The Gallery: A hidden Green...

A tiny green oasis...

The Gallery prompt from Tara at Sticky Fingers this week is 'Green'.
This is a photo I took last year from a balcony in, of all places, The Royal Marsden Hospital while I was there with hubby.
Slap bang in the middle of London. On the busy Fulham Rd.
With tall buildings surrounding all four sides, with glass and steel pipes and air conditioning units, sits a calm and quiet oasis.
Who'd have thought there could be something quite as pretty and quite as green as this?

The Gallery: Tomorrow...

"Never put off till tomorrow what you can do today"

In the spring of 2009 I left my 28 year job as a civil servant.

In celebration of shaking off the shackles of a job that by that point had become boring and mundane, and the end of a daily 4-5 hour commute into London I decided we needed a holiday. Not our usual car drive, ferry, chalet or caravan type family trip, but somewhere we'd never been before. 

The kids suggested the States, that didn't really appeal to me.

Ian then suggested Greece. Specifically a Greek Island, Poros, which he'd been to twice, years before, and was one of his favourite places and would love to go back to. But he explained though stunningly beautiful, it was a quiet, relaxed and chilled Island, not a clubbing, touristy type one.

Ah, right, so maybe not the best place to go with 8 (yes, eight, the kids took a friend each) Teens and young adults. I thought they might need more excitement, a place with a bit more of a buzz. Two weeks on an island with only one nightclub could get very boring, very quickly.

I even suggested it sounded like the perfect place for us to go when he retired, just the two of us, without the children. Maybe we should save it as a retirement holiday for him?

You would not believe how happy I am that the children and I decided we'd 'trust' Ians choice (after MUCH googling of course!).

They were happy to be chilled for two weeks and bask in some sunshine and Greek beauty.

We stayed in a beautiful villa overlooking the quay.

Late mornings with breakfast on the terrace. Slow walks & bus rides to beaches for lunch.

Long, long lazy evening meals that started at 8pm and continued till 12pm. Lots of walking, reading, eating and drinking. And yes, the kids did go the the one and only club, all of two times. But they seemed perfectly happy to while away the majority of their evenings spending time with us, wandering round the sea front, stopping for a drink or playing cards on the terrace (the villa had no TV), laughing, talking and watching the coming and goings of the quay, while going through sensible copious amounts of local beer and local brandy.

It was a very special time, for all of us.

I'm so pleased Ian convinced me we should go there as a family and not wait for his retirement, so, so relieved...

...because we really never know what tomorrow will bring, do we?

Slideshow design customized with Smilebox This weeks Gallery prompt from Sticky Fingers is 'Tomorrow'. Pop over and check out all the other entries.

The Gallery: Mother Love...I get it!

This weeks Gallery prompt at Sticky Fingers is 'Mothers Love'. 

That gut wrenching, full to overflowing, heart stopping, exciting, fear inducing, joy filled, awe inspiring emotion. There is nothing like it in the world, nothing.

I love my children with every fibre of my being. Every teeny weeny atom. 

But it wasn't until I had children I finally understood. 

#1 son with Mummy and Daddy...

  "This is how my Mother feels about me and my sisters". 

My beautiful Mum...

 I never realised. Stupid eh?

Me and #1 son...

Mum, I get it now...

The Gallery: Education

The Gallery this week over at Sticky Fingers is Education.

To be honest I didn't have to do a lot of digging for all those embarassing school photos everyone seems to have hidden away. As I don't appear to have any! Not one, anywhere. How did that happen? Maybe my Mum has them? I should check with her. Or maybe I destroyed them all in a fit of Teenage vanity or something? Now that would not surprise me, I was a very stroppy Teen!

Me, aged five or six...

So, I know, I'm sorry, I have used this photo before, but as it's the ONLY school type one I seem to own it's the one you're getting, okay?

The Gallery: Trees & Teens...

When Tara set this weeks Gallery prompt as Trees I wasn't sure I was even going to join in.

But last night, I looked through my photos. Thinking, I'm sure I have trees somewhere? 

Guess what? I do. 

On looking I found a folder of photos I took at Ian's Dad's surprise BBQ last summer, in celebration of his 80th birthday. 

