The view from here...

20/52

Sat, 18 May 2013 16:42:33 +0100

* 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)

Fri, 17 May 2013 09:01:23 +0100

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

Thu, 16 May 2013 19:03:40 +0100

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

Thu, 16 May 2013 10:01:00 +0100

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...

Wed, 15 May 2013 09:01:24 +0100

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...

Tue, 14 May 2013 09:01:10 +0100

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...

Mon, 13 May 2013 11:06:33 +0100

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

Sun, 12 May 2013 15:17:30 +0100

* 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...

Tue, 07 May 2013 20:26:00 +0100

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

Sun, 05 May 2013 22:41:14 +0100

* 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?

52 Weeks of Happy (31/52)

Thu, 02 May 2013 10:00:40 +0100

“The happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything.”

A lot to put a smile on my face this week. But equally, just as much to induce a quizzical / frustrated / ‘oh bugger’ expression as well.

These were the happies:

∆ Flow Magazine. A celebration of paper and print. It’s simply beautiful.

∆ Packing for our annual pilgrimage here tomorrow. I say that. I haven’t actually done any packing yet, but I have been thinking about it and it will happen. Honest. My mum and dad are coming to house-sit and I know they will do a few little jobs too - bonus!

∆ The disco ball at Birmingham’s Glee Club where we saw World Party on Tuesday night. Us and about 200 others. A most intimate and brilliant affair.

∆ Dennis up on the ramp, being lowered, serviced and MOT’d. Love the guys that built him, love visiting their garage - it’s a vintage memorabilia collector’s nirvana.

And working on the whole ‘problem shared’ principle, these were the frustrations:

∆ Finding mice in our garage and realising they have chomped their way through most of the stuff in there, including the special box of precious baby clothes I kept back from when the boys were little. They’ve shredded, eaten or weed on it all.

∆ Having to put up with the radio blaring away for 7 hours a day from the painters across the road. Full volume Radio 2 ALL DAY, only silenced when one painter decides to speak very loudly on his mobile in the garden. I am ready to throttle them.

Still, it could be worse. We can rid ourselves of the mice and the painters and their damned radio will soon be gone.

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Nature in the home - for May morning

Wed, 01 May 2013 09:51:00 +0100

Please accept my little posy of grape hyacinths and forget-me-nots (I think!) picked from the garden this morning for today’s Nature in the Home post.

They are sitting on my desk next to me as I write, keeping me company as I furiously try to sign off multiple proofs in advance of a little break away with my boys on Friday. I love going on holiday, but boy, the frantic weeks before and after? I can do without those thanks…

The picture in the top photograph is one of my favourites. It was taken a couple of years ago at Porthminster cafe on a beautiful May afternoon, with sand and sea all around us. Three more sleeps and we’ll be there once again. I cannot wait.

Oh, and happy May Day to you! In Oxford, May morning is a BIG DEAL. Those with stronger constitutions than my own stay up all night revelling and partying, then welcome in May morning in the traditional Oxford way by gathering on Magdelen Bridge to listen to the choristers from Magdelen College sing from its highest point. Back in my day, there was a lot of leaping from the bridge into the Isis below but health & safety has since put a stop to that.

Pubs up and down the town stay open all night and bands play at dawn. Much hot coffee and big breakfasting is done before the weary stumble to bed (around 8am) or even into work.

It’s brilliant fun but alas, my days of all-night partying on a school day are behind me, so I celebrated May morning with a quiet little smile instead.

Decluttering. Gradually...

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 16:03:28 +0100

This weekend has been a typical April one - bright sunshine one minute, rain and even hail the next. It’s been a weekend for chores, homework and tackling ‘those’ jobs around the house - the ones I’ve put off for so long but which really need doing.

So, having been inspired by Claire at Just a Little Less who is constantly striving and managing to live with fewer possessions, and Lottie’s Project Simplify, I set about Part One of the Great Tidy-Up - the boys’ clothes.

This is one area of our house that has got completely out of control. School uniform is mixed up with wetsuits, socks, pants and vests are all over the place, their shared wardrobe is crammed to overflowing with clothes that are either too small or too big and there’s not a folded item in sight. Our clean laundry is chucked in a basket that never gets properly emptied because we can’t actually find the space to put the things away.

