Sunday, June 17, 2012

Father's Day

I was rudely awakened by an over-excited 11 year just before 8am this morning. I'm not a morning person, and it took all my patience to remember that he just desperately wanted to give Gary his card and gift. Though not his biological father, Gary is an amazing Dad, and Cassius really values the opportunity to let him know how much he loves him on Father's Day. So I counted to 10 (LOTS) and made pancakes for breakfast.

We spent most of the day in-doors, playing Skylanders and chillin' as a family. We are all a little obsessed with this game. We don't play video games often, Gary and I are too busy, and Cas is more happy either outdoors or making stuff. But this one really has sucked us in.

Our original plan for today had been to head to a castle in North Wales. However, the weather the last few days has been pretty rubbish, so we canned the trip and decided to stay home. In typical, ironic style, once we made this decision the weather brightened up!

So, before we lost all the daylight, we took our dog Luke out for a walk. We went to  Abbey Village and had a wander around the reservoirs there. Luke is an ex-gundog, a fully trained retriever, and though we don't shoot we try to keep up with his training. Cas has been enthusiastically learning how to work Luke, and it was great to watch them together today.

I (obviously) took my camera with me, still with my new Sigma lens attached. Every time I use this lens, I fall more in love it. Today, it helped me capture some lovely shots of my family.



Climbing up to see the view. 



The boys. 





I hope you all had a great Father's day too!

C
xxx

Sunday, June 10, 2012

Randomness - My ideal bike

I realise that it's been a while since I posted, well anything. Truth is my alter-ego - Claire the PhD student - has been taking up too much of my time, and shooting has been infrequent. I did however take some random pictures a couple of weeks ago in Manchester, which I thought I'd share.

Some explanation is needed though - I recently confessed to Gary that the reason I don't want to go on family bike rides is because I don't like my bike. This may not seem like a big deal, but my bike wasn't cheap. I did compromise somewhat on the style of bike to keep the cost down, but this has turned out to be false economy. I compromised too much, and now do not want to ride the bike I have. Gary took this better than I expected (since it's my money I wasted not his, he's not to fussed ;) ). And I am now in the market for a new bike, though this time I'm getting the one I want. (I know at this point some of you are imagining pinkness, and ribbons, and rainbows, and baskets.... and you wouldn't be far wrong).

So back to the Manchester pictures. Gary and I headed out into the sunshine a couple of weeks ago, and I took my camera. I'm so glad I did because look what I found!!!!!






I need a bike just like this, then my life will be complete. And we can go on bike rides all the time.

C
xxx