You may remember me from previous blogs such as...

Yep, I haven't blogged for nearly a month for a variety of reasons - 

• I've shot a lot of weddings lately and in between shooting them, (often with smoke bombs) I've been a slave to editing and to all manner of portraits and client work.
• When Google+ closed its doors it slashed my traffic by around a third and that's hard, especially as a blogger who does occasional sponsored posts but I've given myself a talking to about why I started blogging in the first place and I still hope to be writing my scattered thoughts for the next decade or so.
• Abigail cut me out of her life because I shared a post about coercive control on Instagram and I still can't process it months later, being silent about any kind of marital or relationship abuse just leads to more abuse, we can only stop this stuff from happening if we talk about it.  I'll always be here for her and she knows that and that's all I can really say right now because I still can't talk about it without feeling my heart actually hurt.
• I went on holiday with Looby and Holly Bobbins and actually did no work whilst I was there, this is a rare occurrence for me.
• I started to live the slow life, I've spoken about this before but these days you will mostly find me in my garden.

So, a lot of things have happened and yet, nothing has really happened, just life.

The summer holidays are just around the corner and for the first time I'll be spending more time alone than ever before, Looby will be off with friends and horses for most of it and I haven't really worked out what I'm going to do with myself as yet.  Harriet finishes work on Friday and we're going away on the 28th to Cumbria and then a couple of nights near Aberystwith, all with wonder dog Holly Bobbins of course.

I was also trying to plan a one-woman trip to the highlands but coach companies are so complicated and it doesn't seem like I've been able to find one which works with the dates when I'm actually available.  I have been thinking about whether I can do a one-woman rail and Airbnb  (if you click that link you can join Airbnb and get £23 off your first trip and I'll get some credit towards my travels) trip to the highlands but it just depends on the price of rail tickets etc.

I really want to make the most of summer even if I'm childfree but for me, I'm still trying to process that my kids are older and the summer holidays aren't that magical thing they used to be.  I'm sure like Christmas I just need to redefine them for myself, I'm sure if I don't it will end up in knocking off my depression and that's not what I want at all.

What I need I think is some kind of grown-up summer holiday bucket list I can check off and live my best life but I think I'm currently going through some kind of mid-life crisis in all kinds of areas of my life.

One thing that is definitely happening, I campaigned for a community garden and it's happening with the help of the NCS (national citizen service) I cannot wait to help build a garden for my local community with the help of 15 or so enthusiastic young people.  The plan is to remove a massive box hedge and a boulder from a disused and nettle filled flower bed, then to put in herbs and bee attracting flowers as well as putting a park bench and maybe a picnic table, finally I want to get lots of outdoor toys for the local small ones and hold a big party in my community to really bring them together.  Hopefully, it's the start of something amazing and I've already pledged to contribute time and financially so much as I can.  After all, I believe that small scale philanthropy can change the world, I know I am imperfect but that doesn't mean that I can't do amazing amounts of good for the community.

When life smacks you in the face...

Today is my first day back at my desk after being overcome with germs last week, I'd not been ill for nearly 2 years but boy did those germs smack me in the face, it had started with weird dreams and just after I wrote that post, I ended up in bed sleeping for practically 24 hours.  I managed to find the energy to work over the weekend but slept a lot in between. Oh and we also had all 3 dogs from last Thursday until today, that's a whole lot of energy, it also makes me realise just what an easy dog Holly Bobbins is, much like babies, I like my sleep too much to have a puppy!

It's my own fault, I'd been working relentless 15 hour days and pushing myself harder than one should, it's understandable though, working on a new project and getting that off the ground is hard, especially when you are risking your own life's work on it.  I am pleased to say it's all been worth it though and as those hazy lazy days of high summer come into play we are settling into calm with The Inspire Network, we took in so many members last week that we've temporarily closed our membership program to give us time to catch up, we relaunch on the 1st of August though and it's going to be big!

