Elise and her Daddy - my latest album in the making...

I'm delighted to see that there is a new follower of my blogspot....

Welcome Jonathan......
The pictures of 'you know who' are great, and I spent over 3 hours uploading them into the album-making website this evening, and then over an hour turning them into what I hope will be an album that you will love.....

Elise is a little star. It was lovely having her as my fourth project in Norfolk.
Give her a kiss from me x
Click the picture to see it full size....

I will let you know when the album is in the post...

Throwleigh Village Pond gets a clearout.

Colin the Editor of the Okehampton Times asked me to go along and take a picture for the paper of the village pond at Throwleigh receiving some attention. Local folks had been encouraged to come and lend a hand as the water feed had silted up and vegetation had taken a firm hold.
Great fun all round. The group picture should be in this week's edition.

Motor bike ride on Dartmoor....

Pending.......

Brilliant ride as a pillion passenger, out over the Moor with members of Devon Advanced Motorcyclists on Saturday....
Rob took pictures....

Will get them off him soon

Don't miss my latest food review....the Sandy Park Inn at Chagford.

Just a very quick line to alert you to my latest food review, on Curry Night at the Sandy Park Inn at the bottom of our drive....

Photographic project number 3 whilst on holiday in Norfolk !!

One of the other projects that I took on whilst in Norfolk was to take photos of a 'works in progress' at a lovely big house that Elizabeth's builder Rosy is currently working on. It's a Georgian (I think) house which has a huge amount of restoration work taking place but it is obvious from the standard of word being carried out that the new owners are planning to turn it into a stunning home to live in.
One of the guys working on the old woodwork and replacing damaged skirting boards, bannisters, architraves etc is Matt who will hopefully be renovating Elizabeth's sash windows at the front of her new property.
Rob and I took over 80 photos to have ready to make a before and after file of work carried out.

Can't wait to see the finished job. It will be very interesting to see the pre versus the post views. Click the pictures to see full size. I did carry out one more assignment whilst we were in Norfolk, and it was perhaps the most enjoyable one.... more on that tomorrow.

See you then followers !!

At last a trip to Norfolk....

We wanted to nip up to Norfolk, not least because I needed to see Elizabeth's face. Mothers whose children live across the other side of the country or world will understand this feeling. It's a need to smell your child's neck that overwhelms you isn't it ?.... I hate the fact that she is a 6 (if you're lucky) hour drive away from us.

Builders are busy renovating her small newly acquired house and office project which should make her life much more manageable, and should result in us being able to stay with her during our infrequent visits there.
At present she is shoehorned into a small temporary bedroom with a mattress at floor level whilst she oversees work on the build which has cash injections from the Bank of Mum and Dad. 'Bless....!'

So for the first couple of nights we, Rob and I stayed at a local B&B belonging to a railway buff in Downham Market. Typical Elizabeth, she had done a deal with the chap so that we could stay there at half price in exchange for us taking pictures of the place for a new website that she is building him. As one night B&B would have cost £60 which is the exact minimum charge we make for a visit to take pictures on site (less the mileage to Norfolk of course!) this was completely the best for both of us..... I will add a link to the website when Elizabeth's happy gang in the office http://www.lingodesign.co.uk/ come up with the goods. The following 2 nights we spent in the divine home (just click on the picture of our bathroom) of Veronica de Lotbiniere who runs a company that introduces well to do foreign visitors to the lifestyle of the Upper Classes of England. Guests are invited to stay at her house on the Suffolk Norfolk border and to take in a colourful tour of this fair land staying at stately homes, sampling the lifestyle of the well to-do, with trips to Royal Ascot, Wimbledon and the like, with huntin, shootin and fishin as an options along with possible polo and point to point on offer in season. Veronica herself is the most lovely generous bubbly person, and I for one would enjoy a countrywide jolly with her as companion/overseer. Once again, Elizabeth asked us to take photos for use on a website, so I only offer you these 3 shots, but I suggest you click on them to see what a smashing home we were privileged to stay in. Lucky us.

