Floppy

Just a matter of hours before the first of lower front teeth falls out. I caught sight of it inclined at 45 degrees at dinner time - even eating al dente asparagus was not quite enough to effect the change.

She bashed her toe this evening on the sand pit and some considerable howling was done.

Tomorrow she's looking forward to seeing Lola and Otto (and Uncle Chris too)

Greg's been to the Orthodentist for a check-up, and Lewis has been to the fracture clinic - the bad news is he has to wear his splint for another two weeks, which makes his entry in the Fowey Regatta questionable... he's not smiling.

Officer of the day

I've been racing in the Laser Stratos with Terry today at Lymington in very atmospheric conditions. We managed to get the boat planing beautifully although the waves made it difficult to ride the wind. Most of the time we were heeled right over as we avoided taking a swim. The sea was full of upturned boats, and fortunately we were not one of them!

Later in the day when I cycled down to Calshot I noticed these two sitting in the race officer's tower, but Miranda noticed me before I could get a picture of them.n On Saturday Lewis did OOD duty - doing the timings and recordings of the second race for the first time...

Greg was out in the safety boat giving support to the flotilla of Toppers doing a training session. Not often you see one of these but the unbroken double rainbow just evaded my attempt to catch it!

Dolly

Miranda did this picture of Dolly whilst she was waiting for her toast to arrive on the table at breakfastime.

"What do the words say Miranda?"

"Oh just some writing on her dress...."

Beach Boys

Greg has a lovely warm tan after his afternoons spent on the beach, dipping in and out the water. There's something about clean golden sand, the sound of the sea and swimming trunks...!

Hengistbury is a good all round location with lots of iron age history to combine with geological exploration, a great site for kite flying, sandy beaches and a secluded bay to sail in too! I managed to get another group photo too so I'm posting it now before it gets forgotten

My story of the day is the rickshaw riding Olympic supporter from China

Mippymaid

My own little Merrymaid on the beach at Hengistbury Head. It was one of those perfect photo opportunities when the head seemed to be visible with the mermaid on the towel, but Miranda doesn't do anything to order. Fortunately I was able to get my phone to hand and snapped her just in time. The weather is good and Miranda is in full swimming mode; yesterday she was "swimming" back and fore between Gregory with her buoyancy aid on, so hopefully she's getting the hang of it.

Finished the day with chippies on the beach at Keyhaven on the way back

A nice relaxing day, chilling...

RS Feva Worlds at Hayling Island

Bucket loads of Brownie points today as we went to the second day of the RS Feva Worlds in Hayling. One hundred and eighty boats competing, so lots to see on and off the water. Lewis sat there (with his arm in plaster cast) watching the action through binoculars, Miranda and Greg mainly skinny dipping....

Lots of other boats on the water including Lasers, an eighteen foot skiff (australian boat) a whole collection of Oppies and Terras, a conatant flow of cruisers passing too, some 29ers and the water never looked even vaguely congested. Nice mixture of calm water on their lagoon and fresh breeze on the solent section. Not sure when I last managed to get all three lined up for a picture and smiling!

Sunny days, starry nights

Lovely and sunny today, so it was an opportunity to barbeque and enjoy Greg's guitar playing in the garden. Seen lots of wildlife in the forest today including newts, a lovely dark green lizard, some deer, little green shield bugs, several different dragon fly (big yellow and black one and small bluey green ones), a crossbill... and more!

And did  I mention ... big up for Wiggo! You did it....

This photo makes me smile when I see it, it's from Thursday morning as I was setting off to London for a few meetings. Waddling down our drive to meet me was two mallards, obviously in search of breakfast. They have been living on John and Dorothy's pond I think!

School's Out

The kids have broken up for thew summer, and it looked like maybe the summer weather had arrived this morning. Unfortunately by lunchtime it was damn and dark again!

Lewis has managed to injure himself and has a suspected wrist fracture, so is wearing a cast on his right arm, and a look that suggests he's not sure if he's more in favour of sympathy or a diagnosis that he free to go sailing after all

The hospital has yet to report...

Topper

I took a handful of pictures of Miranda in an attempt to capture her with a complete set of baby teeth on the weekend. This is one of my favourites, which of course doesn't show her teeth at all! Others I suspect will follow.

Tonight she's been busy making a card to give to her school teacher who she's going to miss next year. I think the cover script says it all - "I love you Miss Chandler"

I'm listening to Lee Morgan - Sonic Boom from 1967

Remember this one?

My Mum holding up a picture of me and my Dad locked in embrace, back in the days when black and white was the 'in thing'

I look at some of the pictures I have of my kids now and it seems an age ago already.

This is my classroom Daddy

Miranda loves it when I take her into school, she shows me all the works she has adorning the walls, where she keeps her bits n' bobs and hangs her coat up. So I thought I'd better get a picture and have it posted by the time she comes home from school...!

I think this little picture by Miranda was my favourite that she did on Friday. When she's in the mood she just rattles off endless quick sketches unselfconsciously. Greg had been drawing leopards, and was using an illustration of an Amur Leopard from a book, which Mipp picked up an used herself.

Greg's picture is below.

