365/192 Shiny

Well I was out and about quite a bit today and there was blue sky and great clouds, I meant to photograph them (for Anne!) but clean forgot when I arrived home.

It was a busy day in office world, but I felt like I had forgotten things all day, not having to juggle two little people and look around my legs for them!

We had a nip to town for some quick tea, broke with tradition and went for sizzling mushrooms.. then a brief walk by the Jubilee Pool, more like a March day than mid July!!
I bemoaned the fact I had missed a nice sky picture but managed this one.. St Michael's Mount across the bay looking kind of 'shiny' in the pocket of sun focussed on it....

365/191 Delicate.

.. this word always makes me think of how my Mum would use it.. to describe someone who was a little vulnerable healthwise, prone to not being well, a little frail..in need of 'looking after'.. probably the kind who wouldn't like cold weather or getting wet and cold..


..and the photos I have taken show just the opposite, our lovely Lyla in all kinds of positions, getting good and grubby, climbing and generally trying her luck (mainly with the cat who is not the most reliable friendly of creatures.. he would eat us if he was better proportioned we reckon)....certainly Lyla is not exhibiting any delicate tendancies and after nursery Lilly played some more  with a new snail harbour!

 ... they have gone home this evening, all fed and watered, bathed and ready for bed. M&D had a great break but sure enough it will soon be a distant memory, but it is so nice to know they could go and not worry..

Mmmm, hello 'Cat'



I love the wet bits of the decking.. I may even taste it!



Sandy messy wet shoes!



Snail Harbour v2







I know I can, I think I can...



365/190 Broken.

.. mostly in our house if it's broken Col will fix it.. so that's good.. not necessarily straight away mind!  

We (well probably I) planned to take the girls on a short train journey today but the weather was half decent and I thought we'd just mess around in the garden.. but in order to do that in some kind of relaxed way poor Col had to make some kind of barrier to 'coralle' the toddler into the decked area... well it was a temporary fix but I actually liked it, so it may stay, or be improved on at some point.. after the list of other jobs is complete.. is it ever?

We have 'broken' the back of the four days with the girls, I think it's gone pretty well, some grumpy moments on my part and some stern looks which have instilled fat bottom lips, but Lilly still says she loves me even though I sometimes shout...and there have been lots more laughs than cries..and I am not allowed to be too soft or I in turn will be told off by Mum when they return home ruined!!

We had some nice sandy play today and Lilly made a harbour for the boats and put some snails in it with some grass (this is a fantasy harbour you know) .. and then the snails came out to play .. my blog will look almost like Anne's at this rate, a veritable nature fest!

Oh and hats off to JB who babysat early on and made Ross a fab fresh fruit sponge for his birthday and then did her first long drive .. to the Eden project to see a concert tonight..xx

365/189 Past its' prime..

.. more on the fishing industry today I'm afraid.. not a soapbox issue for me especially, just seemed like a good photo opportunity as we took the girls over to Mousehole for some fresh air.  It's quite a long day when it begins about 7.30 on a Saturday so it was nice to get out, as much for me and the routine change as for them!   We realised en route that there was a kind of festival weekend so we parked a fair way outside and walked in..pretty much against the flow of people but we only really wanted a browse.

There were some old (maybe restored) luggers in the harbour..I have seen old pictures of the harbour filled with pilchard fishing boats and these were a reminder.  The harbour may have the odd boat where someone makes a living from it, but now it is mostly pleasure boats, certainly the commercial days for the harbour are 'past their prime'

M&D have been having a good break in London and the girls have been great.. Lyla has briefly swapped her 'relevant adult' fixation to me so it's fun when I leave the room.. when I came out of Tesco I found Col chatting to the girls from outside the car, through the window and they were both in fits of laughter.. turns out he had been teaching them how to make a kind of burping sound and then ask 'Who was that!'  Lyla is much noisier and fun than her shy initial persona implies.

I was teasing Col how funny it is that he can play the stern boss to the kids but then he plays a game and suddenly he is the best fun... easy when you have had the morning on mechanical duties outof the house!!  Lilly especially loved when he was pushing her in the pushchair and pretended to be 'losing control' heading for the hedgerows.. 'Mr Safety Man' being unsafe.. kinda made me smile.