This is what it their drawers look like on any given morning:

It is impossible to find anything and everything is creased. It had to be tackled.

So with a strong coffee and some musical accompaniment, I delved in and made a start, weeding out dirty t-shirts and rather a lot of too-small clothes. I am ashamed to say, I even found an old apple core, lots of tangerine peel and a couple of cars lurking at the bottom of Xav’s drawer.

Once everything was out, I started the sorting. Old clothes into one bag for a charity drop, dirty clothes into a laundry pile, old pants and holey socks in the bin, ‘keepers’ in neat pile for each boy.

I realised that Xavi has plenty of clothes - many of which have been passed down from his brother with lots of wear left in them, but Louis has grown out of most of his wardrobe.

Once I’d folded, smoothed and sorted, everything ‘current’ went back into the now shiny and un-sticky drawers.

After all the sorting, Louis was left with only four t-shirts. That’s fine for term time, but come the holidays, he’ll need more than that for sure. Curiously though, he has more socks than any person could ever need (20 pairs and counting for some reason) but a shopping trip is definitely required - he needs another pair of trousers, a couple of long and short-sleeved t-shirts, swimming trunks and pyjamas, but as long as we buy sensibly, I figure those items will last long enough to pass on to Xav in time as well.

Xav on the other hand, has done very well out of the whole exercise, inheriting sweatshirts, a natty shirt he’s had his eye on for a while and countless t-shirts.

And my charity bag - a 50ltr kitchen bin liner - is full to the brim with stuff to pass on. All in all, a good morning’s work.

I wonder how long it will stay this neat and ordered though?

The next job on the list is the garage. That will take WAY longer than one morning and a single cup of coffee…

17/52

Sat, 27 Apr 2013 18:05:00 +0100

* A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2013 *

Xavi - favourite toy: a blue foam-filled fabric triangle with velcro on two sides. Takes ‘him’ everywhere.

Louis - favourite band: AC/DC and Black Sabbath. Oh. My. Ears.

Joining in with Jodi and everyone else taking part in the weekly portrait series.

Nature in the home - a series (foraging)

Thu, 25 Apr 2013 09:26:24 +0100

I missed yesterday’s Nature in the Home group post as I was suffering from a horrible migraine - the kind that when it finally lifted late last night made me realise how completely out of it I had been for 18 hours or so. I don’t get them very often, but when I do, I lose at least a day and feel groggy for another 24 hours after that.

But today - perhaps it’s the sunny morning, perhaps it’s the fresh air - I feel right as rain with no lingering effects, so after the school run I ventured into the garden to look for some colour to forage for this week’s submission.

On Sunday, the garden was looking decidedly barren. The daffodils were refusing to open and there was no other colour in sight but WHAT a turnaround this morning!

The daffodils were bowing their little heads to the sunshine, the hyacinths have bloomed (albeit a little leggy), the pale yellow tulips that I thought were coming up blind are now fat, round, beautiful flowers and there was even a bluebell or two.

I picked a few and brought them inside for this week’s Nature in the Home challenge which was to forage our blooms. I didn’t exactly tramp over field and dale, but these little flowers were free and they were hand-picked so that counts right?

I love these green and red babies - I think it’s alchemilla - I have the plant in a pot at the front door and I’m always so pleased to see it pop up year after year. Such a pretty, sculptural plant.

Joining in with Lou and everyone else for one of the most enjoyable projects in blogland.

52 Weeks of Happy (30/52)

Tue, 23 Apr 2013 09:07:38 +0100

Stuff that has been making me happy this week. As always, keeping in mind the quote that “the happiest people don’t have the best of everything, they just make the best of everything.”

∆ Booty from Record Store Day. A limited edition gig poster, signed by the artist and featuring MY HUSBAND’S BAND no less. Being a supportive musician’s wife is so much easier when the graphic design is so pleasing on the eye.

∆ The obligatory photo of the bluest of blue skies round our way on Saturday. Plus a shot of the forsythia I am going to forage from for tomorrow’s Nature in the Home post.

∆ Oh Saltwaters, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways (and colours….).

∆ This Sunday, for the first time in EIGHT YEARS, we managed to watch the F1 coverage ‘live’ or rather as it was being broadcast on the BBC. No recording it to watch it later. No fast-forwarding or pausing to see to a child. Properly watching with no interruptions. As a fan of F1 since childhood, this was a surprisingly big deal for me.