I'm a huge fan of vitamins to keep me going and I'd completely forgotten to stock up, another reason I think contributed to the sudden downfall of my health so when the postman knocked I nearly snatched his hand off.  Lovely company Care have just launched 3 new supplements and they're all for women like me, in our prime, in our forties, you know when you still feel young enough to conquer the world but your body says "hang on a minute, you're not 20" . Suffice to say I'm now taking their Advanced Immune Support forever, it's definitely something I need, I have no time for sick days, I have too much I want to achieve.

I'm also adding in Care collagen beauty formula because I want to keep my youthful complexion for as long as I can and it's not all about Botox and fillers you know, even though I'm a convert to those too although I think that's more often about you doing you, shouldn't everyone invest in themselves as much as possible?

I've also started taking the Care collagen joint formula because, well I walk a lot and it's in your forties when you start to notice those joint aches and pains.

I think between the 3 products I should be good to go although I have been taking a high strength Vitamin D3 and a magnesium tablet for quite some time now, they keep my brain in order and they keep me sane during the dark winter months.

Tomorrow I have 2 meetings and then we're off, Me, Harriet, Abigail and Holly Bobbins, Looby double booked herself with riding competitions which is a shame but I'm so ready to completely switch off and that's what I am actually doing this time, I've removed Messenger from my phone, I'm going to stay away from Facebook unless it's for checking in and sharing lovely holiday photos, that's totally allowable isn't it?  No work though, in fact the lovely Airbnb Cottage we're going to doesn't even have wifi.  We're having adventures in the Lake District and more adventures in the Southwest Coast of Scotland as it's smack bang in the middle and right on the Solway Estuary, it actually looks to be about a 10 minute walk from the banks of the estuary so for me, that's bliss, whenever I'm by the water it calms my soul.

To be honest the next 6 weeks will have a more laid back feel to them, our ladies at Inspire all holiday during the summer and my photography calendar isn't too overwhelming, I could take on extra work but I'm being really selective about what I do take on, it's a great feeling to be in that position.

In all probability this will be my last blog of the week, I'm aiming for once a week during the holidays, I have adventures and family time I need and want and I have no doubt at all that you'll all still be around in September when we'll all be revived and reinvigorated.

Happy Summer everyone, go make some memories!

Dreaming of Donald Trump....

You know when it's summer and it's all going well, the skies are sunny, the flowers are in bloom and everything in life is good?  And then your daughter gives you her summer cold, yes the one with the fever.

I'm on day two and my first night hallucinations were all about melted cheese, and last night I couldn't get the thought of Donald Trump out of my head, more precisely, his effect on The Inspire Network, why can't I just have normal fever hallucinations?  

Today is the day it needs to stop, I need sleep, I'm looking after 3 dogs whilst Abigail goes on holidays with her dad and I have a wedding and I have piles and piles of work, I need some gloriously happy me time and thankfully whilst I might not be able to escape to the country right now I can at least have a bath with some Elderflower Fizz bath salts.  Today is the big launch of the new grown up scents from I love Cosmetics and I was lucky enough to be offered a big bundle of them to try.  Now you know me, if I don't like something I'm honest enough to say but I actually love the Elderflower Fizz bath salts, it's like champagne and an English wedding on a summers day, it's like a village fete with cheese scones made by the hands of angelic grandmas, it's a chance to escape to the scents of hazy, lazy summer scents even in the midst of a dark December day, this forty something lady approves and honestly I didn't think I would!

There are lots of lovely new scents in the range from English rose to Violet dreams (think Palma Violets), some of them are not quite as grown up as me but I know my teenagers will love every single scent and though I have to admit that I'm never going to be a body butter type of lady, the girls will be, I think I missed my window on body butters and at the age of 44 I'm probably too set in my own ways although you never know, I didn't actually have my first eyebrow wax until I was in my mid 30's.

So suffice to say I've hidden a lot of the products so I can give them to the girls at Christmas, don't tell them if you see them but I shall be bathing regularly in the Elderflower fizz.

It's been another busy and phrenetic week and I'm craving some down time, I think the issue is that when we went away last and ended up coming home early I just didn't feel like I'd had a break, I was constantly worried, everyone seemed to want a piece of me and I never switched off and that's something I definitely need, it's just finding the time to fit a 3 or 4 day escape in. 