The Lookout

When we go for a jaunt around the village on our bike Miranda and I often stop at the Lookout at the Marina - there's a great view over the Cruise Liners (in the opposite direction), and a nice collection of bushes where we often play hide and seek. Here she is running off to hide - I never have to search for long because she cannot sit still for any length of time.

Lewis sailed down to Lymington with the boat club today whilst I cycled out over the forest to meet him. We had a spot of lunch at the Lymington Town Sailing Club, where he's a member now, and then made our separate ways back. He didn't get home until 8pm, having set off at about 9am!

The two little ones were off school with an inset day, so I set them drawing. This is Miranda's remdition of Topper her favourite giraffe...! I used the opportunity to get a few portraits of her whilst she worked, and just realised they are still on my camera. As I was trying to take this photo I had to squash Topper down to get him in the right position, and boy did I get a telling off for hurting his back legs
...

iMovie rather than iSail

Lewis and I were supposed to be racing this evening but the rain was lashing down, and I just could face the miserable experience - so we edited a short movie from some of the clips we shot last week instead!

Where d'it all go?

My father holding a photograph of himself and my mother, fresh faced and with new born Juliet, my older sister. His observation I think was " Don't we just look pleased with ourselves..."

Without photographs we'd be infinitely poorer.

Drifting Off

Greg frequently plays the same pieces of music that Lewis learned when he set out. Often when I am engrossed in the enjoyment of them practicing, I may be in the bath or somewhere else in the house, but I have to stop and think who's actually playing. Greg's playing is often very good and he can apply himself to reading notation in a way that Lewis finds more difficult.

I'm listening to J.D. Allen Trio on his 2011 release called Victory!

Baby Face

Miranda's baby teeth probably won't be intact for too much longer, so I'll have to try and get some decent portraits of the last of innocence. Her face has changed a fair bit recently, and the wide angle lens of an iPhone is probably not the best tool for the job.

Lewis and I have been out racing today, from Calshot up to Ashlet Creek, and the rest of the clan have been out with Paul Rapson in his crusier heckling us as we tacked our way upwind. There's a fair bit of chop in the channel off Calshot and today the lifeboats were doing maneouvers so it was a busy waterway. We all pulled up at the quayside in Ashett and had lunch outside the Jolly Sailor, before racing back downwind. We managed an 8th position out of 12 boats upwind and 5th on the downwind section.

Wild and Wet

Lewis' Saturday Club at the Sailing Club was made a lot more fun today by the addition of a GoPro camera to record some of the action. It was a pretty blustery day again, and it was only after he'd finished filming for about an hour and a half and got back on land again, that we discovered he wasn't using the waterproof housing. So a tad luck that he didn't capsize..!

Miranda heading off for school wearing three hats. It was a bit wet, and she thought that maybe three hats would keep her dry...! Say no more.

Sometimes a quick snap like this catches a moment for me. There's no chance for a second go, two seconds later she hooting off down the garden path to her next appointment.

We went to see Greg perform in the Waterside Primary School production of Macbeth. He's been busy learning his lines and getting his costume prepared - he played the part of Lord Caithness. A huge amount of effort clearly had gone into this quite brave work for the school, and the standard of production was really impressive. Everyone seemed to enjoy their work, and the audience also seemed to be getting into it. Let's hope we see more serious drama...

Greg also had his last fencing lesson today - it won't come as a surprise he's enjoyed this activity a lot!

Welsh Water

One from about ten days ago when I went down to Wales to take photos in the Brecon Beacons. This is when I met up with my brother Christian at Rhandirmwyn, and the normally gently flowing Towy was in full flood. I prefer photographing the rocks and the water together but sadly there were rocks to be seen! All very exciting and atmospheric really, but shame I didn't take the kayak with me....

And it's still raining.

The thrill of the chase at Calshot Sailing Club...

Puffl

Miranda's latest pastime is drawing these little puffles which she's copied from Gregory - she did me four of them on the weekend a red one, a brown one a blue one and this is my fave one. It doesn't look too much like Greg tonight who has come home from scouts with a split lip, and has had to go to casualty to be glued together again. Not good...

Cor babe that's really free

 

Had some good fun on the beach with Miranda this morning pretending to do swimming lessons. Lewis and Caroline were out racing and Greg was in the Clubhouse playing computer games, so we got stuck into the real life activity of swimming. She has two personalities; one is consensual, euphoric and exploratory - the other like a heavy stick in water. And this morning she was in go mode.

The wind was northerly and strong, the tide equally challenging. By the time it was my turn to go out with Lewi most were saying they had had enough of the rotten conditions. When the going gets tough.... the tough get going!

A year ago I would have been happy to say it was too windy to be brave, but this time I leaped at the opportunity and Lewis was pushing me all the way. I can honestly say that although exhilarating I did not feel scared for a moment. I have dreamed about battling the waves without fear, and today we were pushed beyond the limits I have previously set and guess what we won the race! Lewi has got killer instinct and is very focused on the start line, but he tends to drift mid race. I am the person with stamina who pushes him on, and boy do we make a good team. We even beat the mighty Rapson today, hopefully the first of many times....!