There's nothing the kids love more than a visit to the imaginary skate park. This one is from last weekend at Cenarth, where they improvised with the flood water defences penetrating the bridge over the River Teifi.
I get very excited these days when I get text message! It always used to be the case that Vodafone wanted to tell me they had reduced the cost of calling my friends in Somalia, but yesterday my lovely niece Elsbeth sent me a message to say she'd managed to score a result in her GCSE's. 
Today it was Greg's 7th Birthday, and here he is with his cake made by Mum in a topical theme! He's wearing a fleece from Gran and Grandan (I think...) adorned with Camper Vans.
There was of course another reason we went down to Wales, .... to visit all the Carmarthen Browns. My Mum and Dad, as well as Chris, Alison, Otto and Lola....
Just catching up on our visit down to Wales for the weekend, and this captures the flavour nicely. Lewis and I managed to squeeze in two epic bike rides; the first up onto the Brecon Beacons on a wet and windy morning ride out of Talybont on Usk, left Lewis wondering if he'd bitten off more than he could chew. He' d been looking forward to proper 'mountain' biking for some time, but the rocky ascents were tough even for me in my slightly unfit state! It was worth it though for the downhill after the climb he assured me, and this set the tone for Sunday's ride at Abergorlech. This was a longer ride with some pretty challenging climbs too, and the weather was very heavy going. Three hours of riding, and Lewis was forging ahead, shrieking with excitement at the downhill sections. The final downhill section has to be seen to be believed, and what better place to see this than here....hold on to your seats!
It wasn't very long ago that Miranda would decline to have her portrait taken - I had to make do with candid shots, which naturally enough I like taking. However at the moment she enjoys the call and response, and has fun posing for me.
Miranda's been out on Domino twice this week, although this picture was taken at the weekend. She loves that elevated position, which takes her up above the boys. Does she lord it?
Lewis said that he wanted to be on the blog tonight, so he chose a picture for me to load. This one's taken at Durlston Head on the Coastal path.
I came across this picture tonight, and I've not seen it for some years. Taken in November 2005 when we were awaiting Miranda's arrival, or so I recall. Seeing the picture again reminded me of Greg's cheeky side, he's always been able to push his luck too far. (Compare the same wide eyed knowing smile on my August 12 2009 post)
We took Domino for a walk this morning up the track from our house, as we've not been out with him for a little while. Our neighbour Sian came too, and it was lovely to hear her and Lewis jabbering away about horses for most of the walk. She's quite keen on horses and Lewis has been devouring all manner of books on the subject, but still hasn't had a chance to ride a 'proper' horse yet.
Tonight Jamie's apprentice cooked us Gnocchi followed by a baked pasta dish, with a pudding of Courgette cake (baked by Gregory and Mum) all of which was delicious.
Friday night and it's 'chippies' on the beach at Lepe. The kids were very excited about the prospect of playing football, and seeing the week out with the backdrop of boats going out to sea. It's been a gorgeous day here, sunny and warm, but the wind was quite strong by home time.
The day started today with a delicious fruitbread that Lewis baked yesterday, having been inspired by the Town Mill Bakery in Lyme Regis. I am pleased to report that Lewis' was just as good as the real McCoy, indeed it was the real McCoy.
Greg has always enjoyed being photographed, but he offers a much greater variety of poses these days. I like to take lots of pictures when he's in this sort of mood, even though I know I am looking for just one image. Later when I am supposed to reject all the lesser images, I scroll through the thumbnails and his manic grin projects outwards, and I am left unable to reject even one!
Just looking through my holiday photos for some portraits, and this one stands out. It embodies the relaxed and healthy frame of mind approach that we all seem to adopt when we're at leisure.
The Brown Clan have arrived home from their Cornish Pasty extravaganza! So I'm posting a few shots for the record, as I was too tired most night's to even bother trying from the campsite.
We camped on the Restronguet Creek again and explored all the waterways and coastline of the River Fal and the Helford River. We walked miles of the coastline, it's such a gorgeous part of the world. The three locations below are St Just in Roseland and Mevagissy; and finally Falmouth from the Flushing side of the water.
Of our many bike trips this one which started off south of Truro and took in the pretty village of Malpas. Fortunately it was Regatta Day, which was fun, but unfortunately this meant the ferry was not running, so we could not continue our planned journey. We took local advice and the picture of us pushing uphill is no exageration. I could mention the six or seven kissing gates we had to lift the bikes over too, but that would be playing for sympathy!