Veronica is just putting finishing touches to fabulous bed and breakfast accommodation she is soon to have on offer for ordinary tourists; and as the National Trust's Oxburgh Hall is her direct next door neighbour, I think she will do very well indeed as the accommodation in a converted coach house is high quality and very special, a perfect romantic holiday location on the east coast. The minute pictures are ready to view on her website, I shall put up the link for everyone to see her lovely home.

We stayed at the Trout Inn at Tadpole Bridge on the way home, but that will have to wait for another time...

What a brilliant job I've got

I am so lucky, I get to see lots of special things in my job as a photographer.
Mairi Hunt is a most talented sculptress and she needed some pictures of her work taken. Having organised a website for her recently http://www.neadon.co.uk/ for her self catering cottage in a most superb location on Dartmoor, she rang me to come and take pictures of her current work.....
And brilliant stuff it is too. Take a look at the detail of the fish in the otter's clutches. Wow.
I should be organising a website for all these wonderful pieces soon. Will alert you when to take a look.

Don't miss the latest food review

Just to let you know that I have updated the food review page with a write up of a recent visit to Brown's in Tavistock..... you will find the link for food reviews on the home page http://www.dartmooraccommodation.co.uk/

the magic of conkers

Nancy came to stay overnight and we were keen to take her for an Autumn walk ...
In the lane we found a thousand conkers to kick. She's at that lovely age where she can master 3 words together. So although I am always referred to in adult language as Granny, she came out with 'Nancy conker Nanny' which made perfect sense to me.. bearing in mind that she can't quite make the GR sound at the start of Granny.
Do notice the handsome beads that we are both wearing.... click the photos to see them large. I always wear something round my neck and she often makes a move to filch it from me. So earlier on I had offered her one or two strings of beads to distract her during nappy change, and she insisted that I wear at least 2 strings of beads myself. So it ended up with me setting forth slightly overdressed for the occasion.

Sorry to be such a tardy correspondant (or is it correspondent ?)

Not been at the desk much this week as my pal Jo has been down from Shrewsbury. She's going through a divorce. It's tempting always to say a messy divorce isn't it, but I guess no divorce is a picnic.
So we tried to make her feel welcome and spoil her a little with a few of the niceties of life, tea in bed, no housework thank you very much, favourite food and lots of time to chat.
On Monday she and I took Nancy off Jennifer's hands for a few hours and walked into Exeter, which was new territory for Jo. There's something about a toddler that makes you forget your troubles, and Jo was a lot more chipper when we had taken Nancy to the park on the way home, even though we were back at Jaff's later than we had been instructed, and we lost Brownie points for leaving the grand-daughter's drinking cup in Giraffe restaurant in the city.... yes the one where the extremist tried to let off a suicide bomb in the cafe toilet last June.
The thing I like about the Giraffe is that the windows take up the whole of the frontage, allowing those indoors to watch the world go by. The notion that a man approaching in the street, could walk through the door, nip into the cafe toilet and contemplate blowing everyone in the building to Kingdom Come takes some getting your head round.
But hey, let's think of better things to cheer ourselves up. Jo set off this morning back for Shrewsbury saying that she felt a lot better and had thought a great many things over. I have uploaded the picture that doesn't show her face as she maintains that she looks really old these days, and as I am just 6 weeks younger than she is, maybe I should become more wary of letting you see what I look like.
One thing I am happy to show you is the pic of Nancy at the top of the slide.
Incredible to think that in the space of just 20 months from birth a little body can learn to zoom down a slide on her own, know the difference between a dog and a cat, feed herself with a spoon, climb the stairs without falling, put 2 words together that make sense 'Bye Jo' totally without prompting and be so loved by so many doting relatives.....
Mind you she is utterly delectable.....

But then again, I am her Granny, so I wouldn't think anything else would I ?

Rob's just poured me a sherry....
Jo if you're reading this..... we already miss you X

Cheers Dears