This week has actually been a good one, I had a lovely meeting with some Inspire licensee's, we launched a vetted and checked trade directory in less than 24 hours thanks for a suggestion by some of our lovely licensee's, I've felt this week, more than any that we are heading in the right direction, that we are all supporting each other and that everyone has everyone else's back and the interests of our beautiful network at their very heart.  Our Inspire Success membership has boomed over the last week and that's exciting, every membership takes us a step closer to our goals, every time I check we have more new members so I'm trying not to look too much for fear of whipping myself into an early frenzy and in my current ailed state I'm not sure it would be the best idea.

Anyway, I'm going to crawl back into bed for a while until the germs stop holding me hostage and then I'm off to have a bath in the heady scent of a glorious english summer, for the first time it seems we are having a long, warm, sunny one and that's one thing you will never hear me complaining about, may summer last forever and not as Shakespeare said "summer's lease hath all too short a date"

It's Over, Done, Finished...

Well that's it, over, done, Looby went off to school on her own on the bus for the very first time, I'm not sure given Looby's track record of getting the bus home from school and occasionally ending up in strange places that I am entirely happy with it but with Abigail living in Cramlington now school is very much not on the way!  It does also mean that she's now getting herself up in the morning, going out and I didn't even get woken up, great for me who hates mornings but that same time, it's one of those moments when you realise just how grown up your kids are.

So now for the first time in what seems like months my house is quiet, the low level hum of children playing in the streets is no more and starting the day with a bowl of porridge with just a squeeze of fresh honey, I felt the change in the seasons.  It's also nearly 30c in my back garden currently so I feel we're a long way off winter woollens but if you look beneath some trees there are signs that autumn will soon be here.

Yesterday I sold out all of my sessions on 3 separate weekend dates in October, this year a last minute session does not at all seem possible, I would advise you now to book your Autumn or Christmas card photo shoot right now, it's better to book your session now and get a date in the diary than it is to be disappointed.

These next few weeks are about planning for new projects, collaborating with new brands and catching up, a lot of catching up, I have the most adorable mug of Holly sent to me by Joy who runs Have A Bru I just need time to get it out of it's protective shell and photograph it, I have some gorgeous flowers arriving from one of my lovely clients and the most fabulous autumn coat from another, all just waiting to be showcased and one thing I'm planning this year, instead of a series of gift articles I am going to produce my very first PDF gift guide which will be available for download from October, I'm still looking for more companies to collaborate with on this so if you have a great product or experience you would like to exchange for photos, articles and a page in my gift guide get in touch

September is a difficult month for me, too many demons and memories of Septembers past combined with the blues of the return to normality after an amazing summer I'll never forget but I know all I have to do is plan some great new things to look forward to and after reading Laura's blog this morning I know I'll be adding a little more Hygge (pronounced Hoo-ga) to my home this year, I've already ordered a book called The Cozy Life, rediscover the joy of simple things through the Danish concept of Hygge, I'm actually pretty good at creating cosiness and spend most of my summer hiding in my cool bedroom because my living room is too hot but I'm back in the living room this morning planning a space for a new desk as well as a Hygge corner for relaxing, reading and chilling as well as taking the decision that I am going to take Mondays and Tuesdays off work from next week because I work every weekend, nothing ever happens on a Monday anyway and I'm always exhausted, it really feels a bit alien to take two days off a week after it took me 7 years to just take one but like the Danish it's time to get my work/life balance back and I know it may seem like I'm always going places and doing things but it's just work in other words and a 30 hour week seems like a good plan to me, maybe I am destined to be Danish one day!

Iain was 20 yesterday and Looby will be 13 in 18 days, my children will be 13, 14 and 20, no longer small and dependent on mum, all independent, spirited feisty fully grown young people in their own rights, time I think to not just plan for autumn but for the future, short and long term, lots of changes and maybe some times of turbulence but all for the best, a couple of huge decisions I've yet to make and I am currently sleeping on waiting for signs from the universe, once I know the paths I have to take you can be sure I'll write it here.