Funniest part of the day was me telling Col how I wanted to get a new buggy for the girls as the one they have was a cheaper quick-buy we got one summer 'just in case' and I bemoaned that it didn't have turning castors on it.. well, my oh so clever mechanical man observed that the front wheels 'looked like castors'... 'you sure they aren't just locked?'.. and sure enough they were, he unlocked them and happily he pushed the last mile, all twists and turns and me saying 'bah!!'

Well I have to go make a card pronto as my eldest turns 26 tomorrow and as Lilly says we're having a 'stupendous breakfast / brunch' for him.. croissants and 'juice with bits' xx

365/188 Modern.

Well thanks everyone for your massaging of my empty feelings .. today has been a complete contrast as you can imagine.. school runs, school fete and all that goes with two under four! 

Luckily the babe was asleep at lunchtime when Zac called so we had good chats with him, all is good for him, it's such a busy life on a cruise ship and when he comes home it must feel eerily still!  He has started watches and changed today so by Saturday morning will do three four hour watches in 24 hours.. but as he has to do six months watches in five shipping phases he has to notch them up ... he has learnt how it is to sleep for 20 minutes to grab the moment, but trips to resorts and meeting new people from all over the world certainly make the balance good.

I kind of keep an eye on other people's photos as the day goes on and sometimes I guess I use a little help from other people's ideas.. imagine this morning when I read Anne's blog (she is always such an early bird) .. and saw this.. SNAP!  I probably wouldn't have thought of minebutit is definitely a piece of soomething modern I just liked one day, I like how it is all one piece and flows nicely.. I also like that kind of sandstoone..I think that's what it is...

...as for modern aspects to my day today..... well here's a couple of pictures from my (modern) phone, showing Lilly throwing wet sponges at a teacher and Lyla putting jigsaw pieces in and out of a box..she's at that phase, put it in, take it out.. but Iggle Piggle and the Night Garden crew are definitely modern kids TV aren't they! ... and in my day the last thing we'd get chance to do is soak a teacher..xx

 

365/187 Empty.

Well it's been a funny kind of day. I got busy this morning and this afternoon we had customers visiting so there is always a lot to think about then. By six thirty we were pretty brain dead and we went out to have something to eat, just a nice place close by with Col's Dad. It was nice not to cook but we came home pretty soon and are 'home alone'  The kids are either working or at friends so will all descend on us again in a couple of hours...

I am kind of getting used to the empty house, and at times I really like it but it will be a while before I can make proper use of the time for myself and not feel like I may be on call at any minute!  It's not using the time to 'do something' that bugs me..

It's hard to photograph the lack of children about the place but then I had a great idea... tonight we have an empty bed and an empty travel cot.. but tomorrow.. and the next day.. and the next day.. there will be our gorgeous girls in them!! So I have brought you the toys waiting in empty beds...

... and at this point a big Cornish congratulations for our pals in the USA .. Will and Michele are welcoming their new grand daughter Bayla Faye, a cutie at just over five pounds.. ohhh I love babies soooo much xx

.. and a little empty feeling sometimes this week when I come across a pic of our 'Zac-man', this one in my scrap space where Lyla will be sleeping.... it's about six weeks since he left so we are half way through the trip, we speak every couple of weeks when he has some off time in Sydney and it sounds like he is getting lots of experience and spending plenty of time on boats and stuff.... I think he has had a good amount of rain too so maybe it's going to be September sun for both our birthdays and some R'n'R for the Jones'..xx

365/186 Dangerous.

I wasn't sure what I would photograph today, some of my family and friends grinned when I told them 'my word of the day'.. they know that in the right frame of mind I can be  quite naughty and that is the dangerous they thought of...but it's midweek and I am not on naughty mode just now..

.. had my hair cut today, always nice to go over to Newlyn.. I have loved that place since my Dad used to take fish to market there from the cove when I was a kid. I guess it was like a mysterious place where they had a market, sold fish and gave everyone money.. a bit like the wonderfully evocative 'Covent Garden' where Mum and Dad sent violets in winter for selling on..At Christmas we always went to Newlyn for the Carolaire and the lights turn on (more recently it is Mousehole which takes the attention but Newlyn still boasts some great features at that time of year)

My brother fishes out of there, comes 'home' from France every couple of weeks and does a decent trip. I don't see him a whole pile but when I'm over that way I sometimes get a feeling to go down the quay and have a quick peek for him...

today it was spring high tide, my most favourite state of the tide and his boat was alongside.

