Paisatges

I haven't taken part in The Gallery for a while, but when I saw the theme this week was Landscapes, I thought I'd have a go. After all, I have plenty. Then, I realised that most of my photos are stuck on the laptop that I keep meaning to fix.

But, still, I often put my photos on my Dropbox account and found several on there that I could use. Even better, I had one that I hadn't used on this blog before. I think. (Someone will now find this on my blog somewhere). It is of my favourite city in the world.

Barcelona.

This was taken from the top floor of El Corte Inglés in Placa Catalunya, the main square which is regarded as the true city centre and where the old part meets the new. It's also where the Ramblas, which marches up from the sea, finally peters out. 

El Corte Inglés is a chain of department stores - which is kind of a cross between Marks and Spencer, because it has a supermarket in the basement, and John Lewis, because it's filled with designer labels.  This particular branch has about 9 floors. The top floor contains a smart restaurant where we once had the most amazing lunch - half a lobster and half a chicken with rice for about half the price it would be over there. There is also has a cheaper waiter service part and finally a self-service cafeteria where we often pop for coffee. Every time we go, we have to visitt here and I just marvel at the skyline with the Palau Nacional breaking ranks with the Montjuic hillside. 

Just looking at this photo makes me feel like I'm actually there but as it's night time in the UK and not mid-afternoon in sunny Spain, I soon snap back to reality. And then I'm wistful because I want to go there again and we currently have no plans to do so. This makes me sad. Maybe one day. 

You can find some more great landscapes over by clicking the badge below.

My awesome photo

Yes, that is the title, for that is the theme of the Gallery this week. The point is, it could be made into a huge canvas, for this is a competition.

My photography is not known for its skill and awesomeness (is that a word?) but I do have a photo on my camera which, although not taken by me, is still pretty awesome. It has featured before on this blog twice. I make no apologies for including it again because it is the favourite photo I have of one of my children. It was taken on a brilliant day for Monkey and Daddy - his second ever live game and a trip to Wembley to see Blackpool promoted to the Premier League. And yes, that still pains me to type those words.

So here it is. Possibly not awesome (although I suspect Blogger has done something funny to the photo in the upload, it does that occasionally) but I love it.

Find more awesome photos at Tara's Gallery.

Something I am proud of

Who or what makes me proud? I bet you’re not surprised to see my children below. It’s a bit of a gimme really, but I must tell you why, right at this moment, my children are making me proud.

The timing of the prompt for The Gallery couldn’t have been more apt. Two weeks ago, the children came home from school with a blank poster template. It was school council election time and they were seeking candidates. The children had to draw a picture of themselves or place a photograph in the middle and then write why they would be a good school councillor or share some of their ideas for the school council.

The Gallery: Shoes

I don't have pretty feet. I know some people think that all feet are ugly but mine are small (for my height) and stubby, as they are wide. Wide feet are a curse as new shoes are nearly always painful for a while.

And then, at age 11, I had an operation to straighten a bent toe. This appears to have been an inherited trait as both my dad and my granddad had the same thing. In straightening my little toe on my left foot, they broke the bone and sewed it to the toe next to it. My toe doesn't look "normal" at all and I don't like the nail. So, wearing flipflops and open sandals can be a trial as said toe doesn't look very pretty. As a result, I'm not really much of a shoe person. Even winter shoes are problematic because my little toe makes my foot even wider and it can make wearing new shoes even more uncomfortable.

The Gallery - Black and White

I am not a very technical photographer. As I commented to someone only this afternoon, I probably take more photos with my phone now than I do with the camera. I like taking pictures but I am not in the finer details of it. I therefore don't do take many pictures in black and white, but thanks to the wizardry of photo editing software, I can turn anything I like monochrome. So, I've been looking through my archives, given as I'm enjoying child-free time this week and not spending too much time on the blog, fiddling with the settings and turning things black and white. After lots of messing around, I found this made the nicest picture.

