Monthly Musings: July 2026
ft. a new tooth, a lemon cake recommendation, and the usual ramblings
Hi friends, happy Sunday! Welcome to our Monthly Musings: July 2026 post — I hope it finds you well! What’ve you been up to lately? Have you been getting out to enjoy the sunshine and earn a new summer freckle or two? The heat has been a little hard to manage with Bean, so we’ve only really been venturing out in the early morning or when it borderline looks like it’s going to rain, but it’s still been so nice! Other than that, Husband, Bean, and I are just home from dog-sitting for my parents while they were away at a wedding last night, and, even though we were literally a 5-minute drive away from our house, it feels like we went on a little overnight vacation.
Our musings for the month ahead are below, filled with all the usual ramblings. A little baby update, some travel talk, a recap on what I’ve been reading and watching, and a few additional titbits for good measure. It’s a little lighter than usual, but that feels exactly right for the summer month that’s in it. Enjoy, friend!
monthly musings:
On the baby bulletin: Bean officially has her two front bottom teeth and they are so cutie-pie! The little bites she has started giving me when we are feeding is less cutie-pie — which brings me onto my next update: we’ve started the process of weaning Bean onto formula! It’s going…okay. She won’t reliably drink the formula, so I’ve had to get creative and sneak it into everything she eats to make sure she’s consuming enough. It’s a journey, but we are getting there! In more fun news: she loves to clap handies, and just recently learned to wave — both of which are the most adorable things ever! Her little chubby paws make the best clapping noise and she is always so pleased with herself when she does it!
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In travel news: we booked our last hoo-rah before my maternity leave ends! In a rather unexpected turn of events, we booked a trip to Nantes, France! We were this close to booking Tallinn — but the flights and accommodation stars aligned to make Nantes the perfect trip for us right now! We’ve never been to the Loire region before, and the city looks so cool! Have you ever been? Please send on any recommendations!
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Related: I have finally finished my Nice travel guide! It’ll be hitting the blog this day next week, and it is absolutely filled to the brim with everything we know and love about the city. If you’re looking for any travel guides in the meantime, you can always browse the travel index here — be it for a Euro summer trip, an Asian adventure, or maybe even a trip to Canada!
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In case you missed it: my 2026 Summer Bucket List hit the blog last month! It’s filled with light and breezy fun items I hope to accomplish over the next two months with Bean and Husband, and I’m feeling good about it! What’s on your summer bucket list this year? I enjoyed reading Julianna’s Summer Bingo Card and might be adding some of her suggestions to my own list! Such a fun summer tradition I hope to keep up over the years to come with Bean ❤️
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How is your summer reading going? Since I finished Billy Summers last month — which, btdubz, I loved! about a paid assassin with a conscience, kind of — I leapfrogged back onto the Jodi Picoult train and read By Any Other Name. I didn’t love the overall book, but I did enjoy reading the Emilia Bassano chapters — although fictionalised for the novel, they tell the tale of how Bassano could have been the real writer of many of Shakespeare’s plays, which I thought was fascinating! To follow along with my reading in real-time on StoryGraph, click here.
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We’ve been trying to watch movies actually set in the summer and I’m proud of our viewing so far! Admittedly, it’s mostly been old rewatches — Adventureland, The Last Song, Say Anything… —, but we also hit Do The Right Thing and Y Tu Mamá También, the latter of which I thought was so great! Any quintessential summer goodies you think we need to add to our list? To follow along with our movie watching in real-time on Letterboxd, click here. TV-wise, there has been a lot of binge-able brain rot on our screens recently. We recently devoured Every Year After, nothing special but pleasingly easy to watch, and I Will Find You, the plot of which was so ridiculous yet un-turn-off-able. Currently, we’re tuning in for the weekly episodes of Cape Fear, which tbh is also rather ridiculous, and also Elle, which is fun for the nostalgic ‘90s feel. What’re you watching?
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At the risk of sounding like I’m obsessed with a) lemon cakes and b) any recipe Nicola Lamb shares — oh WAIT both of those things are in fact true —the only new recipe I made last month was Nicola’s Lemon Drizzle Cake for my mother-in-law’s birthday bash. It was zingy in all the right places and paired perfectly with a dollop of whipped cream and juicy summer strawberries. I’ve also been eyeing up this Strawberry Brita Cake and this Old-Fashioned Strawberry Cake, both of which look like stellar ways to embrace our favourite seasonal treat.
And there we have it, our Monthly Musings: July 2026 post! I hope you found something to take away with you, and I really hope that something is a hankering to make a little list of summer things to accomplish.
My love to you,
Vicki xo
PS: my camera roll is still 99% Bean at the mo’, so please enjoy the above photo of an ice-cream that hit the spot in Nice recently.
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