New Camera, New Inspiration!

Two posts in a week!  Can you believe it!!

I am back to report that I have a new camera, and I am all inspired to take more photos again!  My old Nikon SLR is over 10 years old now, (and it was an old model when we bought it!), and is so heavy to lug around over my shoulder.   I wanted a lighter camera that was a bit better than a 'point and shoot'. My new phone has a fairly decent camera for that.  So we went into Jessops, and had a really lovely assistant who spent ages with us looking at the small mirrorless cameras.  I chose the Panasonic LX100, as it has a decent size sensor, and lots of dials and buttons for manual adjustment.  It looks a bit retro in the silver too!

It has its first outing up to London on my birthday on a really sunny Sunday in March.  We  were headed for lunch in the Shard!  Here's some photos:

The Shard is the tallest building in London.  We were headed for the 32nd floor for the restaurant, about half way up.

We were so lucky with the weather!  Bright, sunny and clear.  Here's a view towards the financial district with the 'walkie talkie' and the 'gherkin', other iconic buildings.

Looking to the East, with Tower Bridge in the foreground, and Canary Wharf in the background.

That is St Paul's Cathedral in the centre of the photo.

We had a lovely lunch, lovely food, well presented and brilliant service.   I thoroughly recommend the restaurant.  It was so lovely to spend the day with my family on a day out!

From left ro right, Danny (Lucy's boyfriend), Lucy, Nicholas and Maurice.

Finally, here's me and Maurice by Tower Bridge.  

So now I am all inspired again, can you suggest photo memes or challenges that I can join in and post on  my blog?

Two more Adventures - Number One

You may remember that my one little word this year is ADVENTURE!  Well, after our epic adventure in Australia and New Zealand, I am about to embark on 2 more adventures!

Number One: Meet our new puppy!  He is an English Springer Spaniel, and in these photos he is 6 weeks old!  How cute is he??? We are going to collect him in just over a week's time.  So we are busy getting the house and garden puppy proof!  As yet he doesn't have a name.  We like Oscar, Charley, Bobby and Monty.  Any thoughts?  Or other ideas?  As you can see he is mostly black, and has the cutest face ever!

I have uploaded these photos via my phone, and have had to use blogger instead of live writer for this post, so the layout might look a bit different.  First picture is Lucy holding the puppy.  Third picture includes the other puppies and his mother, Pearl.  In the fourth picture you can see how black he is.

Expect this blog to become rather doggy over the next few months!  Can't wait!

Month in Numbers–2 Birthdays

There were 2 special birthdays this month.  Mine (always special) on the 25th and my Mum’s friend Barbara was 80 on 27th.

I celebrated my birthday on the day with Lucy.  She took me to a lovely spa day at the Marriott Hotel at Lingfield race course (no races that day!)  We had 2 treatments each; I chose a ‘taster’ facial and nail file and paint, Lucy chose the facial and a back massage.  We had lunch in the bar (in our robes) and then spent the afternoon in and out of the sauna, hot tub, steam room and swimming pool.  We felt all nice and clean aftewards.  There were 6 people to my birthday dinner, a chinese takeaway.  All in all a really lovely day!

I was invited to accompany Mum to her friend’s birthday celebration.  Mum and Barbara have been friends for over 50 years!  We were intrigued with the invitation as it said that we were invited to celebrate Barbara’s birthday from 2-6pm and then afterwards for supper at her daughter’s house.  It was a surprise for everyone, including Barbara! 

We arrived to find a a large coach waiting for us all to board.  I’m guessing there would be about 50 of us all together.  We drove to pick up the ‘birthday girl’, then north for about 8 miles to Wiston House for afternoon tea.  It was lovely!

Here’s Barbara with her 2 children, and a picture of me with my Mum.

Wiston House has a really interesting history.  It is part of the Wilton Park conference organisation and has held important conferences.  Have a look at this history if you are interested.

Not so many numbers this month, but I am linking up with Julie Kirk for Month in Numbers.

One picture, 20 words

35 years ago yesterday I married my soul mate.  It wouldn’t be different if we had known then what we know now.

 

Thanks to Abi for this idea.

Scrubbed and Polished!

 

Way back in December Lucy turned 21.  One of her presents was tickets for both of us to go to a Maroon 5 concert at the O2 arena in London.  It was supposed to be last weekend, but Maroon 5 have postponed until next January!  So we looked around for something else to do, and came across a ‘pamper day’ at a local hotel on Groupon.  I am not usually all that keen on beauty treatments, but Lucy really wanted to go so we packed our swimming costumes and off we drove!  We had 2 ‘mini’ treatments each, a pedicure and a facial.  Look at my toes!

We had a really lovely lunch, all healthy stuff, sitting in the bar area.  The waitress asked me if I was Merlin’s owner!  I didn’t recognise her at first, so asked her what her dog’s name was.  It turned out that we used to walk our dogs together about 8 years ago!  Sadly she had lost her dog earlier this year too.

Our day was made when we ventured outside to the pool (the water, a balmy 30 degrees) and then the sun came out!  So we sat in the sun for the afternoon, perfect!

Remember my craft challenge?  June was supposed to be make a bag, which I am pleased to report I have done.  It’s a doggie bag!  I made it from a pattern in Lynette Anderson’s book It’s Quilting Cats and Dogs.

New Year’s Resolutions and Goals

Some of you who have read my blog for a while will know that I love making new year’s resolutions and setting goals for myself.  A few years ago I did an online class: How to achieve your goals and live the life you love with Aby Garvey at www.simplify101.com.  I still chat on the forum daily with the same dozen or so participants, who have become firm friends.   We set ourselves annual goals, but then break them down month by month. 

