pinging grass

Blogger won't upload my photos and I'm throwing a tantrum over sending them from Flickr!

My patience with this computer is wearing very thin. I seem to have spent hours on here and all my energy has been sapped into the keyboard. Eurgh. It's because I've been getting the wheels in motion to open an online shop very soon to sell prints and postcards of my photographs! My plan was to start it all off on July 1st but that plan failed miserably when i realised that it was already the last week in June! Ahem. A revised plan has me looking at 2 weeks 'til opening. There'll be champagne and cake...so we're crossing our fingers that i don't lose July like i did June!

My brain was swimming with computer stuff today and so i grabbed the little man, a bucket and spade and off we went. Thankfully i already had the house keys in my pocket..i only thought of them when the front door slammed behind us! We had an idyllic morning on the sands with plenty of bottle filling and pouring fun. I could almost hear the cogs in my brain unwind....having my feet...and legs buried on the beach is a stress buster!

A little more relaxing now with some blog reading before the weekend starts. Hopefully we are destined for endless hours on the beach and the water in the glorious sunshine. We have family coming to visit...the kids will join forces to build castles and fortresses and the men are ready to prove their 'hunter-gatherer' credentials by catching mackerel for tea.

I hope the sun shines where you are.

We'll also be pinging grass. Now that the 3yr old has the knack...it's a family sport!

bench monday. at last.

Do you get those days when you're convinced it's the day after...or the one before? When you plan your day as if you're on a Thursday and its really been Wednesday all along? Well...today..all day has in my head been Monday. I sent #1 son to school with his swimming kit because he swims on a Monday. I sent #2 child to school with her costume for the class assembly because the letter from school said it had to be in on Monday. I did the laundry because Monday is my laundry day. It felt incredibly surreal to be living my day as others were. A Monday. More bizarre...and worryingly so...was that i remembered that it being Monday meant that it was Bench Monday. I have endured weeks and weeks of self deprication because of my failure to photograph and upload a Bench Monday pic. I've either remembered on Tuesday or more likely i've lived my mondays as another day of the week and only when witnessing others photographs have i D'oh 'd myself.

When i told the kids that i'd finally remembered Bench Monday it raised their spirits after a hard day at school...but i was only to disappoint them on the way home when i told them i'd forgotten the camera! The funky modern bench that the kids wanted permission to stand on in the name of Art and Online Camaraderie was left alone. But...never one to turn down the opportunity to teach them something about language and sayings..we talked about Sod's Law and Elephants never forget and Forget me Nots.

When we got home we did a quick change and went down to the beach for some air, space and a bench hunt. Forget bears...at the tops of their voices..my 3 sang "we're going on a bench hunt, and we've got to find it soooon"!

Who'd have thought that taking a photo on a bench could have proved such a family activity! It has captured the kids imaginations to the point that #2 went to bed with a 'BM' notebook to write down where else she knows to find a bench. When I kissed her goodnight she was up to number 9 and four of them were at least 100 miles away...."Yes Mumma, That's incase we're there on a M.O.N.D.A.Y" !

(To strangers walking past I must have looked pretty weird.....after the bench shot the kids ran off to the sand and me..as responsible mother stayed by the bench on my hands and knees because I wanted to get this flower! )

Incase your wondering why there are only 2 pairs of feet in the photo...well 2 of the kids chose their own pose...and the third was...ahem...off taking his own photos. He says he was trying to get a shot of a seagull. I say he was gawping at a group of young teenage girls in bikinis. Ahem!

51 days

Ah. I have neglected this space for a long time. The beach has lured us out in the sun for long days and warm evenings for weeks now and there has been little time for anything other than the essentials such as laundry, sweeping of sand piles and playing with shells. Our #2 cracked her 7 times table with her collection of mussel shells. Ones she had scavenged on the beach and ones saved from al fresco meals when they were served to her in a garlic and white wine sauce! Other than beach life there has been nothing to say or share and at the same time there has been so much i could have told you! The good bits will have to wait until some ends are tied up...but they involve stitched pictures, birds and books! The not-so- good parts have been put away for the time being...helped by a large glass of Cypriot wine and a big bar of Milka chocolate!

A photo from last summer...it reminds me of holding small, sticky, ice pop-ped hands and the daily walk in the surf. The kids have been sea swimming since the beginning of May... but Brrr..i am still only in as far as my knobbly knees...which has given me plenty of camera time on the rocks and in pools but i don't have any new photos to use tonight...even though I have around 900 photos to download. They will take more than just one glass.

I hope this post may break me back in gently. Ahem. See you in August if not!

Good stuff.

Where, oh where has the bright spring weather gone? Do you have it where you are?

Even when I'm outside I want to put the light on! We have ventured outside for the school run but have been spending most of our days indoors over the last week to avoid the lashing rain. To combat the grey weather we have made an effort to look out for yellows and oranges. We've been painting with cheery yellow and hot red...and using the orange paint to reinforce the letter 'e' which the little man has a thing for this week....prompting vocabulary such as emu, egg yolk, empty dump truck and exciting daisies! Playing word association with a 3yr old always makes me laugh....having said that..playing it with my 10yr old son can prove side splitting!

Another thing we've enjoyed has been to chase away the gloomy mornings with extra breakfast table guests. So far this week we've entertained 8 of these delightful characters. I've taken to doodling. Quick scribbles (really quick because the eggs were HOT!) when the kids weren't looking...good stuff. Good yellow stuff.

What good stuff are you enjoying?

Prints.

I mentioned in my last post that I had been emailed about my photos...with thoughts that they would be great printed as postcards/notecards etc. Well...with a deep breath...off i went to a printers and asked about this and that. I'd taken some shots of flowers and seagulls, and some close up shots at the beach. They printed a range of glossy postcards..some matte ones and some notecards. I was pleased but decided that a pub lunch was in order to work out the maths and viabilty of selling them. Well...i have none left to show because I sold them all(!) in the beer garden of the pub!

It has given me another job on my to-do list...but one that looks like it might be fun. So...i'm not sure how i will sell them...on etsy/folksy/a linked page off this blog? but if it's a reason to point cameras at seagulls...then i'm willing to give it a go!

Do you think i'm mad!?