Ian arranged all the food and the hire of a huge BBQ. His Mum, secretly, contacted old work collegues and friends. All the family had dishes to take with them. His Dad had been 'sent' out all morning, working with friends clearing some local woods, to make sure it stayed a surprise. 

The whole afternoon was a wonderful, family gathering. 

As you can see from the photos, my 19 and 20 year old sons and 15 year old step-son, enjoyed sharing 2 pieces of rope and a plank of wood tied to a high branch on an extremely tall tree...

Such a simple pleasure, but it kept them entertained for hours. Seriously. 

Until they decided they may have had a little too much scrumpy to continue swinging (the 19 and 20 yo's, not the 15!) so they retired to the more sedate garden benches/chairs to continue their scrumpy consumption and left the swing to our 2 younger nieces.

 See, no matter what age, the 'pull' of a swing on a tree is irresistable...
(unless combined with scrumpy)

The Gallery: Togetherness a Generation apart...

It's Wednesday, it's photos.....it's The Gallery!!
This week Tara at Sticky Fingers has given us what I think is an easy, peasy one. 

Togetherness.


These two photos are taken a generation apart.
The first is of me with my younger sister, I was about 7. There are six years between us and although this photo was taken 41 years ago, I can still remember the feeling of excitement I had about there being this little person that I could play with, any time, who somehow 'belonged' to me. Someone I could be there for, look out for and share with.

Sisters...

The second photo is of my now 23 year old and 20 year old sons, aged 6 and 3. 
In 'their' tunnel. They loved this tunnel. They ate their lunch in this tunnel. They built intricate lego constructions together in there.  They even watched TV together in there, with just their little faces poking out. 

It was their little 'Together' place...

Brothers...

Also, while looking at these photos, I realised the resemblance between myself and my eldest son is quite uncanny. Don't you think?

The Gallery - 24 Hours

This week the prompt from Tara at Sticky Fingers is '24 Hours'

Unfortunately you're probably going to find my 24 hours mind numbingly boring. All I seem to do at the moment is paperwork and clearing stuff (we seem to have accumulated a lot of stuff over ten years) on top of the usual shopping, cleaning and cooking.

But Tara wants twenty four hours so that's what she shall get. But don't complain when your head hits the desk as you yawn and fall asleep.

Wow! Only half full, so where's the rest of it then??

A now empty space under the loft stairs...Ready for a cupboard to be built.

Which is where I found all of this...3 flat screen monitors THREE?

....and everything you can see here too! How the hell did that all fit under there??

Er..How come this stuff is on TOP of the Dishwasher?

Finally, some clean clothes

An almost empty spare bedroom.

...and soon to be Office

Now for my tea and biscuits!

Are you still awake? Hello? Well, I did warn you.
Pop over and see all the other entries in this weeks Gallery, trust me, they're bound to be far more interesting than mine.

The Gallery - Children; A Debating 'tag' Team

I have four children. I have four very individual children who over the years have given me reason to scream, cry, rant, rave, laugh, hug, giggle, whoop with delight and burst with pride. 

Having four, quite close in age (17, 19, 20 & 23), has of course resulted in a fair few moments of extreme high drama over the years. When they were younger the dramas tended to revolve around who had what toy, who was playing with it first and who got Mummy's attention. Straightforward, childlike arguments which I could deal with in a simple, no nonsense way.

As they've gotten older it has become much more complex. More to do with who said what to whom and quite often the way in which things have been said. Having four highly articulate young adults in the house I often feel more like the Head of a debating 'tag' team than their Mother. 
I don't have a naughty step or a time out option anymore. Although I will secretly admit to occasional bouts of nostalgia for those simpler times, just to make it easier.

Having said that, here are the good parts, just in case you thought there weren't any. 
 

Because what has emerged is their ability to discuss. To listen and to be heard. To make themselves understood over the maelstrom of many voices. To hold a thought until the right moment. They understand about respecting other's views even if they disagree with them (often!)  Their right to hold an opinion and for others to hold a different one (also often!). A realisation that through discussion, even if heated, and believe me, many a time I have left the room just to bang my head in frustration, most situations can be resolved. Either that or they just take the piss out of each other...and agree to disagree!


I sometimes look on in amazement. 


They also have the most incredible ability to forgive each other. They don't hold grudges. Ever. Probably an unrealistic view of the world, and the people in it, but I love that about them. Within hours of arguments they will be talking with each other as though nothing had happened. I know they will always have each other to turn to and that makes me very happy...

