#ThrowbackThursday - where we were on this date in Julys past

Gallery North art
in July 2012 

I really enjoy looking back over my past four years of blogging and remembering where I was and what I got to do or see. Sometimes the years seem to stretch back forever, other times they could have passed in the blink of an eye! Mum used to say 'don't wish your life away because you're a long time old'. I know what she meant, but I am finding that time is speeding up as I'm getting older. It passes faster each year!

This July is particularly special as Dave and I celebrated our 13th anniversary on the 13th. Yay us!

Here's a selection of other July memories:

I visited Gallery North's Open Part II on the 28th July in 2012 and wrote this post the day after. Gallery North is a quaint little art venue in Hailsham and their Open displayed a varied selection of artistic disciplines including painting, photography, ceramics and mixed media work.

Sunflowers in Eastbourne in July 2013 

Saturday 27th July 2013 was apparently 'a perfect day' - walking, sunflowers, poetry, art, lunch out with Dave, book shopping and then music in the evening with a fab Tom Russell gig at the Palmeira in Hove. Russell is an amazing songwriter whose lyrics are about very different subjects to the norm. Several songs have a strong Mexican-Spanish vibe to them and the album we had then recently downloaded has great brass instrumentation although, of course, the brass section hadn't flown over to play at the Palmeira. According to his website, Tom Russell is touring the UK again in January 2017. There aren't any venues confirmed yet though. I'm not even sure which country I will be in then either!

Pears ripening
in July 2014 

July 2014 was a frustrating time as selling our Polegate house was becoming a far more dragged out process than either of us had anticipated. I commented at the time that it was about as much fun as watching pears ripen, the joke being that the pears on our tree never actually did ripen so I always ended up poaching them in red wine to make them edible. To pass the time, I had begun ebaying and freegling pretty much everything we owned. Now we have a new flat, we have the problem of transporting the remaining stored stuff from Sussex to Devon. Fortunately there's almost enough in the caravan to tide us over - once we've trawled Torbay furniture shops for a bed!

July 2015 in Penrith 

Our UK caravan tour last summer had brought us to cloudy Penrith by the end of July 2015 and I thoroughly enjoyed visiting this vibrant town. It is a fab place to ShopLocal - which fits in perfectly with my current SmallSteps blog post series - and I liked the interesting historical architecture too. We got to see an RSC production broadcast to the Alhambra cinema and I was impressed by Penrith's sense of its identity. Plaques and marked walks guide visitors around the town showing its heritage and we enjoyed simply strolling the streets and alleys, drinking in the ambience, before we were tempted to start shopping in earnest.

Great memories, but that's it for my July ThrowbackThursday. Join me again next month to discover whether previous Augusts actually felt like summer!