first things first

The first of August.

The first cauliflower from the garden, picked this morning and cooked this evening into a rather lovely cauliflower cheese, thanks to The Husband.

The first day of an abundance of online projects. There is the August Break project I heard about from the lovely Penny, and which I remember her taking part in last year as I enjoyed her posts very much. The prompt for today was breakfast, but unfortunately I only saw it at lunchtime, so the following photo was all I had to offer, grateful for once that I hadn't done the dishes straight away!

There is also the 31 days of paper challenge from Jocelyn over at The Reading Residence, which I have joined on Instagram for today. I have been posting pictures quite regularly on Instagram linking with the #3goodthings and #embracehappy projects. This month Karin has done a series of prompts for #embracehappy but I think I will resist joining in with any more for now!

One reason for not wanting to overcommit to too many of these wonderful projects is that it will be the first day of a new job this week. I am very excited and I will be working with some old colleagues, which will be lovely. I cannot wait to see them again on a regular basis. 

There are some lovely firsts this week in the form of first episodes of some of my favourite programmes. I don't watch that much television during the week usually. We have been enjoying The Humans on channel 4, and I enjoy quizzes like Only Connect and University Challenge, but I can also go a long time without turning the television on. However I adore The Great British Bake Off, which starts this week, and I'm going to try and bake along with it again this time (another blogging project!). Last year I baked the technical challenge each week (the cherry cake below was my favourite) and really enjoyed it. However, after the first few weeks I stopped when the travel to London started kicking in for work and it just wasn't feasible. Depending how the new job is I'm hoping it might be a bit more manageable this time, and the first recipe will be a Frosted Walnut Layer Cake if anyone fancies joining in (I'm still waiting for the official recipe to be published online). The other first episode is Great British Menu, a programme I have always enjoyed and I had assumed it wasn't being screened this year but apparently it starts on Monday. 

Grandad has driven for the first time since his surgery today. He seems to be making a great recovery,  and it was a lovely surprise to see his car pulled up on the drive at my parent's house this evening. He plans to have the other knee done in the not too distant future, and it has been incredible to see what progress he has made since his first operation less than six weeks ago.

Although today has been very wet, and I have spent it sat at the computer trying to get some work finished ready for leaving my current job, I feel hopeful for August. It holds promise, not of holidays and  sunshine, but of first days, first impressions and new beginnings. I have been checking my new journey to work, ordering new pages for my filofax (which has been unused in this last job), and making renewed commitments to my health and fitness, which had tailed off a little after our holiday. The first of August seems to have come around far too quickly, but I am glad it is here and wish you all a positive month ahead.