Happy bank holiday Monday everyone, what a lovely weekend it's been, on Saturday I photographed some gorgeous sisters at Tynemouth Longsands, an adorable newborn with her family at home and look out for a post all about the Tipi party I photographed on Saturday night which is coming soon.

and then yesterday we had a lovely breakfast out followed by Ice-skating at Whitley Bay Ice-rink and then ice-cream at the coast on the way home!

Today we went to visit some huskies and ponies who live on a farm, one of hubbys' clients invited us to meet her brood of kids, doggies, ponies and there was even a guinea pig.

After that we swooshed over to Bishop Auckland for a stomp around Auckland Castle, i'm thinking that would be a wonderful place to shoot a wedding, it's very pretty and the surrounding park is fabulous!  We went for a very long walk and I can definitely feel it in my legs this evening.  I didn't take a lot of photos today because it was mainly about just having a wonderful family day together and enjoying the moment but I did get a couple of images

Out of the window a chocolate box view over the countryside.

my hubby is looking so good, he gave up alcohol last November, lost lots of weight and now he's given up smoking too and looks at least 10 years younger and has his chiselled jaw back, he gets 2 thumbs up from me for sure ;)

I asked them to be serious for a moment, bad mistake ;)

Baaaa!

More countryside, I love wandering and stomping and exploring, I guess another of the reasons I started my Uk Cityscapes project, there'll be a new post about that later this week but I still have quite a way to go with my crowd funding target, i'm 100% sure that I'm going to do it though!  If you could help by claiming a perk or even sharing the link on any form of social media, your blog, by email or even in person,(ooh humany) I would be utterly grateful. My crowd funding page is here!

Alnmouth, a sunny walking afternoon on the Northumbrian Coast

Yesterday afternoon after a lovely photo shoot hubby and I decided to get away from it all for a few hours, it's no secret that I love going up the Northumbrian Coastal Route, it's a gorgeous road which goes through Amble, Warkworth, Alnmouth and Seahouses finally ending at Berwick, there are so many places to stop, nature reserves, beautiful villages and gorgeous sandy beaches, I'd probably say the most beautiful beaches in the country but then I am a little biased!

We drove up to Alnmouth a quaint little seaside village where I'd spent many a happy summers day at the beach as a child.  When you approach Alnmouth from the south you look over the Estuary and see the houses with their pretty painted exteriors, not unlike the coloured houses of Tobermory.

and so a 3K walk along the estuary and beach, here's our afternoon in photographs

yeah someone got wet shorts!

we spent 3 hours just wandering and taking photos and it was bliss, I feel like I had a mini holiday, if you're on the north east coast sometime soon why not get away from it all just for a little while and enjoy Alnmouth!

The Sunderland International Air Show 2012

The Sunderland International Airshow is now in it's 24th year and can you believe that until yesterday I can't ever remember going?

I rarely get weekends off due to weddings and portraits but I'd booked this one ages ago to catch up on a little family time!

Abigail was off at her grandmas having a little holiday which left me, hubby, Looby and Iain to go over to the Sunderland Air Show.

For 1 day the sun did actually shine all day, I couldn't quite believe it after all of the rain we seem to have had all day.

Iain and Paul absolutely loved the airshow and sat on the seafront watching all afternoon, Looby enjoyed it but got a little bored so we wandered around the myriad of stalls which were gathered along the sea front from Roker to Seaburn.

I'd definitely recommend it as a great day out for all of the family no matter what ages the kids are, we took the metro to Seaburn and it was a 15 minute walk to the seafront, the metro was actually packed though so thats the only thing I'd advise.

Here's a few photos from the day - 

my son Iain is going to be 16 in September, where on earth does the time go? As  someone with aspergers and being a teenager he's always the most difficult to get photographs of, I don't hold out hope to get very many of him anytime soon as I managed to get at least 4 of him yesterday!

Looby of course is our resident poser, thank goodness for her or sometimes there wouldn't be anyone to photograph!

The weekend, my garden and what happened to all the sunshine

You know, there's been times when I've gone months between weekends off and the sunshine has gloriously shined and I've missed it all, so I really thought this whole working less plan would be super and I'd get to enjoy lots of sunny family days out at weekends and my pale milky skin would take on that healthy peachy sunny glow, well let me tell you it hasn't!

It seems that when I have weekends off it rains, and rains and then it rains a bit more!

