July somehow felt like a busy month, yet there were parts of it where I felt it was droning on and on like a song that wouldn’t end. It was busy because of all the tasks I did both at work and away from work.

My personal meadow is long gone thanks to the heat (she wrote sarcastically). Except for the surviving sunflowers, everything else had burned to a crisp. That’s how strong and powerful the mighty sun is around these parts – plants without shade get burned.

The earwig problem still exist but it’s a lot more manageable now thanks to the recommendations of a Facebook gardening group. I have replaced some of the damaged crops in the early and middle part of the month and in the last two weeks, as space became available, I’ve been slowly adding in some fall crops like daikons, carrots, and peas. I’m starting my fall garden early this year hoping I can get some harvest before winter comes knocking.

Despite the volume of work being slow in July, I was occupied with new duties training, meetings, and the continuation of training for the new person. After more than 3 months of training, it seems I finally made some headway in the last week. It’s quite a slow progress, if you ask me but I guess, sometimes, it takes time for miracles to take place.

The busiest time of the whole month came during the first week when I was trying to cram in all the garden projects while my mom was away in Asia. She would’ve never let me complete these projects because of the costs, time, and the strain on my health. She would’ve called me stupid for taking time off from work to pursue such silly endeavors.

I’m trying to prevent the garden from getting damaged in the freaky windstorms we’ve been having. My area isn’t prone to heavy winds but then many areas around the country isn’t prone to any kind of freaky weather, yet here we are – California burning up while Texas is drowning in rain. Climate change, what else is new?

Of course, I did take advantage of my mom’s absence to go somewhere. I’m pretty sure I put almost 2,000 miles on my car during my mom’s absence. My favorite trip in July was definitely the Scenic Backway trip. This was a 100-miles trip I did on the 4th of July – a day which most people would spend going to parade and grilling at home – not doing a loop-de-loop on scenic backways. I had a lot of fun particularly because it was just me, my camera, and the music from my phone playing in the car.

I spent the last weekends mostly resting and regaining my energy from traveling, particularly on the days when my aunts demanded I drive them somewhere fun. It was especially hard during the week when I had to sit through a 3-day medical dispatching course at work.

I don’t know whether I would have the opportunity to go on anymore daytrips now that my mom is home. She’s keen to have me stay home on the weekends and be a good girl and not go anywhere. Honestly though, I’m not sure where I would go because it seems like everyone suddenly has an interest to go out into nature. Most of my favorite spots have been packed so far, which does not make the spots natural anymore.

There’s not much to look forward to in August, to be honest. August has always been one of the months where I’d like to skip but then, if I skip August, I would be another year older and I don’t really want that. So I guess I will just savor whatever time I have left before turning 33 in September.