Flying By

We've reached that time of year again, that time when everything speeds up and becomes frantic as we race towards a deadline. Calendars, and diaries, days and evenings, all are full and claimed. The days by work and housework, the evenings by fun and socialising (rarely), or all-consuming tiredness (usually). It's end of term next Tuesday and my last day at work on Wednesday. Like Christmas, it's a happy and festive time in the school calendar but there is so much to do, to remember to do, in these last few days. It's safe to say we're counting down to the holidays.

This of course is the reason why I've not blogged much lately, and hardly visited any of your blogs, and I'm already looking forward to a few mammoth blogging sessions next week when we break up. My laptop is very slow and takes so long to power up (like, fifteen minutes) and then works so slowly that I almost dread turning it on, and my laptop is what I use to edit photos and blog. And this is when I enjoy using Instagram the most, when I still want to share and chat with my friends and feel connected to my online community, but I don't have any spare time. (You can find me here if you like.) It takes me a couple of hours to write a blog post as I am as slow as my computer, it would seem, especially when I have a lot of photos, but Instagram takes moments. Seconds, even. 

So, in lieu of a proper blog post and any photos from my big camera, here is what I've been doing over the last week:

Angus and tiger enjoying lunch last Sunday in Guildford. He won that tiger at the school fair and he's called Chill Tiger. He reminds me of the tiger from the book The Tiger Who Came to Tea. 

A corner of our bedroom on a dismal, gloomy, wet Monday morning.

Our living room. I was sitting drinking a cup of tea in an after-work slump thinking how much I hate 5pm and all that needs to be done around that time.

Reading with Angus on Tuesday night. It was a really sweet bed time; he used to love (love) this book when he was smaller, pointing and squealing at certain pages. He still likes it now and even thought he's quite capable of reading it himself he likes me to read it to him. And I like to read it to him, and it makes me a bit nostalgic for previous bed time routines and a bit breathless at how fast he's growing up.

Walking to the pub with John on Thursday night for our first night out together in about a year, I think. Something about the heat, the trees and the sky reminded me of holidays spent in the Vendee in France.

A humid, pre-rain sky.

Bedtime faffing in Bella's room on Friday.

In the woods with my nieces on Saturday.

Looking for Mr Fox.

Crocheting teacher gifts in the garden. 

Today, baking more teacher gifts.

Apricot and nut biscotti, very nice.

And finally a quick trip to the beach this afternoon where the sky really was that blue.

Seeing my Instagram photos here so big reminds me that the camera on my phone isn't nearly as good as the DSLR I use for my blog photos, and that I will continue to lug about the big camera because it is worth it.

Have a great week lovelies. 

May and June on Instagram

It's been months since I shared any Instagram images on here. It will never supersede blogging for me, but I enjoy it enormously, especially on those occasions when I don't have my "big" camera with me. People seem to use Instagram for all kinds of reasons - to promote a business, or to showcase their photography - but I like it most when people use it to make friends and share their hobbies and passions, and to capture and share the everyday in an instant way, and that's how I like to use it too.

So here are a few snippets of May:

Row one, feeling blue: 

Sunset. Bowling. The tiled floor in the Natural History Museum. A heart in the clouds.

Row two, spring greens:

Quilt drying on the line. Children in a maze. A gate on the way to school. Sandals and daisies.

Row three, everyday life:

Making jam tarts. A messy kitchen. A good day for washing. A sunny spot.

Row four, looking downwards:

Pancakes for breakfast. Sketching. Cake break. Angus turns five.

And a few from June:

Row one, out and about:

I've been into Leeds three times this month, that's unheard of! Shopping, lunch, theatre, you name it, I've been gallivanting.

Row two, looking downwards:

Map garland. Cake and a new book. Drinks in a friend's garden one evening. The makings of a Victoria sponge.

Row three, heat seeking:

The view from the school playground one hot morning. The kid's playhouse. Garden shadows. Blue skies.

Row four. family life:

Before the theatre. After the theatre. The loom band obsession begins. Father's Day tray.

I'm here if you want to come and find me. I love finding blogging friends on Instagram. Come and say hello! 

*****

Thank you so much for all your recent comments. I feel like I've neglected this space a bit lately. Well, not neglected it, but I don't feel that I'm as "present" as I usually am, if that makes sense. Life is just too hectic at the moment, but it will soon settle down again and I'll have more time to be here, to think, to craft and to visit your blogs too.

September

September. One foot in summer, one in autumn. I like it. 

I always feel that change is coming at this time of year, I just can't shake that back to school, new pencil case feeling of anticipation that arrives around now. It's my New Year. I'm much more inclined to embark on something new in September than I ever am after Christmas. This week has been strange, as though things are shifting and settling around here. We went straight from the glow of post-holiday happiness into cooler weather, washing (so much washing!) and the chores and jobs that accompany the return to school. Name labels were sew on, PE bags completed and packed, lists checked. Bella started Year 2 yesterday and appears to be loving it so far. She described her first day as "quite fun". She took to school easily from day one and enjoys the environment and her friends there. Angus's first day is tomorrow and I'm not sure what to expect. He has been unsettled and grumpy today - I think he is feeling the change as much as we are. He will be one of the younger ones in his class and I can't help feeling that he's too young for school. My baby. I hope he doesn't cry when we drop him off tomorrow morning. I hope I don't cry in front of him.

