Gallery: an August selection (2026)

Less than a month ago, all of August still stretched before us – long and golden and reassuring, like an endless period of delicious sleep

Lauren Oliver

Even as a child time seems to speed up as we near the end of summer; how much more so for us now as adults! It seems no time since I was writing about July; now it is almost September.

Our succession of summer heatwaves continued well into August, until in the final week we had rather cooler temperatures and the much-needed rain. Whether it was needed on a Bank Holiday weekend, some will dispute! By then the grass in our parks was brown, or worn away completely, and many trees were dropping leaves as if it were already autumn. And yes, that’s ‘grass’ in my photo of our Blues Festival below!

A busy August

Despite the heat I continued to keep busy. In addition to my usual activities such as table tennis and aquarobics, there were plenty of outings. There were meals out with my sister and brother-in-law, and with several different friends, and an evening enjoying drinks in our next-door neighbours’ garden. Chris and I also had a treat when fine-dining Indian restaurant, the Cinnamon Club, offered a special ‘retro menu’ celebrating their 25^th anniversary. There were favourites dishes from their original menu, charged at their original prices – a bargain!

We went to the cinema twice, to see Spiderman: a brand new day (not my usual genre of film but good fun and with amazing effects) and Pedro Almodóvar’s new film, Bitter Christmas, which I thought was really good though it’s had mixed reviews. We also went to the theatre to see Adrian Lester in Cyrano de Bergerac, and that was truly fantastic!

Another evening was spent at the Ealing Blues Festival which always has a great atmosphere, appealing as it does to all ages and all sectors of our community. And we spent a morning at the Saatchi Gallery’s current excellent exhibition, The Sun and The Moon: Art Inspired by the Celestial. We also went to the Photographers’ Gallery, a favourite haunt, to see an exhibition of photos by Japanese women.

A friend from U3A invited me to visit Petersham Nurseries with her, one of her favourite places for photography, and we both went a little mad with our cameras! I also went on a U3A visit to the gardens at Chiswick Park.

Between light and shadow

Work continued on preparations for my photography group’s forthcoming exhibition. In my recent post on photo editing I shared the four images I submitted and promised to reveal later which one was chosen to meet this brief:

Truth lives in ambiguity. What we see depends on where the light falls.

I think this photo of me with fellow curator Frankie might give the game away! Yes, it was the shot of barbed wire from Tuol Sleng which I titled simply Genocide. All three of us in the curation team felt it met the challenge implicit in that brief and worked well with our other chosen shots. If you are curious, you can see all eighteen on our website.  

Weekend in Ripon

My only trip away from London this month, and a relief from its oppressive heat, was a long weekend in Ripon, Yorkshire. We had our annual meet-up with friends in Grinton in Swaledale, also met with Margaret of From Pyrenees to Pennines and enjoyed walks in Ripon itself and in nearby Hackfall Woods. I’ve already shared our walk by Ripon Canal and will have more to share in due course, I am sure.

Technical notes

The photos from our Ripon weekend were taken on my new compact Lumix camera, as were those at Petersham Nurseries. The remainder were taken on my phone. As always most have been edited in Photoshop Elements and many also with Nik Color Efex.

And again as always, I’m linking my selection to Ju-Lyn’s and Brian’s Changing Seasons challenge, and to Natalie’s Monthly Wrap-up.

Please use the arrows to navigate the slideshow if you want to see all the images. My feature photo was taken at Petersham Nurseries.

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