to go all I seem to do is weeding and maintenance, never getting around to the fun stuff.

Part of this was due to me only having one day off a week away from the shop up until very recently, and upon reflection the biggest barrier to me getting stuck in was that I hadn’t ever built the allotment into my weekly routine and habits.

This is why going forwards I’ll be opening at 11AM on Thursday mornings (and also because I’m open until 7PM). This will be my regular allotment time, where I can keep it ticking over no matter what. A couple of hours every week to at least do the bare minimum of weeding, pruning, grass trimming, and then when I visit on the weekends I’ll know that it isn’t a state and I can potter to my hearts content and really give each section the care and attention it needs to have a brilliant 2024 and feel like I’m making progress and learning rather than skimming the surface.

I’ll leave it there for this August edition. The month flew by and while on ‘paper’ it doesn’t look like all that much happened it was a month of finding new directions and new resolve.

Cheers for reading, I really do appreciate you. I’d love to hear your highlights from August and what you got up to in the comments below!