Some catching up and time out….

I realise I've been very neglectful with blogging of late so here is a small catch up/snapshot of what's been going on.

The final stage of my photography course - on location on the

River Chelmer

A very warm day indeed but I learnt such a lot

Enjoying learning about new techniques

Very soon after John took me away for a few days to a delightful guest  house in Arlington snuggled in the heart of the Sussex Downs

where we had our own little terrace from the French doors

to enjoy a cup of tea and cake

but more often a glass of chilled white wine

where the views were just wonderful

 and where I could put my new photographic skills to practice.





This iconic view of the Seven Sisters was something I was on a mission to capture - whew - it was a bit of a walk but well worth it in the end.

This weekend we went to a local VW rally at Battlesbridge, where we met up with the lovely Sandie from Itchifingers who also owns a V-dub. A fabulous afternoon where we spotted some great camper vans and too many to show here. Plus a selection of  some vintage and retro goodies to buy.

Well that's a bit of what's been going on - more another time. As I'm not going to have access to any broadband and internet for the next week, added to which there's a summer-load of busy-ness coming up - holidays, trips, family do's etc I've decided to take a short bloggy break. I'm going to miss catching up with you all but I'll be back mid August-ish when I hope to see you all then.

Bye for now xx

Oh my goodness.....

....where did that time go? I cannot believe it is four weeks since I posted here. If I say my feet haven't touched the ground since the Hubster retired, believe it. I think we've been through a kind of  "honeymoon period" where we were initially making the most of the good weather - days out, picnics, camper-vanning etc - you get the picture don't you. To say I've not had any time to myself is an understatement. However, enough is definitely enough. Love him as I do, I'm really in the need of some "me time" every week. I have so many things I want to do - craft, photography, writing, visits or even simply sitting down to read a book. Don't get me wrong we're really enjoying this time together but I want to get back to my old routine again.

That being so, I'm aware that I've definitely neglected my blogging of late and keeping in touch with you all. In fact I've really got out of the habit of writing altogether - in fact when I do plan to write, I think to myself "I'll do it tomorrow" and of course tomorrow never comes.

So, this is just a short post to say that yes I am still around blogosphere and raring to get going again.

Before I go, I went on a one day photography workshop last week and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. I went to a class once before but it didn't really sink in.  This time it was more or less on a one to one basis (just two students) in the morning, learning camera skills and then out on location (his words not mine) in the afternoon to put into practice what we'd learnt.

Our 'location' was at Maldon a pretty town on the Essex coastline

Home of many Thames Sailing Barges

So many shots to take - surprising what a rusty piece of metal can look like through the eyes of the camera !

We then went off to another popular place called Heybridge Basin - where the River Chelmer flows out into the North Sea.

What was going to be a quick short post to say Hi to you all, has now turned out to be a tad longer. Writing for me is either all or nothing -  watch this space.

We're off in our campervan this weekend. Have a good weekend and I'll see you soon.

New furniture and a new camera

Things have been pretty hectic here for a couple of weeks getting my guest room up to scratch with decorating and running around looking for carpets, curtains and some new furniture has left us exhausted. It's surprising how much time and effort it takes to get one room organised. The worst thing was having to empty our old spare wardrobe and chest of drawers of all their contents whilst waiting for the new furniture to arrive. Every room upstairs seemed to have something laying around and hopefully I may get a chance to sort out a few bits for the charity shop before re-stocking the new furniture. Anyway we're almost there and will post pictures in a few days.

In the meantime however, I have treated myself to this lovely new camera - a Canon Power Shot SX40HS and am absolutely delighted with it.

A bit larger than I'm used to, and a lot to take in - the instructions as usual are on software to be read on the computer (why they can't print a booklet I'll never know). Anyway if I get stuck, there's a function for Smart Auto, which means the camera will automatically select the best settings for the scene and then you just shoot.  My other camera is a Panasonic Lumix compact which has really done me proud and produced some good photos but felt an upgrade to one with more features was overdue.