My Grandad

I had a lot more to do with my dad's parents than my mum's. My maternal grandmother died before I was born anyway and although we did see my grandfather, my mum had had a distant relationship for most of her life, given that her parents divorced when she was a small child. Consequently, we saw little of them.

My dad's parents, on the other hand, lived less than ten miles away from our home, so we visited regularly. I remember going for tea and being made to eat ham sandwiches with mustard in them (which I hated) and being offered tomatoes, (which I also hated as a child). We'd get given arctic roll for pudding and my nan would cover it in evaporated milk. 

3 Word Gallery

That is the prompt that Tara from Sticky Fingers has set for us this week. It's based on the three word summaries that Simon Mayo asks his listeners to contribute to summarise their day which he then reads out on his Drivetime show on Radio 2. I follow Simon on Twitter and have contributed if I see his tweet. I don't often listen to that particular show; I listen to the Mayo and Kermode Film Review on Friday afternoons as it's the best radio programme on air.

Dads

I've written about my Dad before, and I feel I've written about him enough. I've probably bored you all rigid talking about him in previous posts. So, today for the theme of Dads at the Gallery, I'm going to talk about another Dad - my husband's dad and Monkey and Missy Woo's granddad, my father-in-law.

At the end of last year, he was diagnosed with a bowel tumour. The prognosis was good but he had to have radiotherapy followed by an operation. The operation was either going to be keyhole surgery - for which a short hospital stay would be needed - or more invasive surgery, requiring a stay of one to two weeks. The irony for me was that he was having the operation on a day significant to me - the tenth anniversary of my Dad's death.

The operation didn't go well, requiring some quite major surgery. What we weren't prepared for was what happened afterwards. He moved wards several times as his condition dictated and sometimes to get the care he needed (sad but true), gradual improvement followed by relapses, and a lot of frustration. He managed to have a trip home one weekend to see how he got on, only for him to become really quite ill a few days later, extending his stay even further. The children weren't allowed into the wards he was on quite a lot, so they saw him a few times when they were allowed to visit but not half as often as they would do normally. Quite difficult for them as they love seeing Granddad (and Granny).

Finally, he left hospital, in mid-March. That one or two-week stay had become 3 months. Christmas didn't really happen. New Year was a blur. He went in during midwinter with snow on the ground and came out as spring approached.

Since leaving hospital, he's continued to improve - he's had regular visits to hospital for ongoing treatment, including one further overnight stay, but was soon home again. He's gradually become more mobile, although he's still walking with a stick. He's been back to see Blackpool play again (poor thing) and they even finally went on a Baltic cruise that they had previously had to cancel because of his illness.

The day after they came home this weekend, we held a family party. The weather was rank. The lady delivering hotpot managed to get lost coming from about two minutes away and someone had to be sent to help her find the house. It didn't matter. Everyone in the family made it to the party, except one grandson who had university exams. It was a lovely afternoon. One of those slightly chaotic but fun family parties.

There was a cake, which we put candles on and my brother-in-law made a speech. It took about 10 minutes, with various people cracking jokes and interrupting him; partly, I think, to relieve the tension. Because, by the end of the speech, everyone was in tears. After a difficult few months, it was truly a cause to celebrate that this Dad is still around for this year's Father's Day.

So my picture today was taken at that party. My father-in-law surrounded by his family.

Dad of five. Grandfather of fourteen. Great-grandfather of two. Happy Father's Day.

The Gallery - Mustachioed

Continuing my roll with these themes, Tara must have read my mind. I was looking through my pictures last week and saw one that I thought I really needed to fit into a post soon, because well, I just like the picture.

And then, I read the theme for the Gallery this week. Mustachioed. The theme is in honour of Laura from Are We Nearly There Yet Mummy? who has a bit of a thing for them. She wants us all to share our best 'tache pictures and the best won will win a camera. Sounds like a deal to me. And the perfect picture is just there for me to use.

I have a few pictures of the children with moustaches, mainly from dressing up outfits and the like. This one was taken not long after Missy Woo turned two and the children wanted to dress up as pirates and put disguises on. I think it's a very fetching 'tache, possibly a bit dashing for a pirate but still, it's one of my favourite pictures of my little girl.