Have a happy week y’all. You can find the lovely lady who kicked off this whole project here x

16/52

Mon, 22 Apr 2013 20:47:16 +0100

* A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2013 *

Goodness, we’re four months in already. With this and the 52 Weeks of Happy project, I am really noticing how time is flying by.

Louis - a portrait.

Xavi - an anti-portrait. Captured just before I jettisoned the camera to stop him falling down the steps. Playing ‘worms’ apparently…

As ever, I’m joining in with Jodi and all the other lovely people participating in the weekly portrait series. I tend to be contributor 240 out of 240 at the moment - what DOES that say about my time-keeping I wonder?!

Calling all music lovers : Record Store Day

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 13:15:37 +0100

Tomorrow is Record Store Day 2013. It’s a day to visit your local independent record store and remember why it’s so great.

It’s a day to see loads of bands play live at your favourite store and watch as some - my husband’s band included - hot foot it from one indie store to the next on a whirlwind Phil Collins in Live Aid-type tour. Oh how surprised and excited we were to hear them being plugged on the Jo Whiley show earlier this week!

Anyway, great live music, indie record stores staffed by knowledgeable and vinyl-loving staff, plus a whole-host of special edition pressings only available in indie record stores on the day. What’s not to love?

My favourite mag The Simple Things is even running a feature on Record Store Day, so what are you waiting for? Find out if your local indie record store is particpating and if they are, get on down there and show them some love. It’ll be a great day!

A day at the zoo On the last day of the Easter holidays, we took...

Fri, 19 Apr 2013 09:00:52 +0100

A day at the zoo

On the last day of the Easter holidays, we took a short trip up the road to Cotswold Wildlife Park. The sun was shining, Dennis the camper van was ready to pootle along the open roads up to Burford and we knew it wouldn’t be busy as most schools in Oxfordshire had already gone back.

We weren’t disappointed. As ever, it was a grand day out. As we visit fairly frequently, the boys always have a list of animals they want to check in with. First on their list was the penguins where we arrived for feeding time. Another recent big draw are the giraffes. Louis waited oh so patiently with his little outstretched hand full of grass, until finally one noticed him and came to chomp. (Oh the antibacterial wipes I deployed….).

The red panda (that’s him perched in the branches below that beautiful blue sky) always gets a visit, as do the monkeys on the way to the hot house where the boys love to spot the sloths, bats and tropical birds.

A trip to the adventure playground, ice-creams and a ride on the mini train that weaves its way through the park rounded off our grand day out.

The only negative was me dropping - yes DROPPING - my pro Nikon DSLR, complete with horribly expensive lens onto the ground, shattering the lens hood. I’m hoping the lens itself isn’t damaged but you never know, these things tend to lay dormant until they reveal themselves at a most inconvenient point. Let’s hope that’s not at one of this summer’s wedding jobs….

52 Weeks of Happy (29/52)

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 10:00:30 +0100

It was our last few days of the Easter holidays last week, so we made sure we had a lot of fun. Most of it was homemade, but we had a few trips out in Dennis the campervan to blow away the cobwebs here and there.

As ever, I’m joining in with Jen at Little Birdie and a whole host of other good people to celebrate the simple things that bring us pleasure during each week. It’s a great project and it’s never too late to join in you know!

∆ A stash of reading. I return time and again to The Wonderful Weekend Book and have been planning a few Cool Camping weekends away with these trusty, well-thumbed tomes. And my mum lent me the top two books which I’m very much looking forward to reading.

∆ Jumping Clay. Oh my word, the boys LOVE it. Until last week we didn’t know what it was but they went to a holiday club where they were introduced to the stuff and they haven’t looked back. Small, brightly coloured bouncy people are popping up all over the place now.

∆ Louis had a pal for a sleepover at the weekend and they had a great time. So much so that there was plenty of time for me to actually sit down with a warm cup of coffee and relax with an interiors book for AGES! The three of them played so well together and had such fun. I love it when our home is full of other people’s kids making it their home too.

∆ Said sleepover pal brought water bombs. Much fun ensued in the sunshine on Sunday morning. Xav’s attire did make me chuckle. I wish I could get away with that look…

Have a happy week y’all.