Last summer part I

Time for a recap from the time when I wasn’t blogging last year, starting with a bunch of random pix from France. For the last couple of summers we’ve taken the train down to the south, to spend time with my sister and her family at their house there. It’s not the most straight forward of journeys, but I like to think that if we can opt to go somewhere by train rather than fly, then that is what we do. This has usually worked out well, but last year we were unlucky in that our onward train from Paris got cancelled, as did all trains heading south that day - a mini tornado (climate change much?) had knocked down trees onto the tracks. So not only were we then stuck, but we were stuck in Paris, during the Olympics. Anyway, after standing in Gare du Nord for 5 hours in +35c degree heat (with armed police doing the rounds of the station because of heightened security measures - très relaxing), we got allocated a hotel room by the train company, ironically by CDG airport, and continued our onward journey the day after. I took this picture as we had to sit in the café carriage, waiting to be allocated seats on the train, and as I did a guy walked past and asked “Did you get a good picture?”, and you know what? I think I did.

So, we arrived a day late, which was luckily no big deal, and that evening we went for dinner in a small village with a view, where I took a pic of a selfie being taken with the view, rather than actually taking picture of the view. I did take a pic of the sunset though.

After the meal, as we walked back to the car, I was happy to see these two young guys playing pétanque past sun down.

It was very hot for the duration of our stay, as that’s what’s southern Europe is like these days, but dunking yourself in the pool to cool down always worked.

We were lucky (!) enough to have a couple of days when the weather turned. This cloud showed up a few minutes before there was an almighty hailstorm,

as did this one on another day, when the sky rumbled with thunder.

Another picture from after another dinner out, with one of my nieces tying her shoe laces. Her aunt found it picture worthy.

Me and my shadow, him and his shadow.

This is where we’d eat all our meals at home, while mosquitoes in turn would feast on us. Turns out my sis is an amazing cook who can whip up a multi-dish dinner for 10+ people, whilst also cooking something different for the youngest kids and for the one pescatarian grown up (🙋🏽‍♀️), without even getting remotely flustered.

A sunset without my glasses.

In one corner of a covered terrace a couple of swallows had nested, and they were working so hard every day to feed their little ones. I’m very chuffed that I managed to catch one mid-air with a worm/bug in their beak, on the way to the nest.

What else? Well, at one point there was some horse snuggles,

some very well trimmed trees

and some jumping shadows.

There was also a vineyard,

the moon

and time for star gazing. We’d go and lie on the pool loungers in the dark and watch the Persied meteor shower pass by, and shout “There!” every time we saw a ‘shooting star’. You don’t see this many stars home in London, so even just looking at a night sky like this, without a passing meteor shower, is pretty special.

We also had fun showing the nieces the magic of light painting, of which Mr Famapa is a master. He drew this one around one of the nieces with the torch on his phone, and I shot it on a long open shutter, and voilà - photographs are magique and that’s a fact.

Strange days

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Hello peeps. How you doin’? All good here; everyone is in good health and spirits, going into week 5 of the lockdown. It’s a strange time for sure, but it’s also strange how quickly one adapts to what is now our new everyday life. We are of course very lucky to live how and where we live, and so we feel grateful for what feels like a pause. And again, I stress how lucky we are to just be able to feel that we’re on pause, and not losing family members or our livelihood (not yet anyway for the latter, but that will hit hard once society opens up again, but there’s no point in worrying about it yet, as there’re nothing that can be done about it). It’s all so surreal, and equally surreal is how strange life just a few months ago seems, and how we just took it for granted. So, looking at these pictures from our summer holidays in France last year now feels like 10 years ago, from a bygone era where holidays were not an abstract concept like it feels like now. These were taken in the neighbouring villages to where we were staying, and weirdly that same feeling of being on holiday is where we are at now, but knowing full well of the nightmare that is going on at the same time out there. Strange days indeed.

Just read this blog post on the Modern House Journal, and I think it perfectly sums up what I’m feeling right now.

Painting with the moon

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Aaahhh, the magic that is light painting with a camera, but this time with a twist! Using the moon as the light - yeeeeeah! So, back in the summer (when we were in France), after having put the kids to bed, we stayed out on the terrace, chatting away in the moonlight. I wondered what would happen if you tried to do a light painting with the moon, and this is the result. Mr Famapa had way better skills, and could actually draw proper things, where as I went for the more abstract style. There’s a super moon on Wednesday, so look out for it!

I capture the castle ;)

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I’m going to be switching between current pics and catch ups from now on - I’m sure you don’t mind. So, let’s continue with pics from last year’s France trip in the summer. After our visit to the Marqueyssac gardens, we drove the 10 mins down the road to Chateau de Castlenaud, which was perfect, as the gardens were definitely more of a thing for the mamas. At the chateau there were trebuchets, armour and weapons to have a look at, and facts to learn about the castle itself and what life was like back then. I wonder if they ever stood waving at their own shadows too?

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A trebuchet and the top of the castle. And a very blue French sky.

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I spotted these birds perched on a ledge, and I was myself kind of hanging out of one as I took this, thinking that it would be so stupid to fall to my death taking this. I was hoping I might catch one of them in mid-flight, but no luck.

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Window filter.

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Taking it all in.

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And finally, a beautiful evening sky on the drive home. The boys sat in the back listening to an audio book while we all gazed at the changing colours and the night creeping in. Seems so long ago now.