I’m not going to lie August is normally my least favourite month. Tourists are everywhere, children are running around and it rains more than you think it should. Unless your livelihood depends on those tourists I suspect most people feel the same who live in a ‘holiday destination’. Normally we just stay home but this time we made a bit of an effort.

We started off strong with a visit to Dunster Castle. This was specifically to see the Taunton Garrison. This is military dress up for adults and I thoroughly approve. If a grown man can’t dress up in an historical outfit and explain in minuscule detail irrelevant facts then that’s not the sort of world I want to live in. In fact I’m considering doing that at the Carriage Museum… I already have the hat. We also stumbled on a tour of the water mill, which was okay. I now have a new appreciation of such things.

Of course like the rest of Britain we were scared shitless by the national emergency alarm about wildfires. Lyn phoned her mother to make sure it hadn’t killed her. My phone went off 3 times for some reason, probably just to make sure I’d got the message. Predictably the populist right hated it saying it wasn’t needed but the very next day people had disposable BBQ’s down on Northam Burrows. Sadly this is no joke.

The eclipse was fun, we’d worked out we’d see most of it from the front of the house and miss the packed coast. The neighbours then all decided to join us and it ended up being quite sociable. This will be the last time that I’ll see this marvellous celestial display. I honestly feel a little bit of contempt for those that squinted at it and declared themselves unimpressed.

We saw probably the best outdoor theatre we’ve ever seen. It was performed by the Three Inch Fools and was King Arthur and the Holy Fail at Arlington. I genuinely laughed and it wasn’t just because of the bottle of wine I’d drunk. The only slight fly in the ointment was the group of children that turned up at the foot of the stage during the second half who thought it was audience participation, the chap playing Arthur handled it well. The mother(?) who was supposed to be supervising them and clearly couldn’t be bothered had a top with a picture of a beaver on it and the legend “Keep it Wild”. It’s amusing and I appreciate the sentiment, maybe not the appropriateness.

Lyn did an organised walk at Arlington you can find these here. She really enjoyed it but I think what she was most pleased with was that she ‘beat’ the other person on the walk who turned up and declared herself a ‘professional’ walker and had all the gear.

I’ve now done what is called a ‘conservation course’ at Arlington. Basically I can clean stuff, very, very carefully. This does add another bit of interest, I’m pretty sure at this point I could answer most questions about carriages of the Victorian and late Regency period… This is not a phrase I thought I’d say. And the people I ‘work’ with have embraced and enjoy “Fun Fact Thursday” which I introduced early on.

As the month ended I was quite buoyed that this August had bucked the trend. Then Lyn and I went out for a walk after putting the washing machine on only to come back to find it had leaked and flooded the kitchen. Its only 2 years old. There is a sequence of events that lead to this but it’s boring, not amusing and I can’t be bothered to tell it. Just to add to the misery the new washing machine arrived a day late on the Saturday of a bank holiday weekend and doesn’t work! It did cross my mind to do the washing in the Torridge but it would probably come out dirtier and I’d end up being prosecuted for pollution… Pity the same thing doesn’t happen to the water companies. Maybe if there was jail time instead of fines out rivers and beaches would be clean. Quis Autem Reformationem.