'Mother's Day tulips' by Me

Photo credit: PhotoPuddle on Flickr

A Happy Belated Mother's Day to all you mothers in the UK and in any other place in the world that celebrated Mothering Sunday yesterday. I hope you had a lovely day. I had a really wonderful time and felt very spoiled. My five year old daughter is so sweet. She chose her present for me all by herself. Apparently she had her heart set on getting me a vase to put flowers in. She dragged her daddy round lots of shops on Saturday and fell in love with a glass butterfly vase which she really wanted to get for me. I tried photographing it today but was really not happy with the shots I got so here is a close up of the beautiful tulips that are currently sitting in it.

'Untitled' by Monica Forss

Photo credit: Monica Forss on Flickr

I love this photo. I love this vintage feel of it. I love the sparkle on the water. I love the wet footprints. I love how it makes me think of the summer. I think this weekend is set to be another chilly one but summer can't be far away now. I just hope that this summer will be as lovely as last year's was. I have lots of happy memories (and photographs) of all the fun we had last summer. Sigh... not long now.

Happy weekend all you lovely people.

'Running on empty' by skubmic

Photo credit: skubmic on Flickr

I am sharing another running photo today as it is such a contrast to the last photo I posted. My Brighton parasols picture was all about beautiful blue skies but the beauty in this is in the absence of colour. Even a grey snowy day can make for a wonderful picture. The subject of the photo is interesting too. I do wonder if I would have the motivation to go out running on a day like this as it looks rather cold. And as a running beginner that hill looks rather steep too. I can see myself walking up that.

'blue skies and parasols' by Me

Photo credit: PhotoPuddle on Flickr

Kids don't care about the weather. They just want to get outside and play. Today my daughter's year did a sponsored scoot around the playing field at school. It was raining and the parents all expressed their disappointment at the rubbish weather (and by that I mean we grizzled a bit as we had to stand outside and watch). But our children were all so excited and didn't care about the rain. It was so lovely seeing them all scooting and cycling round the field. My daughter was very proud of the six laps she managed to do in the time. In the end I didn't care about the weather either.

That said I do like a nice sunny day where the skies are a perfect blue. I took this photo when we were in Brighton the other weekend. The weather that day was rather different from today. That's the funny thing about spring, you never know what what weather you are going to get. At the end of March two years ago we had a proper heatwave. I had to rush out and buy emergency sun cream, flip flops and sun hat for my daughter. And rushing anywhere wasn't easy being eight months pregnant! Then last year it snowed in March. Proper snow where the schools were closed and everyone panic bought bread and milk - because you know how the world stops if you can't have milky tea and sandwiches.

Anyway, I love this photo. It looks like it was taken somewhere exotic on holiday but really I was just sitting on a bench by the beach eating fish and chips. I looked up and thought those brollies look nice. Click. Job done!

'running.' by Billy Lam

Photo credit: Billy Lam on Flickr

So it appears I am a runner now. I have gone from being someone who got out of breath at the thought of running for a bus to someone who can run 5km in 33 minutes (that was the second time I had run that far so I was super pleased with that time). I am so surprised by how addictive running is and how it really does give you a natural high. I am also amazed at how much I want to push myself to go faster and further. I am not a particularly competitive person and I can lack motivation but when it comes to running I seem to be completely different. It's early days though. Perhaps the novelty will wear off after I've done the Race for Life but I hope not.

Like the knitting photos here's another opportunity to combine hobbies. I wonder what fabulous running pictures I can find. I was instantly drawn to this one because of the beautiful sunshine. It is such a positive image. I think the angle this was taken at it great too and I really love the little hints of orange on the shoes and on the ground.

'Back in time' by Rose Erkul

Photo credit: Rose Erkul on Flickr

Some how I have managed to find myself out of an evening three times during the past week. Last night hubby and I went out for a friend's 40th birthday celebrations, during the week I met at the pub with my Race for Life team for wine and running talk and last Friday was cocktails and dancing on a girls night. I do love going out but I must admit I have been looking forward to an evening snuggled in front of the telly catching up on all the programmes sitting on my Sky+ box. How is you weekend going? Have you been out partying or just having a relaxing time at home?

I have to show you this photo just because it's one of those moody photos full of atmosphere that I love. There not really a lot going on in this shot but I can't take my eyes of it. Beautiful bokeh too.

Happy weekend folks!

'From the car window' by Me

Photo credit: PhotoPuddle on Flickr

Sadly it appears Flickr is disabling it's convenient sharing through Blogger facility. This means a bit of playing around with my blog is needed so I can carry on doing what I have been doing. Therefore this is a practice post so see what it will look like. I am so disappointed. I hate it when websites mess with the way things are done and take away things just because they don't make enough money. Don't get me started on how I felt when Google Reader was taken away.