So I hope that this first week of quietness after the summer hullabaloo isn't too awful for we know that in just six or seven weeks we'll all be reunited again for half term and for the first time I am planning to work at the weekends of half term and then I'll be going away and doing something fun on the weekdays because life is too short to not have fun dear reader, now go and plan your next adventures

Summer holiday update, the one where the exhaustion set in...

I don't know how you're feeling at this point in the summer holidays but I am exhausted, it could be because I just shot my 2nd wedding in 3 days or it could be the fact that I planned a never ending summer of fun and excitement and let me tell you, that's quite a feat, for the last few weeks I have lived out of a suitcase, I think there's only been one week where there was no travel planned or actually there was I was just too tired to actually go so I took a loss on the cheap train tickets.  Today we're going to stay in a bunk barn at the Bells of Hemscott, a favourite place for us and this time I'm going with Harriet, Looby and Looby's best friend Elisha who will be playing the part of Abigail, Abigail didn't think she would be able to come as she's finally having braces fitted today, it's taken 2 long years to get to this point and some of the stages have not been without pain but at least the future holds for her straight teeth, no underbite and no overbite, to me, she's so beautiful that it doesn't matter but to her it's the world.

Looby continues to thrive and grow, grow being the important word, I stood next to her just the other day and noticed that she's only an inch or so shorter than me, I'm not even sure when that happened but she's certainly not little Looby any longer although she'll always be my baby, who can believe that she's going to be 13 in a month, certainly not me!  It's a stage in your life when your baby becomes a teenager and I'm still not sure I'm old enough to have grown up children.

Next week marks 2 years of being a single parent, a challenge I wasn't ready to face and something that still makes me feel sad that I just couldn't cling on and make things work, in saying that I am happier than I have ever been I think, I have freedom and laughter and adventures every week, I have no one to judge me and a whole lot of love in my life, one day I hope to find that special person who'll love me for just who I am but that's no mean feat and I'm still not ready, the thought of a new relationship terrifies the life out of me and I'm wondering if that will ever change,  it's different being single in your 40's, the world of the opposite sex does not seem to open anymore and my social anxiety doesn't really get me out enough in the right places for me to even have a chance of meeting someone.  I do have moments of loneliness but then i'm ever grateful for the friendships I have, friends are so important to me, they are my family, some of them I see almost every day or week and some I hardly see at all because our lives are so busy but they mean just as much to me and I love that when we do meet up or just speak via text or message that we can pick up where we left off and there's a comfort in that.

I wasn't really sure what I was going to write about when I sat down to write this post, I had no title, I'd just woken up as tired as I was when I went to sleep but I felt compelled to open up my macbook and write down the jumble of thoughts that had collected in my head.  Whilst I openly use my blog as part of my business, I never want it to become a place which isn't really me anymore, I never want it to just become about business or sponsored posts, infographics and giveaways because that's not just me and my business is me, the lines between my work and my personal life are so entwined that I cannot exist without either, I do not want to exist as any other person than the one who I am right now.

On Sunday I leave for Barcelona, I could pretend that I'll just lie around by a pool reading books for 5 days but I think we all know that would be a downright lie, you can't go to Barcelona and do nothing, theres too much to see and do, Gaudi, Picasso, Dali all left their mark on Barcelona and my list of things to do means an almost minute to minute schedule although I have promised Harriet we will have siesta time, an hour by the pool reading the aforementioned book!  Park Guell, Tibidabo, La Sagrada Familia, I could go on but I think there's not going to be a whole lot of standing still for very long, hopefully I'll come back lighter and brighter!

The kids go back to school 2 weeks today so if you are still enjoying the summer holidays, then you need to make sure that in the next 2 weeks you make each precious second count!

Summer In The North East of England, The Ordinary Moments and Extraordinary Memories

Sunday evening, somewhere in the middle of August, summer in the Northeast of England is always a special time for me, I love all of the challenges and joys of being self employed, my favourite part is that I get to spend lots of time with my children and friends during the long summer days, it might not have been the brightest, hottest summer we've ever seen but it's on the whole been pretty good so far I think, I haven't had to wear a coat and that's something.

