My Visual Stories

I have blinked and a whole week of March has zoomed by. 

I wore all my hats last week, racing to a joke shop to pick up the only shark costume (Ollie decided he had to be a shark for World Book Day with 24 hours to go. He is such a shy boy that I couldn't not come through for him,  after dashing to Bristol for a development meeting, making paint cakes, and setting up Gromit's in all sorts of mini shoots. We've ended the week with a busy but beautiful weekend. Every Sunday Ollie fills in his weekend diary. He can write or draw or print some photos - anything goes. Then on Monday morning they stand in front of the class and talk about their little lives. 

Yesterday afternoon I felt like we could have written an essay - yet it didn't feel rushed. The weekend was a complete mix of friends and family, feet on the pebbly beach at Clevedon looking for fossils, learning to paint with watercolours with the master that is Harriet De Winton (Thank you Rich for my Mother's Day ticket!) and pottering in one of my absolute favourite boutiques 19 Alexandra Road before we headed home via another best friend who needed spoiling. I dropped a bunch of flowers on her doorstep and we raced home to get in pyjamas and eat a home cooked chilli smothered in sliced avocado with our feet up on the coffee table.

I have all these photos that don't really fit into a specific post - photos that tell a story. So I thought why not put them all together in a jumbled mess?!

Mother's Day for us is about trying to make sure everyone is included, all the mummies know they are loved and appreciated and finding a half way meeting point along the A303, which is harder than you think! It's quite something to see 5 families come together, for everyone to sit around chatting, topping up glasses of Prosecco, endless cheers and Mum even managed a FaceTime with my brother and sister in law in America from the play park after we had eaten!

It felt like a special day, the boys burst in with a hand made menu for breakfast, their presents they'd made from school (top marks for coming up with a paper petal bouquet teachers) and Rich surprised me with the cabbage leaf soup bowl I had lusted after at the end of the watercolour workshop. He'd snuck off whilst my best friend Tanya and I took our three amigos down to the beach to walk the dogs and sneaked it into the car!

On Sunday we all got dressed up, the children were brilliantly behaved, we booked the table early and luckily the family next to us had opted for a late lunch which meant we could take over one area of this quant village pub and empty a box of K'NEX and a bag of colouring pens and paper all over the floor to keep them entertained. 

It wasn't fancy - it was perfect. A hearty roast, ice cream sundaes as big as your face and a race around a playground 2 minutes away. My boys were desperate to go for a bike ride to finish off the day so just before dusk we ploughed down the lanes, feet in the air screaming wooooo hoo to the sheep in the fields that were running along to chase after us. It was the first ever time Ollie has ridden a bike. He's point blankly refused up until now and I kept looking back at him, peddling as fast as he could, a smile as wide as the open dirt track road in front of us, and all I could think was, my heart might burst in a minute. 

We've borrowed a bike from a friend and really it's too small, but it was to give him a chance to get familiar with a bicycle and I am hoping that this new found passion will mean a birthday bike will be on his wish list and we can blast around the village in the summer holidays. 

There was an awe I had on Sunday as we rode as fast as we could then shouted at the top of our voices because only the birds could hear us. Sammy beaming back at me trying to match my (impressive to him) speed down the open road. We rode til our noses went cold and didn't take any photos. In some ways I wish we had, but in others I am so glad I was in the moment. A little moment, a significant to me moment. 

Happy new week everyone. 

ps I couldn't have loved the Modern Botanicals workshop with Harriet more. I almost skipped out of the shop swinging my bag full of pages with new paintings on them and my wooden box of artist materials. A real good for the soul 3 hours with lovely company and endless tea. She is an absolute talent and I want to book on to her next one in early Autumn learning modern calligraphy lettering. At £35 I thought it was incredibly good value and a big thank you to Rich for getting me it as my present.