This year I started with my ‘One Little Word’ (an idea from www.aliedwards.com), which is CREATE.   I have set goals for a creating a healthy lifestyle, creating a comfortable and welcoming home and we are in the process of planning some very exciting travel later in the year.  I would dearly like to do more craft this year, and schedule crafting time into my life on a weekly basis.

Aby has written 2 inspiring blog posts here and here about setting 13 goals in 2013.  This got me thinking, what 13 goals could I set myself for 2013? Bearing in mind my crafting goal, I have decided to use this idea to set myself crafting goals for each month of the year.  I have lots of ideas (far more than 13 actually!) and will set one per month.

To kick it all off, I am making January a ‘finish-off’ month and will finish my 2012 album, and my Christmas album (JYC).  Here are my December pages in my 2012 album, Project Life style:

Hope you like them!  I am going to make 2013 album a bit simpler and make more 12 x 12 LOs for my other albums.  In fact, I still have to organise my albums despite Shimelle’s class being several months ago (last May in fact!)  So there’s a job I need to do.  I am confused between Stacey Julian’s Library of Memories and annual albums.  More about this later!

Storytelling Sunday–Sporting Prowess

OOps! A day late, but never mind, here’s my story for this Olympic month of August 2012'.

I am inspired by the wonderful tally of gold medals (now 16!!) that it got me thinking about our sporting prowess.  The only really sporty one is Lucy.  Maurice does a little running, and once ran a marathon, but Lucy was an England Champion!

Lucy and her cousin Izzy started to play volleyball when they got to high school.  Thanks so much to Freda Bussey, the PE teacher who loved volleyball and got them playing to such a high standard.  They won the under-16 England championship in 2008.  We all trooped off to Bath University to support them.  They were the under-dogs having been well and truly beaten by the other side previously.  But they won!  Wow, we were so happy for them!

 

Here’s the moment they won:

Team photo with coach Freda Bussey:

Lucy and Izzy holding the cup.

Sadly, Lucy doesn’t play any more, but Izzy does.  In fact, Izzy’s friend Megan just missed getting into the England women’s team this year!  Watch this space, she will surely be a future star.

Freda was well and truly recognised for her great work for volleyball when she was picked to be an Olympic flame torchbearer.

10 on the 10th–Nicholas’s graduation

Nicholas graduated from Bath University last Wednesday.  He gained a first class honours degree in Computer Science.  Well done Nicholas!!!  Here’s 10 photos from our day:

How lovely to have a photo of us 4 all together!  This photo was taken in the Computer Science department at the university where we went for a buffet lunch afterwards.  The ceremony itself was held in Bath Abbey in the centre of town.  It was really lovely, and not too long!  They actually held 10 sittings, can you imagine the poor Chancellor having to say his speech 10 times!  Afterwards we caught the bus back up to the university and it was a lovely sight through the town with students in gowns and hats with their families everywhere.  What a happy occasion!

This last photo shows Nicholas in front of his poster for his final project.  He was getting fed up with having his photo taken by now

Nicholas is home full time now, and has started his new job yesterday!  The start of a new era for him  Wishing him the best of luck in his career.

ORP BLYSKAWICA

At the beginning of World War 2, 3 Polish navy ships came under the jurisdiction of the British Royal Navy (The Peking Pact).  One of these ships was the destroyer ORP Blyskawica.  In Jan 1942, a young Polish sailor called Wincenty Pieczonka joined the ship.  Here he is, the middle of these 3 sailors.

 

After the war, Wincenty stayed in the UK, and married Marjorie. They had 3 sons, Robin, John and Maurice (my husband). They anglicised their name and Wincenty became Vincent Pierce, although he was known as Wicek for all his life. Sadly he died 11 years ago, aged 82. He did make return visits to Poland but not until 40 years later.  We went with him in 1988, and met many of Maurice’s Polish aunts, uncles and cousins!

In May 1942, ORP Blyskawica was in Cowes on the Isle of Wight for a refit, back at the shipyard, Samuel White, where she was built.  During the night of the 4th May, the Luftwaffe launched an attack on the town and the shipyard.  The Blyskawica defended the town, laying down smokescreens and firing  anti-aircraft guns.  Although there was a lot of damage to the town, and 70 people lost their lives, it is evident that it would have been much worse without the brave acts of the sailors on board the Blyskawica.

 

Yesterday, the town of East Cowes commemorated the 70th anniversary of the air raid.  We had a family outing to the Island to join in! 

From L-R, Mark (John’s son), John, Janice (Robin’s wife), Maurice and Robin.

We started off at East Cowes cemetary for a wreath laying ceremony.  Here are some present day Polish sailors giving their salute.

The local heritage centre had put on a brilliant display in their shop window and in the town hall.

Then we went on a guided ‘air-raid’ walk, around places where the worst damage was inflicted.  There were people who had actually lived there during the raid and it was fascinating to hear their stories.  One sad story was that one of the bombs – destined for the Blyskawica – hit a communal air raid shelter killing 20 out of 23 people sheltering in it.  One lady on the walk was the daughter of one of those 3 survivors!  As you can see, the weather wasn’t great!  It was bitterly cold and drizzly rain.

After watching some traditional Polish dancing, and studying the original plans of the ship (did you know that the space was planned right down to where they were going to store different types of provisions, one area for mates potatoes, and a separate area for officers potatoes!)

We wandered around and went to West Cowes, where they have named a square after the Captain of the ship – Francki.  His daughter was present at this weekend’s commemorations.

The ship now resides in Gydnia in Poland and serves as a floating museum.  Wicek did visit the ship during the 1990s on one of his trips to Poland.

I’m linking up with Sian’s Storytelling Sunday