This is a photo of a photo, having been taken on my old film SLR, so apologies for the quality. But I had to use this one as it's one of my favourite pictures of them together.
This post and photo are for this weeks theme of Children on The Gallery over at Sticky Fingers. 
Get clicky on the links and have a look, there are some truly wonderful pictures and posts.

The Gallery - Mother Nature: A Gentle Wonder

This weeks Gallery prompt from Tara at Sticky Fingers is Mother Nature.

And I have the most wonderful example right on my doorstep. 

Something, which at first sight can appear so serene, calm and gentle, yet hidden beneath the beauty, something which is capable of unleashing a power so ferocious and wild it can take your breath away. 

A truly glorious force of nature which never fails to amaze and fascinate me...

The Gallery - A lovely pair...

The Gallery prompt this week is 'Body Parts'. Make sure you pop over to Sticky Fingers and have a look at all the other entries as I have a feeling Tara may well have opened up a whole can of worms, I'm sure this weeks crop of photos is going to make VERY interesting viewing!

Sorry to disappoint if you were expecting a photo of my overly abundant DD boobs, but I am not going to stick them on here, I'm so not brave enough for that. So you'll have to make do with a different 'pair' of body parts. 

My knees. In Greece, on a gloriously lazy, sunny afternoon, having a little relax on the beach...

Obviously the rest of me was also present, y'know, my knees weren't there on their own or anything, that would just be weird...

The Gallery - Love

What a wonderful Gallery theme from Tara at Sticky Fingers to end the year on. Make sure you pop over and check out all the entries, and I'm sure tissues will be needed!



LOVE...



There are so many different types of love, so many combinations of relationship. 
But no matter what the relationship is, when it comes down to it, it's just about the 'giving' and 'receiving' of love. A feeling of 'loving' and/or 'being loved'.


We're 'given' love as children. And in response our love for our parent grows. My love for my Mother is deep, respectful and full of gratitude for having such a loving and giving person in my life. 

For my children it is unconditional and unending. I loved them the instant they were born. Instinctively I would fight, with my last breath to protect my children, even though all of them now tower over me! They have made me laugh and cry, probably in equal measure. They have made me angry and proud. From helpless tiny babies, I've had the pleasure of loving, helping and guiding them to being the four 'grown up' loving, generous, gloriously unique individuals they now are. The love I have for them both soothes my soul and terrifies me. 

Never ending love...

The love my Husband 'gave' me, all the wonderful memories we made and all the love and laughter we shared, is stored safely in my heart. It lives with me and warms me, day to day. His love gives me strength. A strength I now understand I have, for those times when I'm sad or feeling just a little, and sometimes a lot, lost. 

Obviously a photo NOT taken by me, as I'm in it. But this is LOVE...

Don't you think, Love, in all it's countless forms, is a many splendid thing?

The Gallery - White Whites

The Gallery theme this week at Sticky Fingers is 'White'. Make sure you pop over and check out all the snow photos! There are some absolute stunners.

I decided, purposely, not to use snow photos, because everyone else will have done it so much better than me, oh and the small fact that I actually didn't step outside the house for the day & a half we had snow!

These two photos are sort of loosely connected, in the sense that they are both to do with the Catering.

The first one I took at a wedding I attended in August. I love the perspective through the glasses and the light & shadows reflected on the white table cloth.

The second one is of my Teenage Daughters Chef Whites. Yes, she gets to dress up like a real proper Chef! How cool is that??! Must admit though, the damn things are bloody murder to keep 'white'.

What madman deemed 'White' as the colour for teenagers to wear while practicising cooking hot, greasy food, eh?

The Gallery - Celebration

The Gallery theme this week at Sticky Fingers is 'Celebration'.

And you'd be mistaken if you think I haven't had much to celebrate this year.

I got married on 22nd Sept, and I wrote a post about it then. If you want to read it, you can do, here.

But what I want to post today is a celebration of life.
Actually, one specific celebration of life. 

A celebration of one persons life. 

Ian, my husband. 

I wrote a difficult post about his death, on 22nd Oct, so I'm not writing about that today.

As soon as Tara announced this weeks theme, I knew exactly which photo/s I would use...I mean, it was already written on the order of service.

