The Gallery - Week 83 - The Kitchen

Exactly a year ago today, my home was something of a disaster zone. The sub zero temperatures outside had frozen and burst some water pipes that ran through the roof space above my kitchen. As the damaged pipe defrosted, a torrent of water came flooding through the ceiling. This was my futile attempt to contain the flood.

The floor certainly got a good wash which was no bad thing but I was somewhat disconcerted by the water pouring through my electrical light fitting.

My husband was a hero, squeezing his large body through a tiny space between rafters in the snow covered roof to get access to the broken pipe and replace it. Hopefully, with the special pipe he used and the extra lagging, we won't ever have a repeat of the problem.

All that remained was to wait for it to dry out and access the damage to the decor. 

It could have been a lot worse. There was a crack in the plaster but it was sound enough to be repaired rather than replaced. A large area of the textured paint had peeled away but that could easily be patched. So why is it, I ask myself, that a year later the job still hasn't been done?

Life gets in the way. There is always another job that takes priority. I am almost blind to the unsightly, bare, discoloured ceiling. 

With all our Christmas plans and preparations, I doubt there is enough time left this year to get the job done but it is definitely going to be top of the DIY list come January. I will restore my kitchen to its former glory and re-establish it as the heart of my home.

The Gallery - Week 76 - Home

I am a very home loving person. I enjoy travel and adventures more than I ever have but if there is one place I would always rather be it is within my own four walls, with my nearest and dearest.

There are so many images that spring to mind when I try and think of 'home' and what it means to me but the one that best encapsulates the feeling of warmth, safety and belonging has to be my bed.

From my first waking moments with my morning tea to last thing at night tucked up with a warm husband, my bed is my special place. I love when my little ones snuggle under the covers with me and I especially love the rarer moments when my grown up girls join us for lazy chats and together time. We somehow always find room for everyone.

The luxury zebra print cushions are evidence of my continuing Mid Life Cushion Crisis and were a  bargain at £12.99 from TK Maxx.

The Gallery - Week 67 - Vintage

I do not own anything that I would classify as truly 'vintage' but  I do have a small collection of old books that have the ability to transport  me back to a bygone age with every flick of the yellowed pages.

My collection includes:

• the marvellously Politically UNcorrect  "Book of Brownies" by Enid Blyton (1967)  where the people in Cleverland will spank you for being stupid and 'gay' really did mean happy.

• the 1941 guide to "Love without Fear" where needless descriptions of the unsavoury are avoided but aims to ensure that your sex life will no longer be deplorably unsatisfactory. The introduction states that - Not one husband in twelve knows enough of the technique of love to enable him to impart and recieve half the pleasure which should be derived from sexual union and The overwhelming majority of wives NEVER know the supreme joy which the sex act can yield to the ideally mated. 

My favourite of the old books is a modest paperback guide from the fifties entitled "How to Decorate a Cake" by Anne Anson produced by the makers of Decorating Equipment - Tala. With the image of the immaculately groomed housewife on the front cover and the very formal writing style it is impossible not to take on the identity of Domestic Goddess as you learn everything you need to know about making a perfectly decorated cake and even how the challenge of Cocktail Parties can be met with a well set out sideboard, piled with an imaginative array of appetisers, in gay colours, novel shapes and unusual and delicious flavours. The Cocktail Hostess is even encouraged to be somewhat reckless,  following every whim of her imagination and by heeding this good advice will henceforward be known as a delightful hostess and excellent cook. All of this in one 32 page booklet!

So for my Gallery contribution today I give you - How to Decorate a Cake.

The Gallery - Week 64 - Three Words

For Fathers Day, we indulged daddy's favourite hobby - sailing.

It turned out to be very a special day with the three year old taking her first trip out on the boat, our Flying Fifteen. She seemed to think it was all completely normal despite quite violent rocking and the sometimes deafening sound of wind in the sails. Being so small, there was no need for her to duck for the boon!

My Three Word contribution to this week's Gallery,

Finding Sea Legs

The Gallery - Week 62 - Dads

I love the relationship my husband has with the two children we have together. He is a very 'hands on' sort of dad and spends as much time with them as other commitments permit.  They clearly adore him.

What I value even more than this is the relationship he has built with the four daughters from my first marriage.

When he came into my life, my daughters were fragile and scarred from a horribly messy marriage breakdown and a father who couldn't even comprehend what it meant to put their needs first.

My girls could have been hostile and suspicious but they were accepting and welcoming. As we gelled as a family unit, they understood for the first time how it could be - happiness, love, fun and support rather than arguing, tension and a lot of banging heads against brick walls.

My girls blossomed.

This picture was taken on Ivy's 16th birthday.

