Tag Archives: the gallery

The Gallery – Motherhood

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Just over two years ago someone came into my life and changed it astronomically.  I anxiously awaited her arrival for nine months, pored over baby name books and cherished every kick (even the ones to the ribs).  Then, one Wednesday afternoon in late May 2008, she arrived, screaming and red, but perfect, and with her she brought joy and love and happiness.

And since that Wednesday, I’ve watched as she’s developed from this helpless tiny newborn, wide eyed, colicky, and always hungry, to the charming, sweet, funny, fiercely independent (“TURN, Mummy, TURRRN” when she wants to do something for herself) toddler she is now.  Oh, and she’s still always hungry.

There is nothing I love more than being Ruby’s mummy.

The Gallery – Self Portrait

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I’m taking this week’s Gallery entry very literally, and also merging it with another meme that is doing the rounds on the blogosphere, despite the fact I am over a week late for it.

I am a bare naked lady.

Or at least, my face is.  (This is a family blog, you guys.)

And it’s funny that this should come around so close to my birthday because it coincides with another project I’m starting this year.  I’ve stolen Mandajuice‘s idea of taking a photo of my face, sans any kind of makeup, each year on my birthday.  The idea is that I’ll be able to see how I’m aging as it happens.

Well, my birthday is another two and a half weeks away yet, but it’s close enough.

I never leave the house without makeup on, I will always at the very least apply some mascara and lipgloss.  And under normal circumstances would never ever allow a camera to be pointed at my bare naked face.  So I feel quite brave doing this.

The Gallery – Ain’t No Other Man

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Week 11 of Tara Cain’s Gallery meme.  I am having fun with this.

This week’s theme is the men in our lives, and so I’d like to introduce you to my husband-to-be, the sole provider in our household, the father of my children (both born and yet-to-be-conceived), the man who gave up his job to go freelance two years ago so he could spend more time with his new baby girl (and is rocking that shit, but now works so hard he spends less time with us), and who let’s us tag along when he goes on business meetings so I can hang out with a friend and get the girls out and about.  We met at primary school when we were five.  It’s true, look here.  And twenty one years later, this July, we are getting married.

Yes, this man makes my heart soar.



The Gallery – The World We Live In (On Chesil Beach)

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Interesting theme this week.  Unlike last week, a photo didn’t immediately spring to mind, nothing I’d already taken really jumped at me.  And I spent a few days giving it a lot of thought before I figured out exactly what I was going to post for Tara Cain’s Gallery this week.

Chesil Beach, Dorset.  Part of the Jurassic Coast and a place I’ve been a little fascinated with since my GCSE Geography days.  The Fleet lagoon behind the spit, the sheer length of it, the way the pebbles increase in size the closer you get to the Isle of Portland.  It seemed a little magical to me, a little romantic.  And after I read On Chesil Beach by Ian McEwan, well, that was it, I had to go there.

When we finally did go there last summer, en route to Cornwall, it suddenly became even more romantic and even more magical than I’d previously imagined.  Because I got engaged on Chesil Beach.  We hauled our Phil & Ted’s buggy up the shingle, sat at the top of the bank in the sunshine with Ruby, looked out over the English Channel, smelt the lung-cleansingly fresh ozoney sea air, and right there, Ross asked me to marry him.

And without any hesitation whatsoever, I said yes.

I couldn’t resist posting more than one photo of Chesil Beach, because I think they all sum up just how gorgeous this place is.  We’ll definitely be visiting this part of the world again, especially now that it holds such significance for us both.