July 2022. Perhaps the best month of my life. Since Mrs RM and I BOTH forgot our wedding anniversary for the 30th time I can safely say that and live.
Despite the life-changing crisps from Jones of Cymru, and a record hundred and one (101) GBG ticks in July, it’s been the beauty of the UK that’s made this summer so great.
If you can identify the coastline above you can have that empty crisp packet.
You haven’t seen many of those coastline photos yet, or an overdue return of the Father-in-Law wearing two hats in Rye. But you wait.
But you DO know about my progress in completing the GBG,
which makes England look particularly pleasing after a month spent attacking that tricky but wonderful South-West. Yes, Scilly, (the rest of) Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Hampshire AND the Isle of Wight all ticked.
Rather worryingly, I only spent 7 nights spent in Sheffield last month (and two of those were the two hottest days in history), and 3 nights in Ilminster (honest) where I may complete the full set of pubs and Chinese takeaways soon.
And that explains why I am so far behind on the blog, even worse than BRAPA. But I’ll keep you up-to-date on progress on the Guide.
The awards;
BEST BEE GEES STATUE – Douglas, Isle of Man
PUB OF THE MONTH – Ship & Castle, East Cowes, Isle of Wight (expect blog in November)
Perhaps it was the euphoria of completing the Isle of Wight for the first time, but this unreconstructed boozer (think : Railway in Portland without the fancy beers) was everything you don’t expect Wight to be.
BEER OF THE MONTH – Proper Job, all over South Devon
It suddenly made sense. It’s Doom Bar, mind.
AUGUST STOCKTAKE
Well, these last 62 are gonna be tough. Just look at Scotland. Some of these places are clearly made up.
Nobody said it was gonna be easy, but booking ferries and trying to find overnight accommodation in Scotland in August is an Olympic sport.
Good job Duncan is taking me to North Uist in his dinghy.
Nearly forgot, new avatar, courtesy of Burntisland.
I just need to grow that beard and go ginger now…
retiredmartin 
Will the Scotland portion take over a month?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Martin’s got lots of time to complete the Western Isles; they haven’t left the 1950’s yet, so he has over 60 years to tick there.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I’d allowed 4 trips of 4 days for Scotland, assuming one of those meets disaster (closed pub, cancelled ferry), but I wouldn’t want to drift too far into September in case “winter” kicks in.
LikeLike
I’m glad we’re not the only couple that misses wedding anniversaries! 😁
LikeLiked by 1 person
It’s a tradition to forget annually, Paul. We’re very into tradition, as you know.
LikeLike
Being on Staffordshire Day, which came later, doesn’t make ours much easier to remember.
LikeLike