I love this shot of Raffy & Monty with their friends on a country walk in Cambridgshire, taken last October. The sheep very wisely made a hasty exit at the approach of this noisy herd of children. I should add that they weren't actually chasing the sheep, just wandering in their general direction...

The boys were so keen to get outside on Boxing Day and play with their new go-karts that they didn't even manage to change out of their pyjamas. Luckily the weather was very mild, and they had great fun racing each other up and down the road...

One of the nicest things about this Christmas was that it is our first with little Gabriel. He is such a happy and cuddly little fellow now, and it's been a lovely day for him with lots of hugs and bottles of milk.

Another Christmas Day shot - Rafferty looks rather intimidating with his magic wand. Avada kedavra and all that...

I love this shot of Raffy whizzing past on his new go-kart that he got this morning. Monty, of course, has one exactly the same so they can race instead of argue about whose turn it is.

Anyway - a very merry Christmas to everyone, and the very best wishes for the New Year!

Here's a nice shot of Milo on the steps of a beach hut on Tankerton slopes. We were out for a walk by the sea one weekend to get some fresh air, and this is always a great location for photos of the boys.

A nice colourful shot for Christmas Eve - back when the weather was warmer and the sun shone. I loved the glow of these leaves backlit by the morning sun, one weekend in early October.

This morning we had to get the boys out of the house to burn off some excess energy, so despite the freezing fog we wrapped up and went to our local park. The boys had a great time and Monty enjoyed swinging from this climbing frame - but got quite cross with me for taking pictures instead of rescuing him when he was stuck. Bad Daddy!

'Tis the season to be jolly, eat too much, drink more, dance badly and then flop semi-conscious in front of the telly... and also the season for office parties. We had ours last night at the King's School in Canterbury and great fun it was too - lovely venue, really good food and great company.

What's more, there was no karaoke, I managed to avoid wearing a party hat the whole evening, and not a single person got horribly drunk and disgraced themselves - or at least they hadn't by the time Vanessa and I left! There's a small selection of carefully edited and publicly acceptable photos in my Flickr gallery now... just click on the picture to see them.
Posted Saturday, December 22, 2007

Christmas is nearly upon us, the boys are very excited and keep trying to sneak presents out from under tree - Monty has become quite the little ninja... here's a shot I took in my teens of our christmas tree back in 1989.

Our boys tend to wake up very early and Milo is the reigning champion with regular 5am starts, and to avoid him waking the rest of the house up, we often bring him downstairs to play quietly. Here, he could not resist fiddling with the Christmas tree and adjusting all the baubles...

I like this shot of Nathan with Charlotte, Raffy, Milo, Melissa and Monty all gazing into the stream running below this bridge, watching for pooh-sticks. This was taken on one of our visits to Newmarket in early October. Luckily no-one fell in on this occasion...

I was having a look through some really old negatives the other day and scanning some of the better ones. I found this one, taken on a trip back to North Devon with some of my university friends from King's College.

Another picture from the set I took on Thursday morning. This is Milo trying to play with our bedside lamp - although fortunately he knows not to get too close. I'm still quite impressed by the surreal effects from this little digicam once you get rid of the awful built-in flash.

First thing this morning, which in our household is about 6am when the boys wake up, Milo was in our room jumping on our bed as usual. I had the family digicam to hand and experimented with a few shots sans flash, and got this lovely grainy motion-blurred effect - looks rather ghostly...

Another picture from the summer, as I work through the negatives. This was taken in our back garden on a hot afternoon with dappled sunlight coming through the trees. Milo has just been enjoying his barbecued sausages and is looking particularly cheeky...

I took this in early November, when the weather was mild and the children were still playing happily outside in shorts and T-shirts. This is Milo playing in the sand pit at the base of their climbing frame. There was really nice light that afternoon which gave gentle warm tones to the image.

Hot off the press... we have not long been back from the boys' christmas bazarre at their school. It was a lovely evening - Raffy and Monty had a great time, Vanessa ended up judging the 'Y-factor' talent show in a blonde wig and I got roped into face-painting. Didn't have a real camera with me but got this on the cameraphone...

In early November we had some beautiful clear sunny mornings, which showed off the Autumn colours in the landscape. I managed to get out along the Stour Valley Walk as it passes through Fordwich, and along towards Westbere lakes.

I got this shot one day just after Gabriel was born in July, when I had taken the boys up to the hospital for a visit. Raffy grabbed Vanessa's camera and started to take pictures of Gabriel - well, he has to start somewhere...

I love this picture of Raffy and Milo, taken in September. One Sunday afternoon they were waiting for their friends Grace and Victoria from next door to come out and play. So Raffy got Vanessa's pink sun lounger from the garage to sit on while they waited for the girls. Might as well get in some practice while they are young!