My run on the Gallery has to end sometime. Will it be next week? Stay tuned to find out.

My children, chilled out

I think I'm on a bit of a roll with the Gallery at the moment. Every time I see the week's prompt, I know instantly what I want to do or which existing photo I want to use. This week's prompt is "Chilled Out" - photos of relaxing. Now, this photo has been in my archives for a while - it's nearly a year old - and I was only thinking a while back that I really needed to find an opportunity to use it.

So, it was Spring Bank Holiday weekend last year, and it was raining, and cold for the end of May. I was trying to get something done and the children wanted to watch a film so I put a DVD on for them in the room we call the playroom (which is actually what should be our dining room). I can't remember how it happened, but I found them like this:

I don't think it was quite *that* cold but still, it made for a good photograph - and of course, they were happy to pose for me! These days, Monkey and Missy Woo seem to be permanently on the go and don't seem to have much time for chilling out so it's nice to capture them like this, even if I didn't actually say they could get their duvets down.

The Gallery - April

So, the first Gallery of May and we're talking about - April. Confused? Not much. Anyway, the task we have been set is to sum up the month in a photo. Being British, I have gone for the weather angle.

April is normally the start of the holiday season, with Easter holidays often taking up much of the month. This year, it has been unseasonably warm and dry, which has given it more of a holiday feel than normal. The children went feral for a few days during their time off and I barely saw them as they were out playing with friends on the estate. Where were the April showers we've come to expect during school holidays? It's been warmer here than Barcelona - where it has been raining a lot - most days. The problem with the sustained dry weather is that it causes problems on the moors near us and since Friday, there have been fires burning constantly, stoked by the high winds, fanning flames. My picture therefore sums up the two opposing factors - the beautiful weather, with smoke from the fires swirling down from the moors. This was taken less than 100 yards from our front door. (And no it's not that rural, there's a motorway in there, it's just well hidden).

I think you can tell from the tree that it was quite windy!

See more of what April had to offer by clicking on the badge below.

The Gallery - Green

I must admit, I'd hoped that such a seasonal prompt would draw some pretty prose (I nearly said purple then, but that seemed wrong) but no, such verbosity seems to have escaped me today. I do know that the warmer weather and lighter nights when Spring comes around is greatly welcomed by me and the emergence of green everywhere nature acts as a reminder that it has finally arrived. In the last week, the garden has been glorious in the lovely weather but in need of a serious sort out in the veg patch, lawn and vine department.

Whilst clearing out the veg patch, something else green caught our eye. Well, he caught ours actually. My husband managed to get a shot of him holding court, looking imperious, wondering where the water is and where his kingdom had gone, before realising that he's not a prince, he's a frog.

He just needs a princess to come along and kiss him.

The Gallery - My blog

When Tara says she's set a tough challenge, my heart normally sinks and I don't feel any better after I've found out what it is, spending the weekend scratching my head and then scrabbling around at the last minute to produce something. Heck, last week, it was so late, I didn't even start the post until Wednesday afternoon! Well, this week, for a change, I looked at the theme for this week and thought "I can do that!" straight away. It was a gimme - well, for me anyway.

For the theme is "My blog". In other words, I must produce one photograph that sums up my blog. With a blog name like mine, that's easy. The only problem was putting it together and making it work as a photo. That included making cakes! I really hope Tara appreciate the lengths I have gone to this week for her - no point and snap for me, this has taken a good hour or more of preparation. I think that demonstrates true dedication to the cause.

So, ladies and gentlemen, I give you my blog - The Five Fs.

To represent each of the five Fs, we have:

- Family - pictures of Monkey and Missy Woo at school and nursery respectively
- Football - one of my old Preston North End replica shirts
- Food - banana and chocolate cupcakes
- Fitness - my new trainers, which was a Mother's Day present from the children
- Fun - one of the toys we've been lucky enough to review recently

The Five Fs. The five things in my life that I am most passionate about. The five things that I (mostly) blog about. One photo, five Fs. Done!


