The Sandman Triathlon

On Sunday, the sun shone and I was at the seaside.

This was no ordinary trip to the seaside though. I was there to support my husband as he took part in his first Sandman Triathlon which started and finished on the beautiful Llanddwyn beach in Anglesey.

My two little ones were with us but once they saw the sand and the water, any thoughts of supporting daddy were quickly forgotten. It made it quite a difficult day for me trying to balance keeping an eye out for two adventurous children having the time of their lives and keeping an eye out for my husband so I could offer the appropriate words of encouragement. A difficult day - but one I was so glad to be a part of.

The first of my many 'difficulties' arose as I tried to walk the children the mile or so to the beach from the caravan where we were staying. It was a beautiful location with views over the Menai Straits and a stunning forest trail down to the beach. The same trail formed part of the 10K route that the triathletes would have to run having finished their 1000m sea swim off Llanddwyn beach and their 60km cycle around the island of Anglesey. The effort it took to drag my reluctant four year old son along the trail would probably have rivalled the effort put in by the athletes chasing personal bests. It was hard work and as a result, we were late getting to the start of the race. The good news was that the start time was delayed. The bad news, even with the delay, we still didn't make it down in time to wish daddy luck.

We were in time to see in the distance, the crowd of yellow swimming capped wetsuited hopefuls (of which I knew daddy was one) run into the sea and begin their arduous battle against waves, currents and fatigue.

My husband is a strong swimmer with a lazy stroke that could never be described as graceful but his long arms pull him through the water with efficiency. He has swum the Dee Mile and between the piers in Brighton. I didn't think the swim would pose too great a problem for him so I was very surprised when I saw him staggering clumsily out of the water looking as though he was in trouble. I found out later that he had been kicked in the face near the start when everyone is jostling for position. As well as being slightly stunned by the blow, the impact had knocked his prescription goggles off his head. Not being able to see properly was disorientating him.

Meanwhile, my son found out what happens when the tide creeps in and you fail to step backwards.

Somehow, my husband made it to his bicycle but clearly wasn't quite recovered form his ordeal as he tried to cycle off in his wetsuit! I would have loved to have been there to witness this but I was having a troublesome time trying to persuade my children to come with me to the transition area. We eventually got there but not in time to even see him riding away up the hill into the distance. We clapped a few of the other participants then went for a  picnic that included for me, a very welcome flask of coffee.

The children were happy blowing bubbles, playing sword fighting with inflatables and running around so we stayed near the entrance to the transition area and waited for daddy to cycle in.

He had estimated that the cycle would take him 2 hours and he did it in 2:10:57. I mentioned at the very beginning of this post that the sun shone. This was his undoing. As much as the children and I were enjoying the sunshine, overheating and dehydration are deadly enemies of anyone exerting themselves. My husband ran out of water and began to suffer the consequences. His cheery wave to us as he ran into transition belied how bad he was feeling.

As much as I would have liked to position myself in various strategic locations along the 10K route, I knew it would turn into a nightmare trying to mobilise the children to make it all work so we headed back down to the beach. After a quick paddle myself which was lovely, I left the kids playing in a large pool and made myself a base further up the beach where I could watch for my husband on the last leg of his race.

The kids loved the freedom to play in the water making 'adventure playgrounds' out of rocks for the little fish that swam around them. This left me free to watch drama after drama unfold within sight of the finish line as exhausted runners feared they were not going to make it. I would have loved to have seen the jubilation of the people crossing the finish line, but that would have meant I couldn't keep a watchful eye on my little ones.

I expected my husband to finish in about an hour. I thought I spotted him once and called the children out of the water to come and cheer for daddy. They both looked at me like I was an idiot and said No  Thanks! It turned out to be a false alarm anyway so I watched and waited... and waited. I was starting to get really worried but eventually, I spotted him in the distance. As he ran past me I took a photo, told him enthusiastically that he was wonderful and he was nearly there. I watched him run away from me toward the finish line and his own personal (somewhat overdue by now!) victory.

My camera was not zoomed in. I really was this close to him yet he neither saw me nor heard those words of encouragement that I had waited so long to give.

I  persuaded the children to leave the water to come with me and find daddy. We found him. I have never seen him look so utterly exhausted. It had taken him 1 hour and 27 minutes to complete the 10K. He never really recovered from the dehydration he suffered on the bike leg of the race and had walked much of the route as an alternative to just giving up.

I have so much admiration to each and every one of the determined men and women who took part, from the awe inspiring winner who clocked up a time of less than two and a half hours to the last man over the line in 451st place in just over 5 hours.

My husband finished in 421st place with a time of 4 hours 09 minutes and 18 seconds. He is absolutely  my hero.

Photographing Seagulls

I love taking photos and whilst on holiday recently, I really wanted to capture an image of the magnificent seabirds that were soaring overhead against the backdrop of a perfect summer sky. I only had my little Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ8 with me and in the bright sunlight, all I could see on the screen was a reflection of my own face (crinkled with concentration!)

What I lacked in equipment and expertise, I made up for with enthusiasm and perseverance.

