Photography

Travel: A Weekend in Guernsey

Just look at that view. Spectacular, isn’t it? This is Guernsey. The view in Guernsey You’ll see a lot of lanes like this one on the second largest of the Channel Islands, and most of them will lead to a similarly beautiful panorama. This is where I was fortunate enough to spend the weekend, because this is where my brother and sister-in-law live. Thirty-five years ago they holidayed on the island, never intending to make their home there. But my brother stumbled across a job vacancies board, and they’ve been there ever since. This weekend I visited on a rare …

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Where to see Bluebells in Hertfordshire

Photographing in the bluebells at Ringshall

Ringshall, 2008. It’s been years since I updated our photo albums. Since the Bug was born, in fact, and I somehow lost a whole section of time in my day. It was something I always pushed to the bottom of my list, from where it nagged me weekly. For seven years. Last week I finally began the process of sifting through old images on old laptops and even older hard drives; and I found this picture of my daughter, aged 4, in the woods at Ringshall, on the Ashridge estate. It’s not the perfect photo – I don’t do Photoshop, …

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Travel: Food Inspired by our Travels

Crayfish starter #TasteofTravel

  Restaurant in Honfleur, France What’s the best part of a holiday for you? Lounging by the pool with a cocktail? Swimming in a perfect sea, on champagne sand? The spectacular view at the top of a canyon, or the rush of adrenalin as you ski down snow-capped peaks? I’ve been lucky enough to experience all of these, and more, and still have a bucket list I could never hope to complete. But you know what all of those pleasures have in common? Food. Whether it’s a thickly-buttered warm baguette, oozing strawberry jam, after a long hard day on the …

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The bickering ends. Occasionally…

I yelled at my children this summer. I yelled so hard I thought my head would burst, and I made them cry. I was ashamed of myself almost instantly. But the bickering had become incessant. It felt like all I ever said was “Walk away. Just ignore. Move away. Stop.” And I it just continued. I felt invisible. My children just couldn’t seem to help themselves for picking at each other, poking, pointing, grumbling, criticising. But then we took a holiday. And on our return I found these pictures in my camera: Hanging out in the empty fountain at Lisieux, in Northern …

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Expressions: Silly questions your mum will ask about diabetes

Stupid questions your mum will ask about diabetes

The Type 1 diabetes diagnois came just over a week ago. We were diagnosed at the GP, and sent straight to paediatric A&E for training in how to manage it. Of all the questions I expected to hear my mum ask the doctor there, this one never crossed my mind: Will she ever be able to experiment with illegal drugs..? My mum is a worrier. She projects into the future. Whilst I reassured her that I’m only 9, and really not interested in heroin, she thinks about all the things I might want to do as an adult, that she …

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Expressions 20: My brave girl

This is GG, aged 9 and 3 quarters. On Tuesday she was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. This is her 24 hours later, in hospital, having already learned to prick her own fingers for blood sugar testing, and inject herself with insulin. I am proud, and humbled by her bravery. She is the most amazing person I know. This is her 48 hours after diagnosis. She will not let this change her: I will not be sharing posts this week; we have just so much to get to grips with right now, and I need to focus on my family …

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Expressions #19

I knew if I took a break from Expressions for a couple of weeks I’d come back with something worth posting. Of course, it’s not difficult to take beautiful photos when you’re sitting around a pretty French harbour drinking the first Orangina of a family holiday. More on that another day, but this is my favourite shot of the holiday. I rarely get a totally natural shot of the Bug, given as he is to wild grins or teenaged glares when the camera appears. But this is him happy. We left that hat in this café, and he’s been sad …

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A family day out at Kew Gardens

Climbing trees is obligatory at Kew Gardens

Our friends I once had a conversation about family with my mother-in-law. She is a lady who sets great importance in family. To her, family takes precedence over everything. I get it – my own mum (and goodness gracious my Dad!) would have been the same, if I’d let them get a word in edgeways. And yet, I argued with her; I think that as generations have moved forward, as children have flown the nest further afield than they once would, there is a new kind of reliance on friends. Where once, mine and my husband’s mothers would have almost …

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Expressions #18: panic

NB: Expresssions will be taking a break for the next two weeks. I’m finding it hard to keep up with posts as well as spending decent time with the children during the school holiday, so I’m taking some time out. If you’d like to continue with weekly #expressions do please tag me on twitter and I’ll happily read and share. Expressions will be back on 23 August. For now, go ahead and add your links to this week’s post. We took advantage of the good weather to celebrate the Bug’s birthday with a BBQ, inviting his best friend to come …

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#Expressions 17: Erm…

Silly expressions

I don’t really know what to call this. Basically, I haven’t taken many photos this week, and I’ve been struggling to know what my Expressions post should be. Over breakfast this morning I confessed my dilemma, and this is what my family did. I suppose, if nothing else, it serves of proof that you don’t need an immaculate portrait shot to join in with the Expressions linky.  