Since I bought my every day in my handbag camera, my Fuji X70 I thought I'd just take more time to share the general stuff I've been up to, I'm literally never without a camera now, in fact I'm sitting on my super comfy bed with my camera right next to me!

Summer in the Northeast of England is fleeting and you have to remember to record each memory, even if it's only in your mind, the passing sunshine and scattered showers can be as momentary as each new and special memory.  On Friday I was walking along Alnmouth beach with Holly and KT, our friends dog and it was so breezy that the winds were whipping up the sand grains and scattering them in the air, almost sandblasting my calfs,  Holly's ears were stood up at 180 degrees blowing in the freak gusts of what felt like almost storm force winds, at least against my ankles anyway.

Saturday started bright and then became cloud covered only for the sunshine to recover later in the day leading to the most beautiful of evenings, an evening spent walking to the quayside with Iain and Looby, they were hot on the case of Dratini's, I just wanted to take photographs but I can't even begin to tell you of my joy that Pokemon Go has brought us all together for the first time in years, it's got Iain out of his bedroom and it's introduced the concept of evening family walks, a chance to take in our surroundings, enjoy the company of each other, some time to catch up and chat about our days, as I sat there on the Baltic Quays with my dog, my children and I enjoying a Starbucks hot chocolate each I felt  joyous contentment and was at one with my life just for a while.  In as much as I adore and love all of my friends I am at my happiest when I am simply with my children for I know that they will grow up and go their own ways, I embrace each moment of their young lives, a celebration of the now, of the ordinary because it is often the most ordinary of moments which is the loveliest and the most extraordinary.  These are the moments of my life, the moments I live for and the moments I will always remember and cherish for ever.

The summer of adventure, the summer of freedom

The summer of adventures, the summer of fun, the first real summer I've felt completely free, no one to answer to, no one to judge me just friendship and freedom.  I feel like I've come so far and for the first time in my whole life I feel complete and yet for the first time in my life I am truly single, when you think about it, we spend our whole lives looking for our other half and for me I feel like I've done things in reverse.  I was married for the first time at 21, for the second time at 25 and I gave birth to Iain when I was 22, I never had the freedom of my youth, the travel or adventure and I don't resent those choices I made for even one moment for I have three of the most amazing children and I've known true love and I've had the kind of together where nothing else matters but to my children I say, do everything when you are young, travel, experience life, be successful, be happy and be free for as long as you can.

You can forge the deepest friendships and you don't need anything else or at least I don't feel like I do, perhaps because I've already had my children and my only hormones are artificial, if I had got to my age without children or love or success maybe I would have felt differently.  I feel on one hand that I have fought through pain and angst and hard times so I feel justified that life should give me a slightly easier deal now and I'm so thankful for that.

I get up every day now and I smile, I work in a job where it genuinely doesn't feel like work at all, today I have trekked with Alpacas, I have herded sheep and I have climbed Roseberry Topping, this is not a traditional career and it takes self control to sit and write when my whole body feels heavy with exhaustion, it's happy and satisfied exhaustion though, in beautiful surroundings with my wonderful friend and of course my soul mate in dog form, Holly Bobbins.  We have laughed today, we have sworn when climbing up a particularly steep part of Roseberry Topping and we have high fived when we reached the peak, something I don't ever think I could have done a few years ago.  I am fitter now, I can run for 25 minutes non stop, I don't think I was quite prepared for the amount of stamina climbing a mountain would take, my legs wobbled like jelly as we made our descent and I realised that I was a rookie explorer, I must have been, I'm fairly sure trail runners don't eat creme brulee before ascending a mountain and I'm also fairly sure that they remember to take a bottle of water with them!!

As an aside as we got up to the very top we found that there's a Pokestop at the very peak of Roseberry Topping, it's just a shame that my phone kept crashing!