I cheated a little this week. I've used quite a few photos. Also as they were all enlarged and printed out, I've had to take photos of the 'photos'...

Below are some of the photos we used for our Celebration of his life.

 

And my very own personal favourite...Ian's Daniel Craig 'James Bond' impression, way before Daniel Craig was James Bond!

The day was a true 'Celebration' of everything we all knew and loved about Ian.

I also want to add here, our friend Kevin's Eulogy. I take no credit for this wonderful piece of writing, which is probably the best I've ever read or heard, and so very, very Ian...he would've approved, we finished with a laugh. Thanks Kev!

"Right, you bastard.........

Ian Jeffery- Father, Husband, Spy, Surfer, Skateboarder, Sailor, Monty Python fan and all round good egg is no more. He has ceased to be, is bereft of life, has shuffled off this mortal coil. He rests in peace, has kicked the bucket, hopped the twig, bit the dust, snuffed it, breathed his last and gone to meet the great god of surf in the sky. Which,if that's Pedro, will result in some sort of competition to decide who is the biggest wave monster.

And I guess we're all thinking how sad it is that a man of such talent, such capability for kindness, such 'joie de vivre', should have been spirited away at so young an age, way before he'd had enough fun.....

To which I say 'Bollocks'. And the reason I say this is that small insistent voice in my head that kept telling me, as I tried to rip this eulogy off of John Cleese, Toad you've always been an irreverent, slightly sick, bastard – if you go soppy on me now, I'll come back and haunt you.

So, Ian, you weren't my oldest or my best friend-but it seems fitting that having conducted your wedding only weeks ago that I should now say a few words here. You were someone who, if involved mates, alcohol, music, maybe a little smoke, and was outside, could be guaranteed to show up and contribute in some way to the fun that was to be had.

Firstly, lets put this 'spy' thing to rest. No matter how much you protested that you were 'just a civil servant'-we know it was much more than that. This was confirmed when you'd asked Rhino to for a reference. 'Yes, of course' he replied. After a wait of six months-whilst Rhino got a thorough vetting as to his suitability to be  a referee- Colonel Ponsoby-Scratchtwat of Military Intelligence turned up at Tim's and subjected him to a 3 hour interview. After which you ended up with no choice but to be known to our kids as 'Ian the Spy'. In fact take a look at the pictures in the pub afterwards and you'll see where Uber-spy Daniel Craig AKA James Bond got his inspiration from. So, like it or not, we don't believe you. I understand that Her Majesty the Queen still owes you a medal, but you still owe Tim a fiver so I guess that's quits.

Secondly, let's talk about your love of gadgets and trying to fix stuff, which may explain your otherwise inexplicable love of dodgy Italian cars, knowing that things would, inevitably, drop off of them. It always seems to me that whenever I saw you on Queens Park Road you'd be surrounded by bits of Alfa-Romeo.

Who can forget the famous skateboard/windsurf experiment? Not the first man to think of it perhaps, but certainly the first to build one, and subsequently being thrown off the sea front for nearly wiping out so many pensioners. Or how about having 'fixed' the catamaran and subsequently having to be rescued after trying to wipe out Palace Pier?

Thirdly lets talk about love: the love you had for your children, the love you had for your wife, the love you had for your friends and the love you had for life.

Rab Burns summed it up:

“An honest man here lies at rest,

A friend to all, a friend of truth,

A friend of age, a guide to youth.

Few hearts like his, with virtue warmed.

Few heads with knowledge so informed.

If there's another world he lives in bliss

If there's none, he made the best of this”

Cheers Mate....."

And as the quote on the front of Ian's Order of Service says...

'What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others...'

  - Pericles -

The Gallery - A photo I'm proud of. 'Touchy feely Wood'

This photo is for The gallery at Sticky Fingers. Make sure you go over and check out all the other brilliant entries, there are some stunning photos!


The prompt this week is 'A photo I am proud of'                        

 

 


It's of a piece of wood from our fish tank! It was left out in the garden to dry out after being scrubbed and cleaned of all that lovely fish gunk. But before it went back in to the tank I took a few shots of it.

I think it's a thing of  beauty, a stunning piece of wood, with all its gnarly whorls and knots, and stripey, grainy texture. The fact that it's soft and smooth, I assume because it's been in the water for so long, adds to it's interest. It makes me want to touch and stroke it!

