A Week In The Life : Sunday

Started with morning coffee.























Spotting owls on lamp posts.























And lots of beautiful colours.























Wanting one of these for my garden.
























A pile of ironing.
























Whilst watching Jenson Button win his 200th grand prix.




A walk around a local loch where some photos were allowed.




And some weren't!























An baby frogs are very difficult to photograph!!

A Week In The Life - Saturday

I did eventually decide to play along with this annual project from Ali Edwards

Seven days of photos and words, chronicling the little things and the big things that happen from Monday through Sunday.

There’s so many different ways to approach this project. There’s no right or wrong.
Maybe you’ll follow along with me and focus on the theme of time this year. Check out my design plan and supply list here.
Maybe for you this project will be an attempt to catch just one story per day with words or photos.
Maybe for you this project will be all on your blog and you won’t be creating an album.
Maybe you’ll go all-out and jot down things as they happen on an hourly basis (even doing this for one day during the week is really cool).


My timescale is different to most of the people playing along with this project but I decided to to pick this week running from Saturday to Friday as it coincides with a visit from Dad And Wendy - and I thought it would be fun to document their stay with us. Whether I do anything with the photos is another thing..........

A visit to our fabulous local library - some new books for me and Callum and a quick chat to a couple of the lovely girls who work in there.























A walk into Elgin and a visit to the farmers market where we bought a new plant fro the garden and looked at this delicious stall selling cupcakes.
















After lunch a walk along Lossie beach - don't let that sunshine deceive you - it was a tad breezy but great to walk barefoot through the sand.





























Followed by the obligatory ice cream.
























Andy fired up the BBQ for tea.























And in between managed to read 100 pages of my new library book - wearing my new reading glasses of course!!

52 Weeks In B&W # 31

A rare photo of Sam.

Skywatch Friday

Season 5, episode 3.

Perfect blue skies down by the sea this week.

See more skies from around the world here.

Chick Lit Reading Challenge # 17 and # 18

I have read some cracking books just lately - even with my dodgy eyesight and having to hold my book at arms length to be able to see the words clearly!!

My 17th book for the Chick Lit Reading Challenge was One Day In May by Catherine Alliott:






One day in May, Hattie's life changes for ever ...Hattie Carrington has good reason to be happy. Her antiques business is flourishing, her teenage son is settled at school and she's enjoying a fling with a sexy, younger man. But when work takes her back to the village of Little Crandon, heartbreaking memories of her first love surface. It seems that the secret affair with married politician Dominic Forbes, which changed the course of her life, just won't go away. So when Hattie's bumps into Dominic's widow and his gorgeous younger brother, Hal, her world is turned upside down. Though she's still trying to hide from her mistakes, she knows that if she's ever to fall in love again she needs to be honest with others, and herself. Can she admit what really happened with Dominic all those years ago? And, if so, is she ready for the consequences?

I loved this book - a perfect holiday story to get yourself lost in. The main character of Hattie was very believable and you soon got gripped with all the different story lines and characters running through the book. I totally wasn't expecting the major twist in the tale towards the end - but I won't spoilt it for you.


My 18th book I blogged about yesterday and which I finished this morning. It was my first Rowan Coleman book - The Happy Home For Broken Hearts - but it won't be my last. My only criticsm is that it all ended on a cliffhanger but maybe that means there will be a sequel. Here's hoping!! She too has a new book out which I have on reserve from my local library called Lessons In Laughing Out Loud.

It's Monday. What Are You Reading?

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between! D This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

Read a fe cracking books over the past week and my current one is no exception. After reading an interview with Rowan Coleman over on Reabookreview I remembered that I had one of her books called The Happy Home For Broken Hearts in my library book pile. I haven't read anything by this author before but the cover looked appealing (which is probably why I picked it off the shelf in the first place!!)





Ellie Woods spends her days immersed in the escapist pages of the romantic novels she lovingly edits. But her reality is somewhat less rose-tinted. Once upon a time, Ellie had her ‘happily ever after’ moment when she married her beloved Nick, but fifteen years later her husband’s tragic death leaves her alone with their soon-to-become-a-teenager son, faced with a mountain of debt, and on the verge of losing the family home.


On the brink of bankruptcy, Ellie finally succumbs to her sister’s well-meant bullying and decides to rent out some rooms. And all too soon the indomitable Allegra with her love for all things lavender, Sabine on secondment from Berlin and estranged from her two-timing husband, and unreconstructed lads’ mag aficionado Matt enter her ordered but fragile existence – each with their own messy life in tow. And Ellie finds herself forced to step out of the pages of the romantic novels she hides behind, and learn to live – and love – again.