So our first day of summer holidays, our first day of big adventures with many more to come, I shall battle to complete as much work as I can whilst completing many trips and reviewing attractions and accommodation.  Blogging can be done from anywhere but I do wish I could blog in advance, but then that wouldn't be me because I write with all of my heart when I feel inspired but now dear friends as dusk falls heavily melting into the night skies, now it is the time to sleep and dream of tomorrows great adventures.

How To Take Better Photographs This Summer

You may remember I recently wrote my guide to editing with Instagram and whilst that was great it didn't really help you to take better photographs of your kids/cats/dogs so I thought I would try to give you my top tips, I've been in business forever and picked up a lot of great stuff along the way, I'm still learning every day really because the truth is that there's always more to learn and bags of inspiration to be had around every corner.  Hopefully using my tips you can go out there and take better photographs this summer so that when Autumn comes you have tons of beautiful sunny images to remember your best holidays ever.

I'm going to be quite general in this article because we don't all carry around digital SLR's in our pockets and I truly believe that if you have a decent camera phone you can still create lovely images, I use a Canon 6D, Fuji Xpro1 or an iPhone 6S, sometimes I even use a Polaroid Snap or a Fuji Instax mini 70 just for fun.

1.  First and foremost if you are using a camera phone use your native camera to take photos, don't use app cameras if you can as they're often not quite as good, have you ever noticed how bad snapchat photos are in comparison to your native ones?  This is the reason, the camera in the Instagram app is dreadful by comparison to the native camera and so for everything I take the photo and then import it into the app.

2.  Macro mode on an iPhone in later models is activated simply by putting the camera lens as close to the object as you can, try it, you'll get lovely close ups of leaves or beads and kids especially will love this, they'll be fascinated by Macro, why not take them to the park and set them free (with supervision) to photograph leaves and flowers or maybe search for mini bugs.

3. Experiment with angles, if you are photographing the kids why not get down to their level, the same goes for pets, it's not good to hover over your subject and you'll end up with a much more engaging image.

4.  Before you click to take the photograph check your background, watch out for clutter or things sticking out of your subjects head, "way to go man wearing the Eiffel tower hat" said no one.

5.  Experiment with moving, I love asking kids to twirl and catching the movement of it, the fact is that if your subject stands still in a photograph they might feel uncomfortable so a great way to make them feel relaxed is to ask them to move around, I'm talking about kids of course but you can always do the same with adults, it's one of the reasons I ask people to walk at photo shoots, you might hate photos but pretty much everyone can walk towards the camera like they're having a lovely family walk.

6.  Have fun, I love photo shoots and have been photographing kids for over 10 years, my main aim is that the parents love the images and that the kids go away having had the best time.

7.  Tabletop shots from above look great, try to get some good angles and don't worry if you have hands in the shot, nothing like a great shot of a hand grabbing a doughnut or similar, I love a nice shot from above and don't be afraid to give your first person viewpoint, maybe you're holding flowers, showing your gardening feet or fabulous shoes, there's a whole world of possibilities.

8.  Instead of asking your kids to stand in front of things on holiday why not photograph them interacting with their surroundings, this means you won't have to deal with the "no more photos mum" syndrome and you'll end up with great interactive engaging images which look great in scrapbooks.

9.  Be in the moment, if there's one thing I've learnt it's that you can't recreate a moment that's passed, if you miss that X moment don't try to recreate it, it won't be the same, just enjoy being in the moment and don't worry, you'll catch it next time.

10.  High noon sun can make for an unattractive image, look for shade or if you have to stay in the sunshine, shoot into the sun and then you can increase the shadows on your kids faces or just use a smidge of fill flash but be careful, burnt out faces are almost as bad as panda eyes.

If it's all too much responsibility you could always book a family or kids photo shoot with me during the summer holidays and until midnight on Friday you can purchase a voucher for a £75 photo shoot for only £35, just email me and I could be photographing your memories really soon.

For more details about Newcastle Photographer Mandy Charlton, please see my website.

5 Reasons To Love Summer

The school summer holidays are nearly upon us, schools all around the country are putting the tops back on their felt tips, sending out reports, taking this years work back off the walls and sorting out the rotten fruit that got tucked away in the desks of students last September never to be rediscovered until now!

