Photographer, creative-type, marketer and mother just about covers it. I'm based in the rolling countryside of West Oxfordshire and living the rural dream baby!
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20/52
* A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2013 *
Louis - at the William Scott / Peter Fraser exhibition at Tate St Ives
Xavi - on his way to the Roman villa remains near our home
I like how these two portraits have worked out this week - both boys with their backs to the camera, absorbed in their own thoughts and wonderings. Their independence is growing and they stray farther and farther from us as they find their way in the world.
As ever, I’m joining in with Jodi and everyone else taking part in the weekly portrait series.
52 Weeks of Happy (32 & 33/52)
I missed last week’s happy post (having too much fun on holiday) so this week is a bumper two-week special…
My happies for week 32/52:
∆ Returning to Porthmeor Cafe for several breakfasts with the boys and savouring the views (and the food - excellent as always).
∆ Watching Xavi’s excited little ritual each morning as he stood on a chair in the kitchen to grab his sign then hung it on our front door as we headed out for the day.
∆ Saltwaters and sand. Made for each other.
∆ Having Dennis, our campervan, lowered at the same time as his annual service. Soooo much easier to drive now!
And here are my happies for week 33/52:
∆ Precious ‘memory stones’ carefully carried back from the beach and home in the boys’ overflowing buckets. Each one is special and has a name. So too do the crabs’ legs they insisted on hauling up the A30. Those are currently stinking out the carport…
∆ Beating the rain on Saturday morning and walking with my mum, dad, Spence and the boys down to the remains of a Roman Villa from 4AD near our home.
∆ Commander Chris Hadfield’s amazing, awe-inspiring and jaw-droppingly beautiful Space Oddity from on-board the ISS. Watching Louis glued to the screen and knowing THAT moment, right there will influence the career choices he makes in his future.
∆ I know this project isn’t about material happies but the arrival of my Kelly Moore 2 Sues pro camera bag had me dancing a jig like no-one was watching in my kitchen. I’m still as excited as a five-year old about it now!
I can’t wait to see what’s been making you all happy these last couple of weeks, I have a lot of catch-up blog reading to do!Chasing the light
Before we had children, Spence and I took a l-o-n-g trip out to Long Island. We headed out of New York in a rental car, Billy Idol on the stereo, past Coney Island and on until the city was far behind us. We were headed out in search of the light.
We didn’t stay long, but the light we found there truly is amazing. It’s difficult to describe but you know it when you see it. It’s fresh and soft and calm and blue and vibrant and clear all at once. It has a quality to it that only comes from uninterrupted big skies and rolling oceans. It’s no wonder so many artists thrive there.
And it’s no wonder that St Ives has a similar artistic community, because the light there is just as enthralling, just as magnificent and is one of the reasons why I love it there so much.
Chasing the light. That’s what photography is all about at the end of the day.
Post-holiday after-school cake
The week following a break away is always a bit of a downer in our house so on Monday I set aside all thoughts of work and instead made the boys a cake.
Louis had requested a blueberry cake and having seen Laura’s delectable lemon-blueberry yoghurt loaf over at Circle of Pine Trees, I knew just where to go for the recipe. The recipe uses cup measurements rather than grams but this conversion chart solved that problem.
I was running out of time and had to dribble the lemony icing over the top whilst the cake was still warm, giving more of a drizzle rather than a proper white icing, but it still tasted delicious and it got the all-important thumbs up from Louis.
Just the ticket to banish those post-holiday blues.
Nature in the home - a series…
The pickings are quite rich in our garden at the moment. Many moons ago, our cottage was the home of the head gardener at Blenheim Palace and we have inherited a beautiful, natural (and at times rather unkempt) front garden full of self-seeding poppies, bluebells, geraniums, hyacinths and all manner of beautiful plants.
For a few glorious weeks in late spring and early summer, it looks magnificent and it’s just coming into its own right now.
In the back garden, we have a deep, long, shady raised bed, cased in a dry Cotswold stone wall which is quite different in feel with the darkest purple tulips and light blue vinca nestling under tree trunks and a few more bluebells.