If you have a blog, how would you depict yours in one photo?

Tomorrow

Tomorrow will be a better day, because today does not feel like a good place right now. If I knew why exactly, I would be telling you about it but I don't have that answer. Just a feeling that I'm constantly on the verge of dissolving into tears and a frequent feeling of salty fluid filling up my eyes. I hate feeling like this because I like to sort problems out quickly and without knowing why, I can't fix myself.

Maybe the last few days have taken out of me. Monday, in particular, was a rollercoaster of a day, veering wildly as an out-of-control juggernaut  between some amazing highs and pride in myself and my achievements to the depths of despair, anger and frustration, in a few short hours. Then Tuesday was hard work - a 3 hour drive turned into one of over 5 hours and a total journey time of well over 7 hours, leaving me drained and not able to do any of the catching up I had planned to do when we finally got home.

So today, and tomorrow, I need to catch up. The weight of the things I need to do sit heavily on my shoulders, making everything feel like a gargantuan effort, almost trapping me to the point that I cannot breathe. The children have disgraced themselves today since we discovered they broke some cherished gifts - and hid the evidence. After being troopers over the last few days and not turning our 7 hour odyssey into total hell, I'm despairing that they could be so destructive, sneaky and just plain horrible. Not the best day to be their parent.

Tomorrow will be a better day, after I've spent today slobbing around looking only slightly less slatternly than Waynetta (minus the fag). Tomorrow, I will do all the things I plan to get done. Tomorrow, my children will be better behaved and I'll be a better mother. Tomorrow, I will feel less down, more appreciated and the salt of my tears will have dried upon my face. The sun will be brighter, the weather warmer, and drier. I'll be slimmer and feel prettier. I'll cook healthy, nutritious food that the children will love to eat. The house will be tidy and clean. The children will behave beautifully, play nicely and stop pestering me every few minutes.

Life will be perfect tomorrow. Or maybe not, as I'm on my own with the children for 12 hours. Make that the day after tomorrow then...

The one thing I cling onto when I have bad days is that I have hope. Tomorrow is always, tantalisingly, full of hope like it remains out of reach. If it doesn't live up to its billing, much as I feel bad right now, it doesn't really matter. There's always another tomorrow to look forward to. Another one there in front of me, beckoning me forward, drawing me towards it.

And the reason I have hope for tomorrow?

It sounds trite but they are my tomorrow as much as motherhood has been my today for the last 2225 days. I may be late with this Gallery post for me, but like everything, we get there in the end.

And then... there is always tomorrow. It will be a better day, and life will be perfect.

Mother Love

Can you see the pride shining from her eyes? Her little family, one boy and one girl. Maybe not perfect, but they make her proud. They can take some looking after and they work her hard. Occasionally, she falls short of the challenge, but don't we all? Sometimes, they make her cry, but they also bring her endless joy. Their love for her is as unconditional and fierce as the love she feels in her heart for them. She protects them as if she were a tigress protecting her cubs. Like any mother, she is not perfect and, try as she might, she has a favourite who gets a little more attention and time than the other. She hates to leave them, but it has to be done. She feels guilty leaving them in the care of another. After all, you never know, do you? How can anyone else care for them in the same way that she does? How can anyone else love them as much to look after them as well? The looks on their faces when she gets home after a long day say it all. Well, to her anyway.

She is the embodiment of Mother Love, aged 4. Even if they are adopted, they are her children and she is their mother.

Missy Woo and her little family

The Gallery - Hair

I love Missy Woo's hair. She was actually born with quite dark hair which has gradually lightened and is now a gorgeous dark golden blonde. Her hair, usually straight as a poker without extra help, looks like millions of fine golden threads are falling from her scalp, glossy and shining like they have almost been polished. Other mothers have told me that they would give anything for hair like hers.

