Spring in my Step.

Last weekend and the weather have put me a little way towards 'getting back on it'. Such a good feeling for a Monday.


For the most part I just wanted to post this to share the photo below; because who would have thought that when we were first getting hammered together at university in 2007 that we would have been sat around the breakfast table on Sunday morning, eating sausage sandwiches and discussing which vacuum cleaner is best (in value + suction, in all seriousness). It really did make my heart feel quite happy. ♥


When selfie sticks go right (y)
Despite the fact that the 6 Nations final meant we spent most of Saturday inside, the whole weekend was a great opportunity to catch up (& eat & laugh & laugh) and I'm looking forward to the plans we've made together this year already. Speaking of which, WHERE HAS THIS YEAR GONE?!





We attempted to get an earlier ferry but after discovering it was rammed pointed the car in a direction to explore for a couple of hours. That's how we found adorable baby cows - who were more than willing to slobber all over any hand that petted them (my hand).



I feel like I've been waiting around a while to take decent photos and while these were all on my phone, they've inspired me to get snapping again and to realise that I actually have quite a few more nice photos from other weekends than I realise (stay tuned). The photographer in me will always think that phone photos are a little lazy but my phone camera is pretty damn great and it's too easy to keep snapping. Still, phone photography is a habit I hope to at least break out of a little by the time we go to Hong Kong in May.

Broadly Speaking.

The Sunday of our Norwich city break was spent making the short drive over to take in the beautiful Norfolk Broads. I had actually hoped for a bit of seal watching but it would seem that where we went in Norfolk last year was just about the best place to go to spot them but just a touch too far for us (Moon) to drive before making the long journey home.

What started off as a crisp autumnal walk quickly turned into a damp 'quick, let's peg it back to the car' walk but taking in the scenes surrounding Horsey Mere before heading to quickly get a glimpse of the sea at Sea Palling was so worth it.

I love how the harsh weather conditions of being so flat were so evident all around, some of those trees really look like they've lived a life!







I'm so glad we did this as part of our short trip and I definitely think there should be more excuses created to visit Norfolk at least once a year, it's such a nice place to visit and I always wish we could stay longer.

I feel so lucky that we've been able to get the sea so easily in the last few months, I wonder if I'll be that enthusiastic once December gets here.




We swung by Waxham Barn after seeing they had a craft fair, it was kind of small but I picked up a sweet fish.





The only seal we saw all weekend.






♥

IOW: The Needles.

You might have seen in my last Photo an Hour that when visiting our Islander friends at the end of September we were treated to a trip to Needles Park.

I took a few photographs and figured it would be a shame not to share them when I was limited to just one before. I wish we'd gone a little earlier before things had closed - it always seems a little silly to me when things shut before 5:00pm on a Saturday. A few of us braved the chairlift - and for me, I mean braved. It was rickety as hell, I didn't even notice 'the amount of shoes' everyone was talking about once we got to the bottom.




It was a one-way trip down to the beach, which the operators were pretty heavy on reminding us about once we got to the bottom - they didn't stick around long either...








I really like the sandstone cliffs and the view out to The Needles. I remember visiting there on the obligatory year 6 Isle of Wight trip years ago, we took a boat trip and saw some glass blowing. I must admit one thing though, it really tested how terribly unfit I am, it's definitely on the list of things to improve upon...

Photo An Hour: 9/12 – September

28/09/2013
Only 2 more months to go and I'll have managed to do one of these a month for a whole year! It feels like this year has flown by faster than the last, I can't quite believe it. And to think I've been working with Christmas since August and soon it really will be here.

These were taken on a trip Moon and I made with some friends to visit our other friends on the Isle of Wight for their housewarming. I have a few more pictures from The Needles to show you but just a snippet will serve it's purpose right now.


9am // Post-shower sit-down before the cavalry arrives.


10am // Enroute to Southampton.


11 am // Grey skies at the ferry terminal.


12pm // Bumpy sea.


1pm // Moon clutches a convincing taxidermy duckling.


2pm // Time for lunch
(and skip-out on 3pm's photo thanks to seasickness)


4pm // Catching the chairlift down to the beach at Needles Park.


5pm // Admiring the sandstone.


6pm // Playing the 'how many cars can we squeeze in here' game.


7pm // Drinking games ahoy!


8pm // If there's a better pre-curry game to play than beer pong we haven't heard of it(!)
This kind of made me realise why I tend to do more of these while lounging about, it's so easy to forget to do it with so many other things going on - this is a good 'life thing' but a less good 'photo challenge' thing.