On Friday I treat my gorgeous husband to his very first pair of Irregular choice, well you know how I love them so it seemed like about time he had some, I bought him some gorgeous boots which have a stencilled Chrysanthemum up the side of them, quite appropriate for a gardener really, I shall of course be posting a lil instagram photo when they arrive!

On Saturday, in the rain, we went shopping first of all and lovely hubbykins must have been feeling uber lovely and reciprocated my shoe gift by buying me these babies from Garage shoes.

Orange and Peacock blue they are and ever so high, I need an occasion of mucho fabulousness to wear them!

After the shopping we went to the Heaton Festival where it rained, and rained  and well you get the picture...

We made the best of it and Meandering Paul played hide and seek with what I'd call a mixed degree of success

We came home shortly after that because we were wetter than we were dry, I think though if it had been a gorgeous sunny day that the festival would have been a runaway success and I really hope they repeat it on a sunny Saturday next year.

Today we woke up to a dry day so the plan was to have brunch letting the Meandering one enjoy the luxury of a lovely lie in, the girls were very excited because they'd made and bought lots of little gifts for him for Fathers day, he loved it all, he does like being the centre of attention but I have to say credit where credit is due, he's an amazing dad to our 3 errant children and we make a brilliant parenting team.

So off in the car we went to the Seaham car boot sale, you see I'm desperate for a new dinner service, people keep smashing plates and for brunch today we used 3 dinner plates, a platter and a flan dish!

Sadly just as we were approaching the heavens opened and they didn't stop opening for quite some time so we came home and tonight we had sunday dinner on 3 plates, a platter and a flan dish!  Dear readers I simply cannot buy a new dinner service, I want old and vintage preferably, I'm not actually praying for some rain so hubby can take me to Morpeth to the charity shops where we'll hopefully get a new to us one, thats where the current one came from, can you believe we had 8 dinner plates, the cost of having no carpets me thinks, atleast with carpets sometimes they bounce, not so much with hard flooring!

This afternoon when the rain had just stopped I had a wander to see what was going on in our postage stamp of a garden and it seems the plants are actually quite liking the rain, I have enough salad leaves to feed the street and if the radishes get much bigger they'll be eating us!

Lets hope this little yellow flower becomes a huge halloween pumpkin!

My favourite of all our plants is our Gunnera Manicata, it's not exactly pretty but it's interesting and this one is called gertrude and she loves living in a dark muggy bog, for the first time in ages I can actually see her smiling as she sits in our usually dry garden.

and so we're reaching the end of another weekend, I am off again next Saturday so don't plan for sunshine but I've shoots and lots of work this week and on Sunday so they may be your days to plan your sunbathing.

This week in Instagrams.....

How can it possibly be Thursday again, 1 whole week since my last post, each week I'm so determined to blog more often and then before you can say two posts in a week it's been a week already!

So here's whats be going on in my little world of the strange this week, mostly captured by the wonder that is fabulous iPhone app Instagram.

Much excitement yesterday as my latest pair of Irregular Choice shoes arrived, I think they might be my favourite pair ever!

They are all kinds of fabulous and so very very me, I just need to find a suitable occasion on which to wear them.

On Tuesday I was outside in that splendid sunshine we had when I noticed our Alliums were looking gorgeous so a quick snap later...

Just in case you missed Tuesday it was glorious, barely a cloud in the sky

I've also managed to squeeze in some time to see my little adopted nephew Benjamin who I have to say loves his Auntie Mandy and makes me a very happy lady indeed with his gorgeousness and giggles, not long now till I shoot his mummys wedding!

This was his little face after I'd given him a bottle, can you say Milk Coma?

Our weekend was quite restful apart from me shooting a wedding up at Lumley Castle on Sunday.

Lots of it was spent enjoying the grand prix which always does this to my husband, he's like Pavlov's dog

Saturday was the rainiest day I can remember for ages, it just rained and rained and rained, this happens every year when our Lillies bloom, this one does look awfully pretty with those chunky raindrops on it's petals though doesn't it?

We went out on Friday night and had a brilliant night with friends, I reassured myself with this self shot photograph that for 37 I could look much worse, after now what must be around a year of taking photos of myself I'm finally getting used to my own face, if you hate your photo (or your face) try it, I promise it really helps!

Friday last week was windy in the afternoon but oh my the sky

and that was it back in time to a week ago, so what happened in your week and did you manage to capture any of it?