Expressions #15: Mischievous

Every time I see a picture of this boy I’m struck by what a character he is. Often intensely shy when I’ve met him face-to-face, his personality just sings in the photos I see of him on Annie’s blog. So I was delighted, when I sifted through the pictures I took on our meet-up at Hitchin Lavender, to find that I had one of my own. He and his sister, both trying desperately to escape from their mother’s camera, and mine; he couldn’t quite quell that fizz of mischief that is his very own brand of fun. He’s a total …

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Hitchin Lavender Farm #HDYGG

  By GG… Now, anyone will tell you that we are not gardeners in our family. Daddy occasionally plants a vegetable and then hapazardly sprays the hose in its general direction on random days, wondering why our table is not resplendent with home-grown produce at the end of the season. Mummy limits her gardening activity to spraying the patio with weedkiller, and hacking the shrubs into submission twice a year. No, we do not DO gardening. Unless you count the #warnonants that takes place every Sunday evening, which leaves our lawn looking more like a green dalmation. So we never …

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Expressions #14: Extreme thrills on the Flowrider!

The happiest girl in the world on the Flowrider!

 Thrilled. Just look at that happy face. She’s a thrillseeker, my daughter. She does have a safety gene that kicks in occasionally, but if an instructor tells her what to do and says it will probably be fine, she is first in line to give it a go. I love that about her. Actually Daddy works on the Marketing team at Thorpe Park, and had been considering installing a Flowrider continuous surfing wave at the park, so he booked us all in to check it out. Immediately we arrived, I knew that myself and the Bug would be sitting it out with a …

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Chilling out on Fistral Beach

Surfing on Fistral Beach

I love this photo. I know so many things about it that quite simply aren’t visible to everyone else. That my daughter, who loved pink, and once selected outfits on the basis of how twirly they were, now prefers blue. That blue, especially this periwinkle shade, is so totally her  colour. It’s the colour of her eyes when she was a newborn – indigo eyes, black hair, hard to believe now. You can’t see it in this picture, but this colour brings back the flecks of that baby in her eyes and I remember… Or that this messy hair isn’t …

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Expressions #11: Too much too young?

Happy My children are lucky. Whilst we’re not well-off, we are able to afford occasional extravagances. My children are also blessed with an over-excited Dad, who spent one morning back in October refreshing his screen, determined to secure tickets for One Direction at Wembley stadium. The date rolled around last Sunday, and together with 79,996 girls and their Mums we made our way to Wembley stadium. I was never allowed to go to gigs and concerts when I was young. The Manchester Apollo was a hive of criminal activity and any young girl going within a 5 mile radius was …

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Expressions #10: Lemme take a selfie

Every year since my second child was born, I’ve spent a day with my daughter, just us girls, in London. We do as much as a family as we can, and we love our time together. Beneath the general bickering that goes on between siblings, it’s plain to see how much my son and daughter love each other, but the chores and mini-hurdles of everyday life see me spending much of my time in arbitration, not truly focusing on either one of my children. When the Bug was a newborn, I went to lunch with my girl, more to reassure …

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Expressions #09: Water Fun!

Our Expressions post this week  could just as easily be a caption post. It was the single day of sunshine that we had last weekend. A day for rediscovering the bubble box, and for changing the batteries in this water fan bottle, an over-priced souvenir of our trip to Disney last year. When I came to edit, not only was this the best photo technically, it also made me snort my tea, and so it had to be the one. There is nothing like a day warm enough for the kids to drag out their summer clothes and play with …

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Expressions #08: my football fan

Six months ago he wasn’t happy about football. Year 2 boys suddenly seem to ‘get’ football, picking teams and chasing the ball on a concrete playground, until injuries and arguments see the game banned. Not for long though. Year 2 boys will always find a way. Not so the Bug, who didn’t see the point. Nor could he fathom why his best friends were consumed with the need to play, every breaktime, at the expense of time spent with him. He felt discarded, lonely, on the outside of a game he didn’t understand, or have any inclination to join in …

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Expressions portrait photo #07: Freeze movement

My stubborn boy. He is typical of his age: not given to narcissism for the sake of the camera; he will make a fabulous photo-bomber when he’s old enough to be strategic about his ludicrous facial expressions and goofy grins. But give him a project and he will apply himself. “I want to try and make fairies. Will you help me?” And so he stood, in a shady corner of the garden, blowing dandelion clocks. Imagination held hostage for a few moments as he checked the camera to see if we had caught them. My patient boy. To freeze movement and capture so …

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Expressions portrait photos #06: My brother is annoying…

Siblings bicker, but then, just occasionally, there are moments of harmony

My brother is annoying. He is 6. I’m told that all 6 year olds irritate their siblings, but as far as I can remember, The Bug has been annoying since birth. My Mum would have it that he’s cute, given as he is to bear hug cuddling; she claims he is sensitive, referencing his tendency to literally drag her to me if I suffer an injury; and she is convinced he is kind, citing his inclination to share his teddies if one of us is feeling down. But I know him better than anyone. Hello?! How do you think he …

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