I've always counted down to the school summer holidays, maybe because I'm a mummy I also see it as my end of term, in my business it seems like a natural time to take stock and digest the year so far, summer is our time for no schedules or bedtimes, it's the time of adventures and long days of fun with me working on the hop at every opportunity, cafes and benches become my places to check on emails and write quick replies whilst waiting for my daughters to come out of shops or finish doing activities, i'm lucky that increasingly I have a business I can operate from mostly anywhere.  If I have photo shoots we organise our days around them trying to fit in as much fun as possible, it's great to take the kids along and Holly too, I love the way my business works now.  I have 3 weddings during August to shoot and that is a pace of wedding photography I can enjoy, gone are the days of 30 in a season, I'll leave that to the young keen things, I like 10 gloriously laid back affairs in beautiful places telling stories of great love.

Of course there's much to celebrate about summer holidays and summer in general and your opinions of course may vary but here's a few reasons I adore the summer holidays.

1. No Alarms Buzzing!  I hate the alarm clock with a passion, I have a great one by Resmed now which monitors my sleep and wakes me up in a half hour window and I still go back to sleep if it goes off more than 5 minutes earlier than I wanted to get up.  I'm just not an alarm type person, I like waking up naturally and thankfully I have a job that allows me to do that, it's the reason I don't start work until 10am, I just hate mornings.

2. Sunglasses, ok so I have the most annoyingly light sensitive eyes you can imagine which means I wear sunglasses in all weathers and all seasons but in summer that means every day and sometimes even in the rain. You might know, if you know me in real life that I have a large collection of sunglasses, I have some Anna Sui white ones I adore and some purple Marc Jacobs ones which Looby seems to have purloined and not returned but at the moment I am loving my Dewerstone sunglasses which were kindly sent to me, carved from walnut and oak but surprisingly light as a feather, you'll get no sunglasses headache from these wonders!  I got sent the Ortons which have Carl Zeiss lenses, as soon as I saw them I loved them and the great thing about Dewerstone is that it's a British outdoor lifestyle company based in Dartmoor, in fact the name comes from the the Dewerstone woods.  Seriously the sunglasses are like art, the make, the design,the attention to detail, everything about them oozes style.  They don't just do sunglasses though, they do outdoor clothing,  they have some Sunrise leggings I have my eyes on for running in.  I love British companies, especially small ones, and this brand is run by an office of 6 people, if you support them you are supporting real actual people instead of a faceless corporation, as an entrepreneur I'm so happy to spread the word about them.

3. Outdoor Living, many who know me will know how much I love being in the great outdoors, I love nothing better than a big stomp through beautiful countryside or a run through pretty woodlands and with Holly Bobbins at my side there's no shortage of places we can go but it's not just walking and being out in the fresh air, it's BBQ's in the garden, and picnics in the park, working on the beach from a deck chair, I don't care as long as I don't have to be indoors.

4. Mini Breaks and Holidays, this summer I have a couple of adventures already planned, at the beginning of August Looby and I are going to Perth for 2 nights, we fell in love with Perth when we visited a couple of years ago, Looby especially loves that they have trampolines in the park, it's such a quaint petite little city, we'll get there quite early so the next day we're going to jump on the train to Inverness, somewhere I fell in love with but Looby hasn't been to so I'm looking forward to showing her around the totie wee city.  towards the middle of August Abigail and I are going to Stratford upon Avon for 2 nights, somewhere I have never been,  it was her choice of destination and we are so excited to visit the home of William Shakespeare and have 2 days of soaking up as much culture as possible.  I also want to plan a visit to Edinburgh during the fringe festival, I love the busy bustle of Edinburgh all year around but during the Fringe Edinburgh comes alive, it's the noisiest most vibrant city, especially around the royal mile and on every corner there's some kind of free show or performance art, the only peril is the price of accommodation.

