Family mini-adventure - The Gower

Today we took a family mini-adventure to Rhossili, on the South-western tip of the Gower peninsula in South Wales.  This peninsula sticks out below Swansea and Rhossili Bay faces west towards the Pembrokeshire coast.  To the South across the Bristol Channel is Ilfracombe in North Devon, though that was lost in the haze today.

We started with a sausage bap from The Causeway cafe.  The staff were great and it's dog friendly too so Blossom was well catered for. 

Once we'd filled our stomachs we headed down the path to the beach.  It's a long expanse.  I think when the tide is in it's mostly covered, but we had a good two or three hours before high-tide so we strolled along, picking up shells and playing with the dog in the fresh air.  We were curious about a timber ship skeleton not far from where we got onto the beach - I've now discovered it's the Helvetia, and was wrecked all the way back in 1887!

  

We didn't go all the way to the end of the beach, though we'd gone a good distance, and headed up and into the dunes near Hillend caravan park.  We played in the dunes, sliding and climbing (and eating chocolate) as we headed back South along the coast path.

Back at the car-park we made use of our Tiffin set and sat for a picnic of hot chilli, warm home-made chapatis and flasks of hot coffee and hot chocolate.  Mmmm.  

We're resolved to stop being so busy and to take many more mini-adventures of this sort this year.

Family photos - how to take them and how to keep them

I feel a bit of a fraud writing this post, because in all honesty I'm not a great photographer.  It's one of those things that I'd really like to be better at.  I do, however, love to take pictures of my little ones, and I really need to get more of them too.  Two key things hold up my photography - light and a dog.  My current home has quite small windows for the size of room, so it's difficult to get good light for photos, which is why so many of the ones that I do take are outdoors... but when I'm outside, I often have two children and a dog and all the related paraphernalia, which means that I don't always have space in my hands for a camera.  Nevertheless, here goes:

• When taking photos of kids with a digital camera don't be afraid to get in close.  True, you'll have a few messed up ones where they moved out of shot, but the close up ones of their gorgeous faces are the ones you'll love.
• Use the "sports" function.  It means that your camera will take a quick series of photos as your child runs around, most will be poor, but you might get that one awesome shot.  Better than trying to get a shot of them sliding down the slide and missing because they slid past before the camera shot.
• Try to get plenty of natural light for your photos rather than bleaching flash light, but don't be afraid of a bit of shadow either for some moody effects.
• Get the children doing silly poses or telling jokes, or looking at something funny, or just catch them being natural - natural smiles are so much better than those fake photo grimaces.
• If you're always the one taking the photos, do give somebody else the camera and get on the other side of the lens.  When your kids look  back at the photos in ten years time, they'll want to see you there too, to spark all those memories of the fun things that you did.

What to do with your photos?  How to store and display them?

With digital photography there have never been so many photographs, and yet they are often tucked away on the computer or phone, and so few are deleted that it's difficult to see the good ones among the rubbish.  

• transfer your photos to one place, preferably organised by year and month, so you can easily find what you are looking for.  If you can also label them with key words that will also make searching easier, though can be time-consuming.
• DELETE - pleeeeassse delete the rubbish photos right away.  Go through those photos and get rid of the ones that don't mean anything to you.  The photos you took for an ad on e-bay, the blurred or too dark or too light ones, get rid of them.  If you took 20 photos of the same sunset, choose the best three and get rid of the rest... you DON'T NEED THEM ALL!
• BACK UP - yes.  You're left with your most precious and wonderful photos, the ones that you'll want your kids to see when they are grown up.  So back them up.  You can use online storage facilities like clouds and drop-box, but I know that some people have concerns about their security, so if you're not comfortable with that, then save them to a pen-drive and keep it somewhere safe.  Keep adding a back-up of your favourite photos to that so you've always got them.
• PRINT - I know you can get digital photo frames, and people have their photos as screen savers and wall-paper, but nothing beats a real photo.  Real photos can be put in a wallet, sent to a friend, or put in a frame.  Now that we can print at home or from machines in supermarkets, you only need to print the very best pictures.