Maybe a new chapter is about to begin for them all…



I am thoroughly enjoying this book and can't put it down - I love all the characters and although I could spot the twist in the take coming and it has made me smile. Rowan has a new book which has just come out called Lessons In Laughing Out Loud and I will be keeping my eye out for that one too.

I have a few books due back at the library shortly so I will be reading those next - Heading Home by Katie Flynn and Never Too Late by Cathy Kelly.

Pop over to The Book Journey to see what everyone else is reading this week.

Smoky Bear Lodge

The first part of our vacation was spent just outside Gatlingburg at Black Bear Falls which is described as a log home community and our particular lodge was called Smoky Bear Lodge - you can see more photos of our lodge on their website.

The trees have grown a lot more since those photos were taken I think - but it did mean that the only lodge we could see was the one that was slightly up the hill from us.

























The lodge was equipped to a very high standard but I think the full sized pool table and the hot tub on one of the balconies were the most popular!!





My favourite spot was the upstairs balcony with a view of the mountains. Perfect for taking in the view with a morning coffee whilst sitting on one of the rocking chairs

Or an evening drink. It was made even more special in the evening by the fireflies. The trees were full of these glowing insects so that it looked like loads of tiny fairy lights twinkling on and off. Matthew took great delight in telling us that if you caught one and squashed it you could write on the floor with it - and that would glow too! Needless to say we didn't try that one.
































This is the entrance to the development - had to chuckle at the photo opportunity sign - so I made Sam stand their - one for the scrapbook!!!!

52 Weeks In B&W # 30

Lossiemouth beach yesterday evening.

Skywatch Friday

Series 5, episode 2.

The Daredevil.
Six Flags Over Georgia.

The rest of my family were in that car on the rollercoaster whereas I was in charge of the bags - with my feet firmly on the ground!!

Week In The Life

I have seen this week long project run by Ali Edwards on quite a few peoples blogs just lately and it got me thinking whether or not to join in.

I wouldn't be doing it the same week as everyone else (just to be different) but the week after. That is when my Dad is coming up to stay and because we only see him once a year we manage to pack quite a bit into our week so it would be a good way to record the occassion.

I will think about it some more - I am not a big fan of Ali Edwards or her sytle of scrapping but I do like reading her blog and I like her photogrpahy - and see if I can come up with my own version.

Going Green

After working on the garden over the weekend we decided that our garden looks rather "green" with not a lot of colour about. I don't suppose there is much we can do about it now but I need to have a look at some bulb catalogues to see what we can plant in the Autumn for a more colourful display next Spring and Summer.

But in the meantime it looks as though it won't be too long before some plants burst into life.

Group photo

On the first day of our vacation we drove North from Atlanta to The Smoky Mountain which is a mountain range running along the Tennessee - North Carolina border.

We were travelling in convoy with the boys in the pick up truck in front and Kath, myself and all the kids following on behind. Talking on mobile phones is allowed over there but walkie talkies were easier. The boys drove straight past the sign announcing that we were actually in the national park but before we could radio in to them they knew that they had to turn the trucks around as a prime photo moment would be missed!! We are training them well.

Trying to get everyone to sit still and in one place was a bit like herding cats! But after some trial and error - and the timer on the camera we managed to get everyone in shot.


Cousins! And yes they were like this for most of the holiday:





Me and Kath - with Laura and Callum as bookends:



Andy and Phil - with Sam unable to keep out of the shot!























Yeah - everyone together:

RAF Lossiemouth saved from closure

This is the new I have just heard - and my fingers are crossed that it is true.

Explore

This is the name of the new class which starts today run by Shimelle.

I will stick my hand in the air straight away and admit to not really knowing what this class is all about - from what I quickly read before I impulse pressed the button it is something about a journey.

Perfect. I am just back from a road trip around some of the southern states in the US so maybe it will be a perfect way to prompt me to actually document our vacation properly. And the odds on me finishing the class - I would say slim if my track record is anything to go by. But one of the good things about these classes is that they can be done at your own pace - and you don't have to keep up with everyone if you don't want to/don't have the time.

The first task was to take a self portrait - so I headed out into the garden as I much prefer to photogrpah in natural light. I changed it to black and white as that seems to be slightly more forgiving!!




My note to self on 18th July 2011:

I think writing this note is more daunting than the self portrait! My reasons for signing up for this class are above - I took over 2000 photos on our vacation but I could probably count on one hand the number of those photos that I appear in. I feel happier when I am behind the camera rather than in front of it - even when it does play up and not do what it is supposed to do.

So I have all the photos and a big bag of new stash thanks to some stateside shopping - but I'm not really feeling inspired to create anything with them all. There is always something else I should be doing - and gone are the days when it was all I waned to do.

I am hoping this class - and it's participants - will inspire me to get creative once more.

And first thing on my list will be to make my playbook - I know I have some 4x6 index cards which I could use - if I could remember where I had put them............