5.  Day Trips, I love a great picnic, I've already mentioned that and I love the mere mention of a road trip or adventure with either friends or just me and Holly Bobbins, there are plenty of public transport adventures to be had in the North as I mentioned previously, one of which I must do, a day trip to Seahouses on the bus from Newcastle is a must!  I have a picnic hamper backpack which is perfect for the occasion of spontaneous picnicking adventures.  I'm a member of both the National Trust and English Heritage so there's at least a thousand free days out right there, I want to fill these precious six weeks with as much adventure as possible, you only live once after all.

So whatever you choose to do this summer holidays and whether it rains (inevitable, August is statistically the wettest month of the year) or we have 6 weeks of wall to wall scorching sunshine (I'm ever hopeful) I hope you'll take a moment to relax and enjoy life, if you're a working parent I know it's tougher and if you are self employed like me I hope you'll embrace the chance to pack up your work kit and work from wherever you can, let the kids play on the beach whilst you hire a deckchair and get your head around some tasks, I love the fact that thanks to an iPhone I can pretty much keep hold of all of my business affairs wherever I am, I think it gets even better if you have as much as you can stored in the cloud!  Take time to enjoy it though for one day the kids will be grown up and the summer holidays will just be summer without the excuse to take it easier.  If you are planning on booking me for your portraits I will be available as long as you're booking in advance, I often get lots of Australian families coming over during summer and having portraits with their north east families, I love it, it's my favourite thing to do so if yours are in town and you need a photographer in Newcastle then please email me!

Autumn is coming, time to plan ahead...

My wonderful son Iain is 19 tomorrow, I really need to stop referring to him as "My little boy" when having conversations about my children, he's old enough now to have a home, run a business, be a millionaire, in reality he's still in the top corner bedroom plugged in to hundreds of megabytes of data at all times, I'm proud of him though, he's been through a lot and he's just about to start his second year studying business at college, we talked about what he wants to do at the end this college year, "I'll be starting my life of seclusion" he replied.  I should probably have bought him Hannah Hauxwells autobiography to help him prepare!

I'm ever surprised by how fast time passes, I remark every year "September, September, how can it be September?" a ludicrous question if ever there was one but in my mind it's been yet a hop and a skip from cold and frozen January, why then does it seem so long until I depart for my cruise?

It's while I'm wistfully wishing away September and October that I check my diary and find that weekends are already filling up with families keen to record happy memories in piles of colourful leaf fall, take note dear reader that if you want to partake with your families the height of the autumn colour is usually around the 2nd and 3rd week of October, it all gets a little soggy and unpredictable after that.  No real mini session days this year and I've promised myself that I'll only shoot a maximum of 3 or 4 sessions a day, advance booking to secure spots is encouraged, neigh it's practically a requirement, if you pause to think about it you may find by the time it's actual welly weather (although I'm not sure it's been anything but welly weather this year) you may find I can't fit you in!!  Pricing for photo shoots at home and on location in North East England available via that link.

I've also been thrown into full blown panic that it's Loobys birthday on the 25th of September and I have barely thought about that matter, a quick 10 minutes on Sky Skanner yesterday evening seemed to suggest I could offer my darling daughter the possibilities of weekend trips to Dublin or Geneva or maybe London, if you were going to be 12 which one would you prefer?  I had thought about a mini cruise to Amsterdam but she hates boats, when I told her about the cruise I was going on she told me upon seeing a photo of the boat that without a doubt it was dangerous and would sink, she of course bases her expert knowledge upon watching Titanic too many times and seeing copious amounts of news reports from the Costa Concordia, yes that's 2 boats about of no doubt hundreds of thousands but these days I can't even get her on a boat trip down the river Tyne.

Usually once we celebrate Loobys birthday I quickly turn my attention to the impending arrival of the festive season but as my summer holiday ( if anyone asks it's not a holiday it's very hard work ) isn't until the end of November I shall be late to the festive plate this year and promise to not so much as mention the colour scheme of my baubles until at least the beginning of December.

So off I go now, out into the world, cardigan in hand for the chill in the air which awaits outside my door hoping that summers warmth has saved a last long breath for the weeks ahead so we can pretend the most fun part of the year isn't over quite yet.