The pup’s vaccinations are out of the way and we’re free to rule the world! And after Puppy Club (first rule of Puppy Club – don’t talk about Puppy Club, needless to say there’s a lady with a mop and bucket and a lot of yapping…) and a few school runs we thought we’d venture to Lullingstone to paddle in the river and explore the corn.
Earlier this month V and I went to Roma with one of my most beautiful friends. I’ve known Natalia since we lived together whilst at Bangor University, thrown together in at the deep end of Mexican parties, a quarantined cat and unhealthy obsession with fish (hers, not mine) our friendship blossomed. Natalia taught me to cook, how to travel with a stonking hangover, how to make a rooster sound in Danish (this is a very funny story), how to love (like, okay, drink without vomiting) salty liquorice vodka, and many many other important life skills… So when she suggested a girlie trip to Roma I wasn’t going to say no! Friday came and so did a nasty bout of tonsillitis for La V but the dr kindly prescribed some hardcore antiBs and she gallantly made the journey to Roma.
I will split the posts as the weekend was so so magical, but these are perhaps some of my favourites, maybe, well, actually probably not. But I LOVED the half empty pool, me and water are always a winner. If you have a pool full, empty or like this let me know. I will be back pool, don’t clean yourself up yet 🙂
V took a little persuading, thankfully it hadn’t been empty for too long so only a few pond skaters and big magnolia seeds. How cool is my girl. Love love love her.
Beautiful. Inspiring. Green.
On Good Friday we climbed southern Britain’s highest peak Pen y Fan . This is a totally do-able climb with children over 5… although I did carry Cy for some of the way but that was more to do with me taking pity on his little legs than him actually being unable to go any further. It was such a glorious day and Violet totally threw herself into the experience finding that buzz you get when you achieve something that you didn’t think you’d be able to do. So proud of my little mountain goats. Over the next few days we went on to do two more huge walks and they managed to clock up 15 miles which isn’t bad for 5 and 8…
We have a few special breaks planned this year and Easter in Wales was one of them. There are three posts: Cardiff, Pen y Fan (our mountain climb) and Ty Hedfan where we stayed. This house is just amazing, I felt inspired and sick with jealousy all at the same time. Every detail had been considered, every i dotted, and t crossed.
Our break started with a day/night in Cardiff to break the journey. Can’t say I was wowed by Cardiff but the Welsh Assembly and Wales Millennium Centre were certainly striking (although I’d have preferred the Hadid plans) and Madame Fromage is most definitely worth a visit but do not over order as portions are large!
Every so often you meet someone who you know is very special, meet Beth. I’ve blogged about her before but it was all lost :(. Beth is the kind of woman that restores your faith in human nature. She’s been through a lot, goes through a lot, doesn’t moan or grumble instead she smiles and nurtures her family with all the love and adoration contained within her cells. Yesterday I met her third baby, A, not at home but in hospital as they will both be in for a while longer for various reasons. Being her third child, last child (!?), first girl, first not in SCBU this was a very special shoot for both me and her.
Happy Mother’s Day all your super mums, hope the cuddles are squeezy, the chocolates expensive 😉 and the breakfast in bed not too burnt. x
We love a bit of architecture. Apparently the small one wants to be an ‘artitect’ … his colouring-in skills are almost as good as his dad’s so it’s looking possible. The Sensing Spaces exhibition at the Royal Academy ends on 6th April so if you’re thinking about going I should get a move on because it’s well worth. It is especially worth a visit with the kiddies as it’s hands on and very relaxed unlike some exhibitions which can, even though children can enjoy and engage, feel a little stifled and restrictive. Obviously heading to this exhibition with an architect means that it can get a bit dull so if you have one, leave them at home, ha! Although he did have his uses in the straw room (sure it has a more RIBA appropriate name but to us it’s affectionately known as the straw room) as he made some cool items for the children to fashion and some fancy 3-d shapes. Shamefully I didn’t take the camera, only the iPhone. I always take my camera out but this one day I thought ‘nah, I won’t be able to take photos anyway’ Alas I was wrong! I may head back, perhaps for the secret yoga at the weekend. If anyone (I know!) fancies the yoga pipe up.
Did I like the exhibition… as with all these arty things I often think ‘really?’ but the children loved it, the husband loved it and I enjoyed the family experience.
Wednesday we headed back to the Southbank. The boys saw Captain Flynn and the Pirate Dinosaurs and us girls went to the Hayward Gallery and to Martin Creed’s exhibition What’s the Point of it… V enjoyed it, especially the room filled with balloons. She didn’t enjoy the crumpled paper although agreed that it did get her thinking about what is art.
We also headed to the skate park and spent some time posing around there 🙂
I needed to check out the light and some ideas for up coming shoots so I put her in a dress and asked her to pose, she wasn’t really into it, wouldn’t brush her hair, moaned about the mirror ball… blah blah blah la musette is a typical model ;). Still, I love the result.
I have many obsessions and lots of these are also possessions. Currently I am in love with narwhals, clouds, and Sonny Angels. This means that she is too, he was but has broken the horn off one of the narwhals which means he’s banned from that club. I have a whole wall of cloud photos that I’ve taken on my travels, not nearly enough ‘species’ of clouds though as I need to travel further afield that South East London and maybe even outside of school run hours.
This year we’ll be having lots of adventures and this year will be one of my notable years like the year I went to uni or when I first discovered tweezers (this was a very significant year, I had slugs for eyebrows before this point and I cannot look at photos without cringing & reaching for the salt. I have made a vow to take her to one side with a pink pair of Tweezermans as soon as it’s ‘okay’ although I have no idea when ‘okay’ is. No one tells you those key milestones). So a magnificent year to come and with us already 1/12th of the way in – what has January done to wow me? Rain (but no snow, this is good), I’ve had a haircut (didn’t like it, very sad and on my birthday), a massage (again, birthday treat to make up for dodgy hair), a float (possibly personal highlight of month?), booked two holidays, and a girl dog is in season… so this might be the year we get a hound, names are already decided: Luna (Luna Loo) for a girl Ziggy (Ziggy Pop) for a boy. This may change of course. What else has January thrown at us? An amazing trip to Roma with one of my dearest friends (booked for later this Spring), a wobbly front tooth for the boy and a lot of rain. I’m not mentioning the leaky roof.
things i love