Right moan over. I am going to hit publish now and see what happens! This is one of my photos by the way. It was taken this weekend after a lovely day out in Brighton. We were stuck in traffic trying to leave so I just snapped away at buildings through the car window. I love the contrast of the brilliant blue sky against the bright white building. Really lovely architecture too which I hadn't really noticed before.

'untitled' by Chikashi Ito

untitled, a photo by Chikashi Ito on Flickr.

In my last post I posted a picture of a very pretty dress and said I would love to wear outfits like that more often. Today's photograph is just as beautiful - look at that lovely dreamy light - but shows an example of how I actually look much of the time. Jeans and stripes and probably taking a photograph of something.

Happy weekend everyone. Here's hoping it stays full of spring sunshine.

'Untitled' by antesforia

Untitled, a photo by antesforia on Flickr.

I love this photo. It looks like it was taken at the beginning of an exciting adventure. I wonder what images were captured with that camera. I also love this picture as the girl is wearing such a pretty dress. It reminds me of the resolution I make with myself every year. I always say I will wear more skirts and dresses but I always find myself migrating back to my usual style of jeans and t-shirts. I don't really have many skirts but I do have rather a lot of dresses in my wardrobe now. Perhaps this will finally be the year I wear them all regularly and not just on special occasions. After all why can't every day feel like a special day?

'Pretty' by Me

Pretty, a photo by PhotoPuddle on Flickr.

And I'm back. Did you miss me? I have spent the past week feeling poorly with a horrible cold and blogging just came way down the list of priorities. In fact I didn't really have much of a list of priorities other than get daughter to and from school and throw food at children every now and again! I could go on about how rubbish this week was but instead I want to focus on all the wonderful stuff that happened.

Firstly, I felt really loved this week. My husband as always was a wonderful nurse but my children too were great at looking after me. And I have lovely friends who looked out for me too. I never ask for help normally if I am ill, I generally just muddle on through. This time was no different except for the friends who just took it upon themselves to look after me, especially on the day my children have their gymnastics lessons. Without asking me they had worked out the logistics of taking my son in the morning and my daughter in the afternoon to their lessons so I could stay home and rest. It was so nice of them and the hour and a half I got home alone that day was sheer bliss! It's made me realise that it's OK to ask for help. After all I would always help a friend in need.

This week was my daughter's parent's evening and it was went so well. In fact her teacher honestly couldn't think of anything negative to say about her. She is happy, helpful and rather clever it would appear. I am such a proud mummy. Oh and she went up yet another reading level this week too. She is now reading books aimed at children at the end of year two. She's only in reception bless her.

And I am so proud of my son too. He seems to have grown up this week without me looking. I have been feeling guilty for just kind of leaving him too it this week - we've watched a lot of Peppa Pig - but it doesn't appear to have done him any harm. His speech and understanding of things are coming along so well. We've even started to have little conversations in our own mummy/son kind of a way. I can't believe he'll be two in just six weeks.

And something else happened while I wasn't looking too. Spring turned up. What a beautiful weekend it has been. And it doesn't feel like just a nice day in winter it really does feel like proper spring which is so welcome after feeling cold for so long.

Anyway, how are you? How was your weekend? I hope you are well and enjoying the change of season too.

'Star and bubbles' by Dennis Wong

Star and bubbles, a photo by Dennis Wong on Flickr.

I spent most of this weekend feeling hugely emotional, really rough, completely shattered and in pain. But also this weekend I found myself feeling incredibly lucky and happy. My family have been wonderful at looking after me. I only have a cold but it's been a particularly nasty one which has completely floored me. I have been especially impressed by my children who have been total superstars. My daughter has been running around getting things for me and my 22 month old even figured out not to give mummy any hassle.

But most of all this weekend I felt lucky and blessed that I can hold both my children in my arms and hug them tightly. On Saturday I went to the Matilda Mae Remembers memorial service where we remembered all the babies in the sky who were taken from their families far far too soon. It was a heartbreaking day but it felt good to be in the presence of such courageous mothers. It was also wonderful to get the opportunity to publicly remember all those little lives that were tragically cut short.

I also got the opportunity to make some lovely new friends and to spend some time with my dear friend Heather who I don't get to see very often as she refuses to completely uproot her life and move down south!

Anyway, today's photo had to be a tribute to Matilda Mae and I think this one I found is perfect. Pink, purple, stars and bubbles. I hope the wonderful Jennie approves and I hope Matilda Mae looks down from the sky and loves it too.