When she was very little, her hair on the top of her head would stick up because she has a double crown. The only way to make it lie flat is to keep it long. It's reached her waist now, a budding Rapunzel.

Having long hair is a double-edged sword. It looks pretty and she loves that it makes her look almost princess-like, but combing it is a task of Herculean proportions and is bound to elicit tears when tangles are  reached. And that's just me. Even the special tangle combs hurt her occasionally. At least tying it up for school means that it gets less tangled but even then, she manages to get food in her hair all the time.

And yes, school has exposed her to that ever-present menace, headlice. She got them earlier in the term when her hair came out of her ponytail one day at school. Attempting to get them out with a comb took hours but the masses of golden threads were a perfect hiding place for the nasty little critters and it took resorting to some nasty liquid which turned her hair greasy to exterminate them all for good.

When I was her age, my hair was almost as long. I had it all cut off when I was a few years older than her. My choice. Looking back, it was a mistake. I hope that she keeps it for a lot longer than I did but she knows her mind and I wouldn't stand in her way if that's what she wanted.

She is a beautiful child in spirit as well as appearance, but nothing defines her more than her burnished blonde hair.

The Gallery - Education

This week, we're being encouraged to share pictures on the theme of Education. Tara seems quite interested in our own school days as much as those of our children. A lot of people were keen on sharing photos from their school days. I shrivelled in horror at the thought of this. I don't consider that I was a very pretty child, especially as I decided when I was 7 to get my hair cut quite short which I don't think helped.

I have only one picture from middle school that I won't post for fear of blinding you, as the uniform for girls included a seriously bright yellow shirt.

No, instead, I have plucked up the courage and you get this picture of me - and a few others - in the sixth form. So, here we go, here is L6 Wren from Chesham High School, circa 1981. Yes, it is (nearly) thirty years ago. Yes, I am that old. No, I'm not telling you which one is me. No, we didn't have any dress sense. Yes, we were the geeky lot. We left being cool and hip, mostly, to Kelvin and Scott. Oh, and being good at everything except the house drama competition.

Brings back memories good and bad, this picture. I am not in touch with many of these people now although none of the people I really disliked from school were in my house thankfully. I'm friends with a handful of these people on Facebook, but the majority do not even seem to know what Facebook or Twitter are. The person I consider my oldest friend is also in this picture. We don't see each other or get in touch that often but we always pick up exactly where we left off whenever we meet up.

And the saddest, scariest thing of all about this picture? At least one of these people is no longer alive. Chilling thought. A terrible counterpoint to a photograph of young adults just setting out on adult life, driven by dreams of success and hope for the future.

Go on, have a guess which one is me! I think it's probably fairly easy. And no, my dress sense is no better than anyone else's. Leave me a comment telling me which one you think is me (anyone suggesting I'm one of the blokes will get a virtual slap) and I'll tell you in a day or two. There are no prizes for getting it right, just the kudos of being a clever clogs.

The Gallery - Trees

My heart sank a tiny bit when I found out this week's prompt was trees. I don't do fancy photography well and I'm not for moody, atmospheric shots. Being as they are one of Tara's favourite things, the pressure is on to find something looking just so.

What I didn't realise was how few shots I actually have of trees. There was nothing, nothing I tell you, on my computer. Well, not unless you count the tops or bottoms of Christmas trees with other more exciting things in the foreground - and anyway a) the tree is not real and b) it's March, silly - I'm not doing Christmas now. Oh, and there was the odd shot of someone stood by the trunk of various trees. Hardly thrilling.

As a desparate final measure, I dug through my web albums and what do you know? I found a picture, largely of trees. It's actually not a bad shot, which is amazing when you consider that I took it with my old phone.

It looks so peaceful and serene, doesn't it? I wonder if you can guess where it was taken? A good few of you are bound to have been there. In fact, I know for sure that some of you have. Leave your guesses as a comment below. There are no prizes for getting it right, just a bit of kudos and some admiration from me, which I'm sure is better than any prize. But then again...

Silvophiles* should pop over to Tara's gaff to see more entries in this week's Gallery.

