Views through a lens

Sometimes I reach for the camera all day long, and wonder whether perhaps I spend too much time looking at life through a lens. Other times I know that the camera helps me to see the beauty in the ordinary, to be present in a different way, and it is good for us. Sometimes I'm just too busy to pick up the camera at all. And sometimes, still other times, I feel so empty I don't see anything in my life worth memorialising.

Recently has been a bit of an empty time. And following such a positive time filled with everyday blessings and contentedness, it has seemed very very barren. Since we came back from our holiday I have been trying to get back into the habit of journalling, blogging, photographing, creating art (with and without my children) but it is taking EFFORT. And I don't like that - these dry times when I can't find that artistic spark make me feel more restless than ever.

Still, these megre offerings, through my lens, a few bits of this past week.









And a flicker of real inspiration found in my new book (and an old craft remembered). Oh, and slow SLOW knitty progress.
Lastly, I leave you with more happy things. Tonight's dinner, made entirely by Morgan. Red pepper soup, and garlic dough balls. :)

So...

We have met new friends, taught babywearing, fed the ducks, and got a new book (which I will show you all more of some time soon because I am still absorbing it - but it is Very Very Exciting)...

We have attended a funeral and left smiling (Nadia would have loved it, she hated funerals and it was SO un-funeral-like)...

We have been back to the Space Centre (again!)...

This week has felt so very normal, and bright, and beautiful. We are full of newness and sharing and fun. We are a long way from things actually being normal, but each new day gives us yet more hope.

Pause

Sometimes, running away is VERY MUCH the right thing to do. I took the girls off on the train for a week away, which as it turned out involved a lot of sand, a power cut (!), not nearly enough sleeping (lol) and some wonderful friends.



Collecting things on the beach. I have been looking, since I was very small, for a stone with a natural hole through it - and I found one, my first one, on my first day here. :)



Yup, of COURSE I took crochet away with me.One park of many!Visiting Angie's Home-ed group. Waiting for people to arrive...Paddling in the stream...Lovely and very varied walk, chatting away, making friends...The next day we met up with one family again. Rob and Carol and their lovely lovely children took us to some of their favorite places, fed us delicious picnics, and were such great company. The children were so sad to be parted at the end of the day!
Most of my pictures of Grace look like this - she loves cameras but would really prefer to be the other side of the lens.This is one of the pictures she took - Rob and the children with our picnic. :)More walks. :)

Morgan walked into the side of a big stone bench, and gave herself quite an impressive bump. A dustbin truck was driving past, and the driver got out to see if she was OK, carried her to me, and offered us his first aid kit. So very very kind and thoughtful. Poor Morgan was pretty swollen, and I carried her for a while not quite sure whether to take yet another holiday trip to A&E!She felt a little better when she saw that we were going to the sea, and climbed down and ran off. So we thought she'd probably be fine after all! The children played on this beach for a while too, small as it was. There was lots of slimy seaweed, which was fun, and more stones with holes in, and Rowan collected a HUGE bag full of sand and grit (which was quietly replaced when she wasn't looking). I asked them to stay out of the water, which lasted until I sat down to nurse Rowan, and the big ones went in up to their knees wearing all their dry clothes. Ah well.

We wore the baby out frequently this week!Russell-Cotes museum and views from above Bournemouth pier.

There were dressing up clothes for the children. The little ones were most impressed.
Before getting back on the train, we spent another morning on the beach, in the sun and the sea and the sand. And oh, it was good. :)
"Look! Balloon!"

I have a huuge soft spot for sandy baby feet...


Then home we came. The train was, um, stressful (busy, noisy, not enough time to change in Birmingham, and over four whole hours of me attempting to get the children to stay where I could see them). But I found myself feeling, the closer we got, that it was more than just our home we were returning for. Hope for rebuilding, family, more anyhow than I expected to return to. I am tired, but so much less weary.