As for display, here are a few ideas:

• photo albums - every year I create a photo book using the best photos from the year, arranged chronologically.  We can look back and see the children growing, and each album tells the story of the year.  I use the 30cm x 30cm books, about 30 pages, from Bonusprint.
• poster or canvas - there are some great photo websites out there who turn your photos into posters or canvas for a very reasonable price.  This picture shows the huge photo collage poster I made for my Dad's 60th birthday, with all his family on.

• other display ideas - you can turn your photos into keyrings, cushions, t-shirts, or bags.  I also made these photo blocks of our family (and made a set for each of my sisters' families for Christmas too), as a novel way to display photographs.
  

Just a small note to point out that this post was not sponsored or endorsed by anybody.  Any mentions of a particular item or company are just because that's genuinely what I like or use.  If any company would like to sponsor a post - I'd be more than happy to discuss it, please get in touch!

Happiness is...

A brief lesson from the waggy-tailed-one:

Happiness is... playing with the children

Happiness is... my ball

happiness is... lying on the sofa

happiness is... a cuddle

happiness is... running in the woods

happiness is... the beach

I would love to also have added that happiness is... swimming, but I didn't take my camera on our walk this morning when the daft mutt decided to go swimming in the new pond at the nature park.  Happiness is... also food.

Let's face it, dogs just know about the good things in life don't they!

I challenge you to write your own blog post, and link it to this one (and from this one using the comments) about what happiness is, using your pet to illustrate.

Embrace the Camera

My turn to get in front of the lens.  C took this picture yesterday.

Mrs Tiggywinkle lives on

Anybody who has ever been away for a week-long family holiday will know exactly what I mean when I suggest that these three photographs sum up my Sunday.

 We had a fantastic week with the caravan in Gairloch (Wester Ross - North West Scotland).

 The weather was kind to us, the midges were not horrific (thank goodness, my legs are still suffering from the five wasp stings a week and a half ago!), the scenery was breathtaking, the activities relaxing...

what more can you ask for from a holiday?

Embrace the camera

The odd glimpse of me with my little ones - just being together with love.

In April we were mostly... (best pics from April)

...playing at the park...

...C too...

...playing with our cousins...

...clambering...

...getting a surprise sprinkle of snow...

...hanging about...

...just being gorgeous...

...Bug too...

Embrace the Camera

Embrace the camera is an idea whereby the blogger, that would be me, actually gets in front of the camera every now and again.  Otherwise the children grow up with loads of photographs of themselves, but none with you in them, so they don't have any images to back up all their memories of your love and how awesome you think they are.

So I thought I'd give it a go.  Now bear in mind here that I always look absolutely awful and that my hair is, as always, a complete mess.  But I guess that doesn't matter, because the little ones still think I'm beautiful.

C is trying to drive the car.  I don't care, I'm getting in there for some loving.

Here goes:

For more on "Embrace the camera" pop by to The Anderson Crew.

In March we were mostly.... (best pics from the month)

...dressing up...

...she's getting so cheeky!...

...learning to drive already... 

...whoops... this water is deeper than the wellies...

... a door to nowhere, at Crinan harbour, with the little lighthouse beyond...

...out for a walk at Tarbert, looking down to the castle and the harbour...

I just love this picture.  We'd been for a 6 mile walk, and he'd fallen into a rock-pool.
His spare clothes were still on the sofa in the chalet, so he completed the walk in his little sister's pink leggings .

...In a monastic cell in Kilmartin Glen...

...a beautiful Loch Avich...

This is so gorgeous.  He's showing her some shells that he's found.

My boys went a scrambling on some rocks by the Rest and Be Thankful.

I've been out for an early morning jog and my little ones are pleased to see me back.

...co-operative painting...

...the bowl of water was for washing hands after painting.  Sis had other plans!