* Tree lovers, silly!

The Gallery - One Word

My blog post today serves a dual purpose. It's my Gallery post, for which the prompt this week is "One Word" but today is a more auspicious occasion. For today is Monkey's 6th birthday. Six years ago today, I became a mother. I may never republish his birth story (I wrote it for a discussion board I used to be on when he was born), mainly because it was so long and drawn out, I'd bore you all to tears. It featured lots of stops and starts, twists and turns, things that nearly happened but didn't. It went on for days. I was so exhausted when he was born that I couldn't really feel anything for him - I'd barely slept for several days and not at all overnight on the day he was born.

He was a difficult baby as a newborn - not the sort that would sleep easily, and I really struggled for a while to adjust to motherhood. I swear he knew how to drive us mad sometimes - he'd cry in the evenings after being put to bed, and stop just as one of us would get to outside his room, then start again when we got back downstairs! But eventually, things settled down and I soon realised how much he meant to me.

Over the intervening five or so years since, I have watched him grow from a baby to a toddler into the boy he is today. I've seen him learn to walk and talk, I've seen him meet, get to know and love his sister. I've endured his tantrums, some of which have made me cry and feel like a dreadful mother. I've seen him flourish at school, approaching everything he does with enthusiasm and a relish for new challenges; he's progressing in leaps and bounds. Last weekend, we took him to Barcelona to go to the Nou Camp and watch his dad run the marathon. He was a total trooper, prepared to pull his own case around when travelling, trying out new food and loving all the new experiences, even if some of them scared him at first.

He's funny, smart, and has an infectious laugh that can lift everyone around him. He may be naughty sometimes but he is also polite and usually rises to the situation if you explain to him that you really need him to be good for you. He's a football obsessive, which is maddening (though we only have ourselves to blame!) but it has been a joy to watch his interest and passion grow for the sport.

On Sunday, when we were waiting for my husband to finish his marathon, I realised that lots of runners were getting their children to run the final couple of hundred metres with them. One guy even picked up his sleeping newborn! I asked Monkey if he wanted to do the same and when he said yes, I popped him over the barrier to wait by the side of the road to join Daddy. He sat quietly until he appeared, ran up to him, took his hand and happily trotted off to the finish line. It was an amazing moment - even though I actually missed them crossing the line as they disappeared into the distance.

So, my picture today is of Monkey, my birthday boy, dressed in the Barcelona shirt he'd managed to talk us into buying. It has David Villa's name on the back - bet you really wanted to know that, but it's important to him! It may not be the best picture in the world but it encapsulates the boy he has become.

And in case you were thinking I'd forgotten the Gallery theme, I haven't. I've given this photo a title that describes how I feel about my boy, my Monkey. I give you one word - and that's "proud".

Happy Birthday Monkey. We love you loads.

Simple Pleasures

There are many simple pleasures in life, and we all have different ones. As a mother, simple pleasures are often the things that keep you going when parenting - and your children - feel like it's getting on top of you. That can be as simple as a strong cup of tea, drunk hot for a change. Well, that's one of mine. I'm forever forgetting about my tea and reheated in the microwave never tastes the same. I get tutted at quite a bit for not finishing my brews. Naming no names as to who that is, but it's not my children.

I love being online but that's not a particularly simple pleasure, is it? Some of my simpler ones are:

• the smell of freshly brewed coffee
• the feel of clean bed linen
• waking up, looking at the clock and realising it's not time to get up
• the excitement and joy in Monkey or Missy Woo's faces when I pick them up from school
• the children laughing or giggling
• hugs (especially from, yes, my children)
• and that hot cup of tea... 

Trying to put some of those pleasures in photographic form for The Gallery was proving to be a challenge, especially as I have not had time to take some decent photos to depict any of them. Instead, I rummaged through my digital archives and found this little series of a baking session with Missy Woo that I took a couple of years ago, depicting one of her simple pleasures. One, I suspect, that will feature a few times in other posts this week. 

It is, of course, chocolate.