A Taste of Summer

When we visited South Africa in March it was at the end of their glorious summer, and for our kids, cooped up indoors with the miserable British winter, it was heaven. We visited our old favourite coffee shop, Deer Park Cafe, which is located on the same grounds as a children's play park. It was scorching hot, the sprinkler was going (perhaps not the best time of day to be watering!) and once Liam discovered how cool and WET it was, there was no keeping him out of it. Even his ladylike sister decided it was too hot to resist, and soon all the kids were running through the mist.




They also had these cool ride on toys made from old car tires!

Freckles

Summer is really trying to establish itself here in England. We woke to a drizzly sky, but by 11am it had cleared to blue skies so the kids and I decided to go for a bike ride through the woods and picnic on the common. We had a fantastic time, even when we got completely waterlogged on the very soggy common. Luckily I had packed a waterproof picnic rug! I even packed my camera, and tried very hard to capture my son's wonderful new freckles that are appearing on his nose and cheeks! I am so in love with them, it reminds me of my summer holidays growing up, I always ended up with that healthy outdoorsy kid spattering of freckles. Probably a sign that I should put sunblock on his nose, but they look cute. At least he sat still long enough for me to get a couple of sharp shots - I won't tell you how many blurry duds there were! We even found a rather cool looking caterpillar, a rather fitting end to a lovely day.
Needless to say, 10 minutes after hosing our bikes down and hanging a load of washing out, the skies clouded over and it poured all afternoon!

Silent visitors?

I love these little counters you get, mine are set to only record unique hits. That means it only counts visits from different computers, so if you visit my blog frequently it will only count you once. So, I can see that I've had 52 visits, but no comments. :-( I love comments!
I just wonder how people find blogs. Have you ever clicked on the 'next blog' link up at the top? I did, and found some really cool blogs. Someone I know came across a very dodgy blog and vowed never to click on the link again.
Anyway, here's a shot of my little guy, blowing a wishing flower. I wish I got more comments!

English Country Gardens

I love this time of year in England, the flowers are out in all their delicate and colourful glory.
We visited my in-laws down on the coast yesterday, and spent a glorious day eating, chatting, taking the kids to the beach for a bit, and catching up.
My MIL has a beautiful garden, she has tended it year after year and started it from scratch. It is a joy walking through her garden with her, and hear each plants' story, how they've come up by themselves, or how she collected seeds and sowed them, and how excited she is when new plants sprout, and buds appear.
Here are a couple from her garden, and the last one is a bag of plants I got to bring home for my garden!

Blog Stalking

Isn't it scary how quickly we can become absorbed by the World Wide Web, how one site links us to another, how one story sucks us in and makes us a part of it? I discovered blogging through TwoPeas, my favourite online forum for photographers/moms/friends.

On my photography blog I have links to some of the blogs of fellow Peas I visit frequently. I thought it would be nice to start a personal blog where I can link any blog I come across that I find interesting, for one reason or another.

Through the forum on TwoPeas, I came across two of the most heartbreaking blogs. The first, called Matt, Liz and Madeline grabbed me within seconds and had me going back to the first entry so that I could read chronologically what happened after Matt's beautiful and gentle wife Liz, passed away a day after giving birth to their baby girl, Madeline. His writing style is poetic, his sense of humour poignant and real, and his photography and eye for detail inspiring. I find myself checking in a few times a day, waiting for his next entry. Being about 8 hours ahead on the time line, I'm usually in for a lengthy wait!

It's weird to think that his life is happening in real time, it's not a story that happened years ago to a stranger which I happen to find in some old bookstore. It's real, it's now, and I like to think if I lived next door to them, we'd even be friends.

The second blog is this one. It's not immediately apparent what happened. It took some reading through the archives to find out what did happen. But when I found out, it touched me to my core. Sheye's third child, and longed for first daughter, Ava, died after being stuck in a car for less than an hour. Sheye's story ripped through me and clutched at my heart, and makes me look at my own two children with new eyes every day.

I can't begin to imagine the strength it must take these two people to get up everyday, and be there for their children, while inside they must be all broken up and hurting like hell.

Waiting Waiting Waiting

So, I wanted to start a personal blog, and I was trying out Wordpress, but I'm hopelessy confused by it so it's back to Blogger! Anyway, so the following bit was originally posted on Wednesday morning, the 21 May 2008.

I rushed home this morning after the school run, eagerly awaiting the delivery of our last few boxes from Cape Town.

It is nearly midday now and they’re still not here.

So, I’m bored, frustrated, annoyed and anxious. And speak of the devil, they’ve just rung. Before 2:30pm. That doesn’t sound like “Wednesday Morning”, now does it?

Anyway, so on a happier note, I thought I’d share a picture of my love birds. We recently went back to Cape Town for our dear friends’ wedding celebration. Now Jo is a magpie of note, loving all things sparkly, pretty and birdy, so it came as no surprise to find the wedding theme designed around pretty garden birds.

The invitation featured an original art print by Jo and Alexis, and while having lunch in Kalk Bay, Jo and I discovered these delicate little porcelain birds. I was worried at first about getting them safely home to England, and then displaying them safely once here (with my little terrorist!)

Well, I love how they look on our new floating shelf, which very nearly killed Tristan putting it up, but that’s a whole different story!