Of all my girls, she was the one who was most badly affected by the divorce. It is only now, five years later, that she is sorting it all out in her head. She is still adamant that she does not want to see her father or have any more than the barest minimum of contact. The other girls joke that she is not missing out - they have little more than the barest minimum of contact anyway, despite their willingness for more.

This was not supposed to be a bitter post about inadequate parenting. It is celebration of the fact that a non-biological father can bring so much into the lives of his stepdaughters and show them what it really means to be there for them - to be a dad.

The Unofficial Gallery

I think my current minor obsession with knitting may be coming to a natural end.

I spent a lot of yesterday finishing a snake project that I started under my mum's guidance. Mum left me the knitting pattern book to have a go on my own with the promise that she would be on the end of a phone if I got really stuck.

I got stuck alright, more times than I can count, but I started to thoroughly enjoy the challenge of trying to sort out my mistakes and unravel the mystery of the knitting pattern code. I felt a huge sense of achievement when I finally completed my task without once resorting to phoning mum in tears of frustration at my incompetence.

So for my unofficial Gallery entry this week (Tara is having a week off!) and ignoring the prompt (unless I can call it my trip into the world of wool and needles) I give you my finished knitting project - complete with his knitted lunch.

The Gallery - Week 60 - My Backyard

I am really lucky to have a good back garden. It was very well stocked with plants 5 years ago when we bought the house and it seems that whatever horticultural atrocity I commit, something beautiful appears as if by magic to fill the gaps that my misjudgements created.

I had all sorts of ideas about what photograph to post for this week's Gallery prompt: nature's works of art, before and after projects, outdoor parties, some of the host of wildlife that call my garden home... In the end I decided to go with an image that 'backyard' conjures to me which is much more utilitarian than beautiful.

I always enjoy warm, blowy days that are perfect for drying washing and there is something very satisfying about rows of neatly hung laundry. That was going to be my angle. A wash day photograph.

It just so happened that it was long overdue for my three year old's comfort blanket to be given the benefit of a wash cycle and some lightly scented detergent. It gets incredibly grubby as she drags it around with her.

I could not resist choosing this wash day photo for my contribution for the gallery.

It can be very hard to be parted from the things you love most in the world.

The Gallery - Week 58 - Chilled Out

For my perfect chill out - just add water.

(Incidentally, this is the "After" shot to my "Before")

The Gallery - Week 57 - April

April has been a good month for me with Mother's Day, my daughter's 3rd birthday, my birthday and Easter to celebrate along with all the lovely school holiday to do the celebrating. Ivy has been home from Uni for the best part of the month and I unleashed the Alphabet Date idea on my poor, unsuspecting husband. We have had some wonderful family time and some equally wonderful weather. Everything is better with a little sunshine.

I think the thing that sums up April for me, though, has to be the outdoor eating - family gathered on the deck, guitars and laughter providing the background music, cold beer in the fridge, veggie sausages on the barbecue. Doesn't get much better.

The Gallery - Week 56 - Green

I had to trawl through the archives to find this old photograph but as soon as I saw The Gallery prompt 'GREEN', this was the image that immediately sprang to mind.

It is my daughter, Taylor, when she was a tiny little thing. She and her older sister dressed up for their primary school Xmas disco as The Holly and the Ivy. I always thought Taylor looked like a beautiful little baby Earth Goddess or an Elfin Princess. I love the way she is pushing her tongue through the gap in her teeth as she smiles for the camera.

The Gallery - Week 55 - My Blog

I love to write and take photos and make videos. My blog provides an outlet for all of those pursuits. It gives me a focus. It enables me to clarify my thoughts and reflect on my life. It definitely feels like a real place that I go to and it is a place where I feel happy and find much fulfilment. I miss it if I have to be away from my little plot of cyberspace for too long. No matter how messy and chaotic life becomes, my blog is always neat and orderly - a little oasis of calm where I can gather my thoughts. It readily absorbs the outpourings from my head and warns me when life is becoming a little stale and in need of a shake up.

I could probably create a collage of images to represent all the things that my blog means to me but this photograph sums it up - a cup of coffee and a keyboard ready to take me wherever I want to go.

The Gallery - Week 54 - Tomorrow

"Tomorrow"

That's a bit of an odd one for this week's Gallery. Should I interpret it literally with an image of what I'm going to be doing on Thursday? Should I take a more philosophical approach and consider a tomorrow that never comes? As a parent it is probably most poignant to think of tomorrow as the reward for the investment we make in our children today. Having a second family to raise alongside the four grown up daughters of my first marriage makes me feel very connected to the idea of tomorrow and yesterday. The little ones remind me of things the big ones did as babies and there is a great sense that all the milestones and achievements that the big ones are accomplishing are things that my little ones have ahead of them.