Then, in our little courtyard are loads of pots, many brought from our last home and nestling together to provide a much-needed injection of colour and greenery throughout the winter months.
This week’s Nature in the Home theme was pink - I’m not sure what the darker pink flowers are but the heart-shaped ones are Dicentra or ‘Bleeding Hearts’ which flowered whilst we were away. They remind me of little parcels of luggage on a hanging rail.
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Our base for a week of sun, sea and surfing
We’ve just returned from a wonderfully relaxing week in St Ives where we stayed in a pretty little four-storey cottage right in the heart of the town and about 150 paces from three (yes three!) beaches.
This was our seventh year of holidaying in St Ives - even as I write that, I can’t believe it, but every year, and usually on the motorway journey home, we all decide we want to go back again. It’s a wonderful place and the first time we went, I completely lost my heart to the light, the laid-back feel and the slower pace of life down there. I have a feeling we’ll still be going back in our dotage.
We’ve stayed in here and here in previous years. We’ve been with family and friends - one year there were 13 of us - but this year we were just a little foursome so we stayed in this cottage.
It was a beautiful place, although a bit rickety in parts. The plumbing and electrics were ‘interesting’ and the windows rattled like crazy, but all of this added the charm of the place to be honest. The styling and decorative touches were gorgeous and the free-standing roll top bath was ace. On one galey afternoon, we lit the wood burner and curled up on the comfy sofas with books and comics - it really was a homely cottage and the boys loved it.
We preferred the top floor of the house to the master bedroom, pushing the twin beds together in proper teenage fashion, and fell asleep each evening to the sound of nesting seagulls, a familiar sound in the attics of houses in the Downalong area of St Ives.
The kitchen was very well stocked with everything you’d need to make a decent meal and on our arrival, we were greeted with the most lovely little gifts, including wine, Cornish cheese and butter, olives, local bread and this fine fella.
All in all, it was a lovely place to stay for a week of total relaxation. Its quirkiness and slightly faded interior structure added to the character of the place - the boys had great fun slipping notes to each other through the floorboards in the sitting room down into the kitchen!
The Conran Maclamp
Have you ever gone into a second-hand store for a bit of a rummage then spotted something that made your heart skip a beat?
That is precisely what happened to me when I came across this vintage Maclamp in an Ercol/G-Plan cafe (yes, really!) last week. Sitting quietly, but oh so elegantly, at the back of the store, the Maclamp made no fuss about his fine heritage. He was missing a fuse and needed a new plug, but his quality and breeding still shone through.
Designed by Terence Conran in the 1960s for Habitat, the Maclamp was a bit of an icon back in the day and the design is much imitated today.
Needless to say, the Maclamp came home with me. He’s been re-plugged and fused and is now trying out a new home. Not sure I’ll keep him here - I had thought he would grace my desk, but for now, I want to have him in a room where I can see him all the time!
Have you ever squealed with joy at a vintage find?
19/52
* A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2013 *
Xavi - in his element having found exactly the right consistency of sand to make castles.
Louis - proud parent doesn’t come close, I was jumping up and down like a mad woman as he surfed his way to the beach. Go Surfer Lou!
As ever, I’m joining in with Jodi and everyone else taking part in the weekly portrait series.
Nature in the home - a series
We came down to St Ives on Friday and waiting for us in our cottage which we’re calling home for the week was a bottle of wine, a rustic loaf, Cornish butter and cheese, a selection of olives and this delightful little succulent.
A warm welcome indeed!
Joining in with Lou’s Nature in the Home series. We’re also amassing an impressive collection of seaweed and odd-shaped pebbles but my ‘feed me and take me home’ friend is my favourite acquisition so far.
18/52
* A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2013 *
Xavi - digging holes, throwing shovel-loads of sand into the waves, humming happily to himself and getting frecklier by the hour.
Louis - climbing rocks like a mini mountain goat and rocking his new green trousers.
Joining in with Jodi and everyone else taking part in the weekly portrait series. Apologies for the quality of these photographs - my iPhone was my only tool this weekend. But grainy is atmospheric isn’t it?
ETCETERA theme by Hrrrthrrr
