I have to admit, I really love this photo. It signifies the near-arrival of spring to me.
These beautiful crocuses are pushing their way up into the sunlight from a messy & slightly neglected flower bed in our garden, and the colour they bring to the garden that has been slumbering for months is so welcome to me. Last year our new garden delighted us for months on end and I know that these flowers are just the beginning of our amazing floral show.
It’s been a bit of a slow week in our house; Georgie, Lydia & I all had a stomach bug at the start of the week, and Georgie’s lingering cough is keeping everyone awake more than normal at nighttime. I’ve been working a bit, but mostly having to spend my days and evenings entertaining or looking after the girls, who have definitely needed more cuddles, more calpol, and more time than usual this week, thanks to those not-so-lovely winter bugs.
Georgie had three days off pre-school at the start of the week and these photos are from one of those days. My two girls and their softie cat who lets Georgie treat him like a soft toy, just chilling out and relaxing – with bags under their eyes and energy levels hitting rock bottom.
It was really hard just choosing one photo, so here’s a few more for your money!
I love this photo of Lydia running ahead of me in the park; I can just feel her movement, and her joy in being able to run ahead of me. We walk across this park several times a day going to & from Georgie’s pre-school, and my littlest girl has started asking to get down from the pushchair so she can walk across the park on her own two feet.
Lydia loves to run ahead of me, collect huge handfuls of sticks, jump in muddy puddles (we’ve had to wash a pair of her trainers this week after that one), and generally act like any toddler with freedom does! I generally scoop her up when we reach the other side and strap her back into her buggy, so our walks across the park seem to be taking more and more time as she dawdles and plays her way across, in an effort to delay the inevitable, instead of going straight from A to B.
On Friday, while we were experiencing a warmer period of weather, I took the girls down to the local park for some much needed fresh air. Lydia can’t get up on the main climbing frame on her own, but here she is watching her monkey big sister climb to the top.
I love the expression on her face in this photo; finding amusement in her big sister’s antics and enjoying our outing.
This was taken with my Christmas present – a 50-200mm lens for my Samsung NX 1000. I love it!
I haven’t been around much over the last month or two due to everyone being ill, but I thought I would join in with My Sunday Photo again this week and share this photo of Lydia.
Snapped on my iPhone it’s no great artistic joy of a photo, but rather a lovely moment captured for me to remember. We were walking to pick Georgie up from pre-school after going to the shops, and stopped at this play area for the first time for some Lydia & Mummy fun time. Lydia really loved it and despite the cold was beaming from ear to ear as she tried out the different play equipment.
This “train” (truck!) one was her favourite and she loved pretending to steer it as I bounced it about! Since Georgie started pre-school I have been really enjoying having more time just with Lydia and seeing her personality emerge separate to her big sister’s influence. This photo reminds me of the fun times I am getting to have with her while she is so little.
I’m terribly late posting this, because of various things happening in the end of September and first half of October causing blogging to take a backseat for a while.
We took last month’s family photo while we were at Warwick Castle for the Mike the Knight event. I used the timer on my camera for this shot and although it’s not a terribly flattering angle I still really like it as it is a photo of our family, all four of us together, on a fun day out.
I’m finding this photo project is brilliant because it means that I have it in my mind on family outings that I should try to take more family photos.
September was a busy month for us, with Georgie beginning her preschool playgroup, and several fun blogger events. Lydia got into the swing of things as an only child in the mornings, loving the experience of attending stay & play and dance class solo. I hosted my first twitter party and we even got a night out with our friends for a 30th birthday celebration, complete with cocktails and dancing.
The kids have become obsessed with hunting for conkers. There are two “conk-conk” trees nearby, one near our house & the other near to Georgie’s preschool. This has resulted in dozens of conkers finding their way into our house over the past week or two.
We were taking advantage of the nice weather earlier in the week to find some underneath the big tree near home, and a helpful squirrel was knocking down conkers from the tree at our feet. We were lucky that none landed on our heads, really – the kids were loving running after the scattering conkers as they fell out of the sky and bounced along the ground.
Summer is definitely over, despite the last little burst of heat this month… and autumn is officially here!
This spider is living in our kitchen at the moment.
In this house, spiders are welcome, while flies and moths are not. As the spiders help with the fly & moth removal we are quite happy to have them scuttling about!
The markings on this spider are really beautiful and I have been stalking it around the kitchen with my camera, poor thing. I took this shots whilst standing on a kitchen chair, with James holding up my light source for me (helpful man!), and Georgie trying to climb up with me & cuddle my legs. I used my macro filters for these shots.
(click to view bigger)
We were at Warwick Castle yesterday and enjoyed a wander around the gardens whilst embarking on a Dragon Egg Hunt around the grounds. I loved the massive array of flowers that were still out all over the gardens, despite the signs of autumn starting that are all around us.
August seems to have flown by in a flash, with some great highs and quite difficult lows. I haven’t got as much as I hoped done over the Summer holidays, although that’s partly because we’ve been busier than expected, and also because we’ve had some unexpected financial outlays to make that have helped put furniture/houseware purchases and decorating on hold.
Both of the family portraits for August were taken at LolliBop Festival which we visited a few weeks ago (blog post coming soon). It was a really fun family day out and all four of us enjoyed ourselves. It’s lovely that Lydia is old enough now to participate in & enjoy things more, along with her big sister.
The quality of these photos aren’t amazing, as they were taken for us by someone unfamiliar with my camera – and on a windy day at that. But despite their slight fuzziness, and everyone looking in different directions, I love them, as they are photos of all four of us, on a day out together that we all enjoyed.
Besides, it’s not every day that you get to sit on a giant deckchair (even if the resulting photo isn’t actually all that flattering!)…
August started with a day at Alton Towers, and we spent just over a week in Cornwall staying with my parents, followed by the weekend at my Brother’s, with the day at LolliBop. Coming back from our busybusy holidays we were all tired and promptly got a bug for a few days which was pretty annoying. Things got back to normal a bit and I managed to do a bit of blogging and some work, signing off on a few projects and making clients happy. We also spent a day at Chessington as part of the Samsung Galaxy K Zoon campaign I have been taking part in.
The worst thing about August was coming out of a year+ long remission period for the cluster headache disorder that I suffer from. Basically, a week full of awful periods of debilitating pain, unpleasant medication side effects, broken sleep and having to deal with the difficulties of looking after the kids whilst being so unwell. Happily, I was back in remission again in time for the Goodman photography workshop in Birmingham city centre yesterday, which was great fun. I am still feeling the effects of my horrible week with low energy levels and a nasty cold courtesy of my eldest. Anyway, self-pity part over.
The kids really enjoyed August. We had some great days out and saw every member of my immediate family which is no small feat given that we’re all hours away from each other. Georgie and Lydia definitely enjoyed spending time with their Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles & Cousins, and Georgie cried every time we had to go away from them.
I have plenty I want to blog about in more detail and reviews to catch up on, after such a difficult few months for blogging and working I am determined to crack on in September, and work hard to reduce my to-do list and lower my stress levels – but hopefully without overdoing it!
