I adore Autumn, October is one of my favourite months of the year, I love the colours, the temperature, the light, it's the perfect weather for photography.

I shot my first real autumal session on Saturday, now I say it was my first really autumnal session, the fact that it was nearly 30c is beside the point, I did spend an awful lot of time lying on top of acorns and they're a bit bumpy at the best of times and not that comfortable to lie on let me tell you!!

That unseasonal end to September was lovely actually, Looby and I were down in Heaton Park on Friday night after school, she was dressed as a witch of course and there was a DJ spinning his decks, the whole place and everyone there was so chilled out, I loved every minute and I did take my camera of course...

Yes it really was a friday afternoon on the last day of September and people everywhere were chilling, having BBQ's and picnics, quite odd really but we had a lovely couple of hours.

Miss Looby dressed as a witch, she said she had to because it's nearly Halloween, who am I to argue with my daughter?

This was Loobys idea, she thought it would be a creative portrait, I think she's got a point!!

so this start to October is going well, work is seemingly flooding in and it's looking rather like I might shoot more weddings next year, I'm thinking 20 sounds like a good number but we'll see how it goes, if you are planning your 2012 wedding (or even a late 2011 one) please get in touch, prices start at £595, more details on my website

Portraits of course are also incredibly busy and it's a brilliant time to get outdoors with the kids or family and you can get my special price of only £20 instead of £40, I'm already booked up right until the end of October at weekends so click on my website and contact me!!

This weekend is going to be a big one, an amazing wedding at a location which is quite special to me and a shoot which will see me travel for hundreds of miles to a stunning location, lets all cross fingers and toes for great weather.

Finally today let me leave you with another  couple of family photos, a trip to the farm on Loobys birthday and it looks like there may be a new love interest in Meandering Pauls life

Loobys official 8th birthday portrait, she's really growing up quickly now into a beautiful young lady

As for her sister Abigail may be nine but you wouldn't want to mess with this feisty lady

Meandering Paul and his new love interest, should I be worried?  He does look quite interested in her don't you think?!

Until next time, keep smiling, even if it's only so other people will wonder what you've been getting up to!

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.