Ah-ha! I bet you were expecting something with hearts and flowers since it’s Valentine’s Day, sadly not. Yesterday we visited SEA LIFE Manchester and had a whale of a time (pun intended). You can read all about our aquatic adventures here, but for now I’ll leave you with this picture of the boy, tackling a tunnel and finding Nemo.
It’s been a wet and windy few days and we were dying to get out of the house and get some fresh air. On Saturday afternoon I’d had enough and bundled me and the boy up and headed off to our local and usually very popular park. We had it almost to ourselves which was great fun. We walked around splashing in all the big puddles and seeing how deep they were. He was wearing his beloved bright yellow RNLI wellies too.
By the time we got home we’d hadve an hour and a half of fresh air and exercise. I kicked my walking boots off as soon as I got in the door, he was struggling to pull his wellies off, but when he did I realised there was about half a pint of water in each welly. Too much splashing! Hot baths and hot chocolate all round, we’d enjoyed being the only people in the park for a change.
Although I’ve already written a blog post about my boy starting to learn to read, when I looked back over the photos I’d taken this week, this is the one I liked the best. It marks such a milestone in his development and will forever be a nice memory for us all.
So this is our son with his first reading book from school, as proud as punch to be reading with his Daddy.
Has spring sprung? The daffodils have been tricked by Mother Nature and some have had their showy yellow heads out since before Christmas, the topsy-turvy weather has made for a confusing time for spring bulbs.
This weekend we went for a long walk in the park and whilst the skies were blue and the sun was shining, there was a distinct nip in the air. I spied the tiniest of snowdrops, traditionally the first sign for me of a little bit of hope that winter is turning into spring, but they were competing with crocus, daffodils and primroses. If you look carefully around the park the beds are littered with tiny colourful buds of hope.
Hope has perhaps sprung too early this year, but aren’t we all guilty of a bit of misplaced hope sometimes. I can’t help but feel that we’re in for an unusual year weather-wise. Maybe an unusual year full stop, who knows.
This weeks photo is a little teaser. We are very excited to be working with Nestle Cereals for Breakfast Week, but I’m not actually allowed to say anything about what we’ve been doing until it is actually Breakfast Week (24th – 30th January). Suffice to say it’s been a very exciting weekend here and we have so much news to share with you…. just not quite yet. Sorry!
This is the best picture I could find which doesn’t give too much away (I hope).
Family. There’s not much more important to me than that. The small boy is now old enough and interested enough to have recently started asking questions about where he’s come from and who he is. These pictures are the best reminders I have of the two awesome matriarchs I am descended from and the brave soldier and kind heart who was the Grandfather I never knew.
I have a shelf full of these pictures, posed studio photographs from the 1940’s, snapshots from the 1980’s and printed off digital photographs from a week ago. A shelf of memories, a reminder that my family are made of stern stuff and when pushed, that I am too.
Fall down seven times, stand up eight.
As I sit and write this it’s Boxing Day. I have a fridge full of leftovers and a camera roll on my iPad filled with great pictures of my family sat around the dinner table enjoying their Christmas dinner. I have a few snaps of me, my dad and my brother sat making balloon animals, just like we used to when we were children. Pictures of my son opening his presents, photos of him bouncing on the bed with joy on Chrostmas Eve and pictures of him discovering floury footprints by the fireplace in Christmas morning. A camera roll full of memories sat on a virtual cloud somewhere.
But the picture I’ve chosen it probably one of my favourites, taken at the Christingle service at church, attended by lots of his school friends; carols were sung, Merry Chistmasses wished and I shed a little tear. December has been a long hard slog, but we got there, we made all the way to Christmas unscathed and excited for the days ahead. Christingle always marks the start of our Christmas and we went home and our family celebrations began.
Merry Christmas everyone, hope you’ve had a good one x
This picture represents quite a special memory for me. The small boy being five now was desperate to get a Christmas tree AND decorate it AND put a star on top. So, uncharacteristically bowing to pressure we bought a tree and put it up much earlier than we would have done under normal circumstances.
For me this is a lovely memory. It’s the first tree me and he have decorated together. We spent time making some nice decorations to go on the tree, and we talked about some of the baubles and trinkets we were hanging which came from my childhood and his dad’s childhood trees. For us this is a Christmas tree hanging with memories, some very old, some very new, but all of them precious, to us at least.
Merry Christmas, and thanks for visiting my blog, I do appreciate it. Love and luck for 2016 x
My Sunday Photo this week is one of my son telling me about the bauble he’d painted.
This Saturday afternoon it was raining cats and dogs, so we cancelled our outdoor plans and spent an hour or two doing some Christmas crafts. We each painted a bauble; mine was plain red with gold spots on, and his was multi-coloured. He was keen to tell me that he’s painted the world and pointed out which bits were the sea, America and Didsbury – the part of Manchester where we live.
We’ve actually done quite a lot this week, he’s been a donkey in his school nativity, he’s had a big birthday party (50 kids!), we’ve been to the theatre, visited a farm to buy our Christmas tree, but probably my favourite bit was quietly painting a bauble with him. Simple things eh…
If you can’t guess from the giant Zippy Santa, this is Manchester Christmas Markets. Santa sits on the Town Hall and oversees the goings on at the market, which when I visited mainly involved mulled wine and a very very good plate of pie and mash.
I love the Christmas Market, I go every year with my best friend Bob who is also a freelance copywriter, it’s our annual “works Christmas do” and something I look forward to for months.
This was taken with my Nokia Lumia phone, a quick snap in between mulled wines, but it turned out pretty well. I like the way the bright lights are captured.