There was loads of kit there too but I am so rubbish at remembering which tide they fish (I think it is the neaps) I'm not sure if that is for the next trip or if they are just in.. it looked quite organised so maybe they're off in a day or two.

 And there it was, a small tribute to the work life / place of fishermen now and then...the sea is such a great servant but we all know the risks even in fair weather and whilst we love being close to it and on it, it's sometimes a dangerous place to be..

Ken was at sea from such a young age it must be first nature rather than second to him to be on a boat. I remember Mum telling me that when he was six she had to go into hospital with appendicitis and rather than Dad stay in from sea to look after him before and after school, they took him along, tied a rope around his waist and onto the gunnel so he wouldn't fall in..or if he did they could pull him back quick!!

365/185 Dirt.

mmm, continuing this batch of entries I should almost continue my rant on the state of UK garage facilities but I will take a breathe and hold thumb and forefingers together and hummmmmmm....... mmmmmmmm... (short interlude to post previous two entries and see if I can see light at end of tunnel...)

.. dirt... ummmmm.. ahhh.. Jordan's muddy boots from reading last year...

365/184 Shadow

Monday didn't really offer many opportunities for photographing a shadow.. Col had a customer call in the morning so I hung out at the hotel.. a little dose of Jamie's 30 minute meals, some house makeovers and Loose Women... ahh how the other half live, it's been a while since I saw daytime TV!


We headed southwest and met drizzle and miserable weather, so much so we didn't stop to eat til almost five, the sun came out, but to be honest it would take a major heatwave to make the Little Chef we visited worth trying again.  Who said they had changed? Not this one.. so we left without sitting down and it was a  cheese roll from OnTheRun, which wasn't much better in the facility / tidiness stakes... we were so fed up, the UK we encountered was casting its own shadow over the lovely few days we had experienced in France!


I know that the French people we met said the English are always smiling and the French were miserable, so I think it's not so much about the place or the nationality, it's about being away, being 'en vacance' and generally appreciating a change and noticing the good or bad as it strikes you... ( a loo with loo roll all over the floor and out of order signs you wonder will ever change didn't help the UK cause mind you.. so there's the shadow...


 .. but to cheer me up, here's a nice picture.. sun and shadows on a parrotfish!

365/183 Grumpy

mmm, writing this a couple of days late but did have the word in mind on Sunday and should have a few pictures to illustrate..we had a nice day that day really, 1st July ..we left our lovely Holiday Inn in Lille and headed for Arras where I had read of a monument to the lost men of the Battle of the Somme. Colin is an avid watcher of most things wartime and I also wanted to see one of the cemeteries for myself.

 When we arrived the road was cordoned off as there was a music festival close by, so as we walked up the road, the oldest swingers in Arras, it was about the same time that Kate was queueing for T4 on the Beach at wet (grumpy?) Weston-super-Mare!




..one of twelve or more lstings of names

 

Well the Memorial was huge, listing the names of almost 36,000 men who lost their lives in 1916/7 at Arras.  It looked as if it had been recently cleaned and I wondered how many more cleanings the names would survive as some were fading almost into the stone..Panel after panel of names, so poignant, so similar a feeling to the Vietnam memorial we visited in Washington years ago, every name a son.

 




Detail..

 

..the upkeep of the memorial and the cemetery behind is fantastic and this was a fairly small one I understand.. I have included this written panel as it details the events at Arras and the unbelievable numbers of men lost... the life expectancy of a pilot in 'bloody' April 1917 fell from three weeks to 17 and a half hours..

So... no reason to be grumpy in our 21st century comfort , given a nudge as to the lives lived almost a hundred years ago..

..so we headed north to Calais and our ferry home.  Sadly we had a two hour wait and then a cold ferry with minimal services available (we had to be loaded as freight being a large van and there were no tourist facilities open.. )..

.. the view to Dover wasn't very happy and then the drive to Sevenoaks for a lacklustre hotel doesn't take long to feel a grump coming on.. and when internet costs at £16 a day (vs free in the same brand hotel across the Channel) and I can't get blogging..bah humbug..

... xxx