Searching through my photos for inspiration I came upon a poem that my daughter had written in primary school. When I separated from my first husband and sold the family home, I photographed the huge collection of paintings and other works that I had accumulated over the years before having to consign the originals to the recycling bin. I am so glad I did - there are some real treasures among them. This was one of them.

The author is now 20 years old. This is one of her tomorrows. She is still alive (!) and there is still an Earth.

The Gallery - Week 53 - Mother Love

It seems that the seeds of Mother Love are already sown as my little girl tends adoringly to her rather scratty 'baby'.

Shortly after taking this photograph, I asked her if she loved her dolly. She looked at me very earnestly and considered my question before replying "Not much" then grinning her cheekiest grin.

The Gallery - Week 52 - Hair

Tara's theme this week, Hair, was full of possibilities from the bad home perms of my teenage years, elegant buns and funky dos from daughter number 2's love affair with dance (that lasted until her hamstrings screamed in protest and could not be quietened) and the glorious blonde genetic mystery of my youngest daughter.

However, the photograph that first sprung to mind and failed to be usurped by any of the other contenders was this one of Taylor, Xmas 2001. Her normally sleek straight hair just went crazy. We blamed it on the snow.

The Gallery - Week 50 - Trees

One of the big employers in the town where I live is a pie factory. When the conditions are right, the smell of pie hangs in the air. It's not the greatest smell in the world. Not like when I lived in Slough with the Mars factory belching out great wafts of chocolate and sweet loveliness. You would breathe in a little deeper on those days!

Walking home from the shops recently, I noticed that the pie factory was a lot more visible then usual. It took me a moment to realise that the row of trees that usually flanked the perimeter was gone.

With Tara's Gallery prompt this week being trees, I thought I would go back and take a look. So armed with camera and feeling somewhat like an undercover investigative journalist, I did just that.

It was terribly sad to see the once tall, graceful tress reduced to piles of  logs and untidy branches.

I am not good at keeping abreast of local news so I don't know if this arboreal massacre was part of an improvement and development scheme which may include a replanting program. I hope so.

The Gallery - Week 49 - One Word

This photograph wouldn't win any prizes for technical expertise but the fact that I took it into the sun, failed to focus properly and paid no heed to the depth of field or background actually speaks volumes about my state of unease as I captured my one shot of this moment at Longleat Animal Park a couple of years ago.

My daughter shows no evidence of anything other than being completely relaxed and beaming with pleasure.

My One Word for The Gallery prompt is:

Fearless

The Gallery - Week 48 - Simple Pleasures

The simple pleasure

• of combining ingredients to make a cake mix
• of watching the mix transform magically before your eyes in the heat of the oven
• of turning an ordinary cake into something special with icing and imagination in equal measure
• of a job well done
• of plunging a sharp knife into the heart of your creation to slice and serve
• of noticing that it looks pretty good inside

and finally,

• of  happy faces, consuming, enjoying, licking lips and chasing crumbs.

Simple pleasures indeed.

The Gallery - Week 47 - Expressions

If there is one thing my camera is good at, it's catching expressions. I have a whole spectrum of them: serene, bemused, disdainful, joyous, disgusted.....  Many of these have not exactly delighted the subject of the photograph and I have been threatened with acts of unthinkable horror as punishment for letting any of them see the light of day. So how to choose one for this week's gallery?

When I was reviewing the My Carry Potty, I took a series of photographs that I ended up not using. As the whole potty training thing is still a big preoccupation, it is from this collection that I have selected my contribution.

The Gallery - Week 46 - Togetherness

My children had been through the traumatic breakdown of their family with a father who did not consider their best interests a priority. Estranged from their father and subjected to an abusive and extremely hurtful letter from their paternal grandmother, they were fragile.

When I got together with my future husband number two, my girls were wonderfully generous accepting him into their lives. However, when I fell pregnant, I was concerned that they would feel pushed out or replaced. I was worried that they would resent the relationship the new baby would have with its real daddy. I was worried that they would resent the baby. Even if they refused to admit it to themselves, a festering resentment would be very damaging to all of us.

My worries were unfounded. The new baby inspired only love and wonder and cemented us as a family. I have watched with enormous joy and gratitude as the unbreakable bonds of togetherness have weaved their magic.

This gallery contribution on the theme of Togetherness is dedicated to the children of my first marriage and the children of my second marriage and the love that unites them.

The Gallery - Week 45 - 24 Hours

Addy brings a 'few' toys for her brother to play with while I get dressed

Breakfast Time

Clear up after Addy decides to do an inventory of the cupboard contents

Lunch at our local Wetherspoons with my parents and sister, Wendy...

... then back to my house for coffee and gossip

A little nap in front of the TV with big sister before tea

Blogging.

Back from a punishing Aerobics session ...

... to some well earned relaxation.