I did manage to get a few results that were close to what I hoped for but for every shot like this or this...

... there were plenty more like these:

As well as the problem of trying to anticipate the flight path of the gulls, I also had to make the adjustment for the slight delay in pressing the button on the camera and the picture actually being taken. I wasn't very good at it! Far from getting frustrated, I actually found it stupidly amusing - almost to the point of mild hysteria.

I had intended to delete all of the failed attempts but looking through them made me laugh again (much to my eldest daughter's bemusement). I decided to keep them as a memento of a wonderful day at the  seaside and a reminder that I will never make a living as a wildlife photographer!

If I were to wonder what my elusive feathered subjects were making of my feeble attempts to photograph them,  the expression on this one's face could just hint at an answer.

Snapfish Canvas Review

We have been in our current house for about 6 years now. We have done a lot of work to it to get it how we want it and still have a few projects yet to do. One of the little things that we have never really got round to is hanging pictures. This is something I want to rectify because it is such an easy way to turn a house into a home - a home that reflects who you are.

When I was offered a canvas to review from the online digital photo printing service Snapfish, I thought it would be an ideal way to get started.

I have thousands of digital photographs stored on my computer, many of which I have used on this blog. There are some that I love and some that even have some technical merit that would have made good candidates for the canvas. However, rather than trawling through the library of images, I decided to create something brand new. We were about to go on holiday which would no doubt present a  photo opportunity or two.

We were so incredibly lucky with the weather. Beautiful clear blue skies against the golden sand dunes at Camber Sands in Sussex made a fantastic background for a photograph. All I had to do was add my subjects - two adventurous little children - point and shoot. Ideally I would have liked a photograph with both my little ones in it but it didn't work out that way. The image that I fell in love with and knew was going to be the one to make into my canvas was this one of my boy.

I love the colours and the way the dried grass seed heads are the same shade as the sand. I love the way the curve of his little body is mirrored by the curve of the grass. Most of all I love how, to me, it captures a truly lovely day at the beach.

The thing to remember about choosing a photograph to be made into a canvas is the the picture needs to be cropped quite generously to allow for the canvas that wraps around the wooden framework. If I could have this moment in the sand again, I would have allowed a little more negative space on the bottom margin so my boy's feet could be included in the finished print. As it was, I had to make a small compromise.

I am always filled with a sense of dread whenever I use online digital printing services. It can be quite a mission to upload the photographs from your computer to their site. In this instance with Snapfish, it was completely painless - very quick and efficient. Maybe that was because I was only uploading one image. Choosing the right sized canvas and cropping the photograph were also very straightforward. There was a very good 3D effect product view feature that gave a sense of how the canvas would look.

I chose a 16x12 inch canvas that would have cost me £34.99 plus £6.99 p&p. As soon as I had sent my order, I received a confirmation email so there was no anxious wait to see if I had done it correctly!

I placed my order on the Saturday before I left for my second holiday and the package had been delivered by the time I returned the following Thursday. It was securely wrapped in protective packaging and strong cardboard  and it did feel a bit like Christmas as I opened it!

The quality of the product is superb - sturdily made with a true colour reproduction.

It is no doubt more expensive than buying off the shelf canvases but this is original and very personal to me which I think makes it excellent value for money.

Now I just need to decide where to hang it!

Getting the Summer Holidays off to a Good Start - Part I

It had always been on the to-do list for the Summer Holidays to spend a week near Brighton where my husband's parents live so that the children could have the chance to see their grandparents and start making the sort of memories that will stay with them for a lifetime. After consulting our diaries it transpired that there was only one week that would actually work for everyone (my in-laws have a fairly hectic social life centred around their shared love of sequence dancing) and that was the first week of the holidays.

My husband booked the accommodation and I hurriedly organised the packing. The weather was abysmal and my mum rolled her eyes heavenwards as she wished me a happy holiday and hoped we might get a little bit of sunshine. Neither she nor I could have imagined what an amazing transformation there would be from grey miserable skies to clear cloudless blue. I have never had a holiday in Britain where the sun shined constantly.

Clambering in the sand dunes at Camber Sands under a beautiful blue sky

I had packed jumpers and raincoats. We had to go shopping once we were there to buy suntan lotion and shorts. I also bought a whole lot of outdoor toys at sale prices that would keep the children amused.

We stayed in a very comfortable holiday cottage on a farm in Herstmonceaux, East Sussex. The children took a liking to the horses in a nearby field ( I had wanted to write 'neighbouring field' there but thinking of it as a neiiigh- bouring field of horses was becoming an obstacle!)

The holiday worked out perfectly. We were able to spend lots of time with the Grandparents as we'd hoped and also managed to visit beaches, take a bike ride along the cool, leafy Cuckoo trail and spend a day at the Bentley's Wildfowl and Motor Museum featuring two things that my little boy loves - duckth and carth (yes, he has developed a very cute little lisp!)

With only a couple of days at home to unpack and pack again for our next week away, I was glad to have done some of the laundry already. As lovely as it was to enjoy the sunshine at the beach, I was especially appreciative of how useful it was in getting the washing dry!

The pebble beach at Eastbourne