And things are also odd - but in a nice way - because John is around all the time and I am so used to having the house to myself during the day. So far, I quite like Redundancy John. He mows the lawn, cooks tea and replaces the tile on the kitchen floor that's been chipped for months. He makes tea loaf and washes the car. He is very useful. But job hunting starts with a vengeance tomorrow. We don't have an office in our house and have found that trying to do anything requiring any real concentration on the laptop at the dining room table while the kids are around is impossible. There will be no distractions (or excuses) tomorrow.

The garden is also shifting and changing. The leaves look dry and the colour is slowly leaving petals and leaves. I quite like the garden around now. It's past it's best, but it served us well all through the summer and I am more relaxed with it. No need to bother about weeding much. No need to fret about how well things are growing, as the party is over. In another month I'll be giving it an autumn tidy up. Putting it to bed for the winter. Not just yet though, there is still colour out there and I picked a small posy this afternoon while Angus as I were outside. The weather has been gorgeous today, warm and sunny and breezy. Good laundry weather. Our sunflowers are starting to fade so I will pick the good ones soon then cut back the rest. The raspberries that just appear, every summer, and yield a couple of bowlfuls of fruit at best, are doing really well. I've no idea why they are flourishing but I love going out there and picking a handful then eating them with yogurt on my granola for breakfast. The tomatoes appear to be doing well. People who know about gardening - will they turn much more red or should I pick them soon? We have a few red ones but mostly green. To be honest, I don't mind if they stubbornly refuse to ripen as I love green tomato chutney.

And while I'm feeling retrospective, here a a few of August's Instagrams. My favourite is the yarb-bombed exericise bike I saw outside a really hippy cafe in Angouleme.

Some thoughts on holiday budgets and July in Instagram

I've just spent a very pleasant hour sitting at my mother-in-law's table with a cup of tea catching up on some blog reading. At least four of the posts I read today were all about holidays in France and I enjoyed every one of them. We are going to France soon (two weeks today in fact!) and John asked me this morning if I was looking forward to it. I took so long to answer that I kind of answered his question. I have so much to do between now and then, so much to occupy me and think about, that I can't really see beyond that. We get back the Sunday before term starts so I need to feel organised before our holiday begins. 

And I'm worried about money. I've been told by someone who just returned from France that everything was horribly, ludicrously expensive. Whether this is due to the exchange rate or their expectations I don't know. People who've recently been to France - did you find this to be the case? I'm worried that what we've budgeted for spending money wont be nearly enough but I don't want to penny-pinch all through the holiday either. I am used to (and good at) living on a tight budget at home but on holiday I find it depressing. I want to indulge the kids in ice creams and myself in the odd coffee or glass of beer and pizzas for lunch for all of us without worrying about how overpriced things are or how far the euros will stretch. And I love to browse the shops and bring trinkets and bits and bobs home with me - it makes the holiday feeling stretch further. Am I the only person who worries about such things?

So John and I sat down a wrote a list of all the things that needed to be done before we go and did two of them today (new school shoes for the kids and fix the rear brake light on the car). I feel better. And the posts I read today made me remember how I love France and what a beautiful country it is. And two weeks with my parents, sisters, partners, nieces and nephews...that will be heaven.

We'll find a balance. We'll muddle through, we always do.

Anyway, the reason I originally started this post was to make a pretty mosaic of my July photos on Instagram. My Instagram love increases all the time. I like the quick glance back over a month of photos, they way it just gives you a feel for the rhythm of daily life and the seasons, nothing more. Of course you don't need Instagram for this but since my camera is heavy it's nice just to use my phone sometimes when I'm out and about. I'm also loving the social side if it too, that's a lot of fun.

So above, we have a month of unbelievably good weather, hot and sunny just like summer should be. Nearly all those photos were taken outside. There are lots of blue skies, plenty of lush greens and a few pops of berry-fruit red. July was a month of picking flowers, picking fruit, enjoying time at home and away, road trips, days out, enjoying the garden, mainly just enjoying the sunshine and life in general. 

I hope August is as good.

Instagram - June

One photo a day throughout June on Instagram. Here are twenty five of them:

1. A cottage interior at Beamish.
2. Bella on the beach,
3. Blue skies in the back garden.
4. Dahlias in the pots by the front door.
5. Angus having a cuddle on the sofa after waking from a bad dream.
6. A wildflower posy from the garden.
7. Crocheting my throw.
8. Some Liberty print washi tape.
9. Lilac growing outside the church hall where Bella goes to Rainbows.
10. Crunchy-nut cornflakes for breakfast.
11. Afternoon jigsaws with Angus.
12. Weekend cuddles in bed.
13. Decorating a cake with smarties.
14. More wildflower love.
15. Making lemon curd.
16. Coffee in the garden.
17. Prettifying the mantle.
18. The bright evening sun taken looking out of Bella's bedroom window.
19. The ceiling of our local bookshop.
20. York Minster.
21. Blocking the throw.
22. A pretty fence.
23. Lasagna and red wine on a Friday night.
24. The Yorkshire Dales.
25. Macaroons.

I've been having enormous fun with Instagram lately. I started using it in April and have been taking photos more and more until it became a daily thing. Just one a day, like a little photo journal. It's such a liberating way to take photographs; no need to think about light levels, or focus, or where the lens cap is (usually in the back pocket of my jeans), just a quick click on the phone. I love to play with the filters and effects. I especially like the way it captures the everyday. Lots of what you see above I've blogged about, but it's more of a behind the scenes look at my life. But Instagram is what it is - diverting, fun, easy, effortless, instant. But it's not blogging, which will always be my first love.