Please use the click to enlarge as the detail is amazing...

I'm really, really pleased I managed to capture all that in the photo.

The Gallery - Nature - My cute little furry visitor

The prompt this week on The Gallery at Sticky Fingers is Nature...and I understand the lovely people at Green & Blacks are giving away a hamper of their scrummy goodies to me the winner, so there are judges and everything...

I have thousands of photos which would fit the prompt, but I wanted to take a 'new' photo instead of trawling through all my folders.

I wandered round the garden hoping for inspiration, as it's full of overgrown, should really be cut back raspberry plants at the moment, but it's still giving us loads of berries so that will just have to wait.

As I was taking the photo above, my TD called out to me 'Mum, look at this on the dresser door'

And just look at this, it's so cute, don't you think?

I know it's not as pretty as a butterfly, but it's still very sweet. 

 
And who knew moths wore little furry hats, I mean seriously, in this weather? Don't they get a little warm?

I'm pretty certain he was looking at me at this point...can you see his eyes? (I'm sure they do have eyes, don't they?)

Personally I think he sat on that glass to show me me just how dirty the glass is, as I was taking photos I was thinking 'Aaargh! NOoo! there are fingerprints everywhere, and I'm taking photos of them! Don't people know how to use handles!'

And what a very clever little moth to colour co-ordinate with the wood on the dresser, he matched perfectly! 

By this time I was certain it (he/she?) was posing for me,  as I gently swung open the dresser door to get a shot of the other side, it stayed perfectly still, and I swear it's *waving* at me.

But it's now gone, and is probably doing the usual headbutting of a light bulb elsewhere.

 

Isn't nature a wonderful thing?

The Gallery - A novel Idea..

This photo is for this weeks Gallery theme of 'A novel Idea' over at Sticky Fingers .  A photo to represent a favourite book.

The photo is of my 20yo son's tattoo, based on a drawing by the artist/illustrator Dan Mumford, who creates some wonderful art work.

This is the reverse of the premise for the book I've chosen. My son will mature, grow in experiences, learn from them and this growth and these experiences will all be reflected in his appearance.
Unlike his tattoo, which will remain, more or less, ageless.

One of my all time favourite books is The picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde.

The novel starts with Lord Henry Wotton watching the artist Basil Hallward painting a portrait of a beautiful, young man named Dorian Gray. Dorian arrives to sit for the artist, and Lord Henry tells him 'youth is the only thing worth having' and that Dorian will soon age and lose his beauty. 

'Enthralled by his own exquisite portrait, Dorian Gray exchanges his soul for eternal youth and beauty. Influenced by his friend Lord Henry Wotton, he is drawn into a corrupt double life; indulging his desires in secret while remaining a gentleman in the eyes of polite society. Only his portrait bears the traces of his decadence. '

When our children are born, they are innocents, they have no idea of how to perceive things. They're naive to their surrounding, dependant on those around to show the way. We teach our values, our morals. We try to set them right if they go wrong, bolstering confidence in achievements and hopefully enabling them to become free thinking and independant adults, who value people for who they.

The job is made so much harder for parents, in the image driven society of today, where it's seen as perfectly acceptable, for some, to 'sell your soul' for 15 mins of celebrity/fame.

And where 'youth and beauty' is often seen as the only currency of any value.

Although this book was written by Wilde in 1890, the morals and values within the story are timeless, so still extremely relevant today. It's a story about sin and vanity and friendships that fall by the wayside, of life and death and corruption. 
The message is that beauty lies within. That change is inevitable and we should accept and embrace it in all spheres of life.

Sound familiar?

The Gallery - Still Life; Olives? Love 'em or hate 'em...

The theme for The Gallery at Sticky Fingers this week is 'Still Life'. 

I like this one.

This is a series of photos taken one lazy Sunday lunch time. When my children were either with their Dad or out and about (I can't remember which) and on a whim we popped to a local organic Deli that sells lunches and is so close it may as well be next door, so no effort involved!

The subject in most of the photos is olives.

Now olives are one of those things a bit like marmite, you either love 'em or hate 'em. 

My OH loves them, I hate them. Which is perfect, he gets to eat all mine too!

So tell me, are you a lover or a hater??