photography. meme

Sarah November 17, 2013

A different kind of autumn ordinary #oneweek

I have mentioned a few times before that i tend to like to go for a jog now and again. I nearly always go in the morning as it is a time when i can spare some time! Its also a really handy way to walk the dog at the same time. He isn’t crazy about it. I think he tends to hide in his bed when he hears me come down the stairs in the morning. But as the morning dog walk is up to me then if i can get it out of the way before the school run..well its always good to have one less thing to worry about.

When it starts to get darker in the mornings though I tend to wait till the light is up a little bit which gives me a smaller window of time to go. Im just not crazy about heading out in the dark! So i like to head out, i dont go far, or fast and lately because of the light i do have less time but it is still so important for me to go. Sometimes its just 30 minutes but its like gold to me.

I listen to some tunes and sometimes just stare hard ahead and other times search the depths of my thoughts. Hearing the sounds of the world waking and my own heart beating along with it. There is something meaningful to me that in part I actually can’t explain.

Sometimes i cross paths with others who are out doing the same thing. There is a funny sort of kinship between early morning joggers. A slight acknowledgement is usually all that is needed but its there, the feeling of being part of the opening of a new day.

This past week the weather has been better than usual for me in the morning and my ordinary jog turned into a discovery of how fantastic the autumn can look in the beautiful autumn sunshine. The sun can just lift my spirits. I really love the sun. Seeing it bouncing around the yellows and reds of autumn is incredible.

This is a very ordinary part of my day and i guess walking/jogging with the dog may not seem like much. But, to me, these tiny moments of time are really significant to me. Its my headspace.

It is extra special when there is an incredible accompaniment to marvel at on the way. 🙂

Motivational Monday the ordinary moments

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Sarah November 16, 2013

Searching for Autumn #countrykids

Weird post title right?

Well this weeks outdoor adventure had a bit of another purpose. I know the parks round here reasonably well but i wanted to check some of them for autumn colours…sometimes when i go with the family there isnt enough time to take things in. But i have a couple of shoots this weekend and so i wanted to scope out a couple of spots. So the me, the littlest one and the dog went on a quick jaunt around a few parks in search of autumn colours (that are suitable for being in a shot as well) By that i mean, a tree with all of its pretty leaves super high up and twigs below isnt going to look good in a shot. I want the trees that act like a beautiful backdrop of autumn lushness.

Managed to get in a few candid little girl shots as well. Aren’t little girls awesome. 🙂

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Sarah November 1, 2013

Re-discovering the park. #countrykids

A couple of weeks ago a couple of the members of apartyofseven suffered a pretty mean stomach bug, myself included. One of those that knocks you sideways and looses days and hours to the bathroom and the faithful bucket. Yuk.

About 72 hours after i had stopped being ill i decided that it was time to try and have a little run, up till this point my legs were still pretty wobbly. So one saturday morning i decided to wander off to a local ‘runners’ park after the ballet run drop off.

I sort of shuffled around the park, feeling wobbly at places but it was a slow and steady run and it gave me time to have a look at the park at the changing leaves. The park has a LOT of trees so the impact was pretty impressive. I even noticed a HUGE conker tree and thought there and then that I would suggest coming back later with the kids to do some conker picking. Which we did, although i did forget where the tree actually was and dragged everyone all the way round the park saying excitedly to them…’oh wait till we find this tree, wait till you see it!’

To be fair when we got there they did try and get enthused about it but i think to be honest they were all thinking i had kind of lost it. 😉 But we did get a very impressive conker haul!

The park has a famous victorian palm house and a fairy glen that i have walked past thousands of times but never read the info on it, isn’t it funny how sometimes you have no idea about the stuff that is under your nose. My son and i read the story about the fairy glen and the bridge and the iron bridge. Gave me a little bit of shiver down my spine to be honest! My son though, every the pragmatist told me that it was ridiculous and couldn’t possibly be true because Ghosts down exist!!

Walking back to the car we noticed the biggest mushroom i think i have ever seen. It had some amazing colours and was standing proudly by the side of the path. I have no idea what makes a mushroom grow somewhere, do they have spores that are blown by the wind? are they planted? I haven’t a clue. 😉

I do know though, that lots of them are very dangerous so i wouldn’t let the kids touch this one, so we looked at it a while. I took some pictures and we wondered about what type it was. Annoyingly it has a bit of grass on the top which was really spoiling it but im such a chicken that i wouldn’t even touch it to remove that for the shot! ha!!

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Sarah October 18, 2013

Colour Splash #Countrykids #clairehouse

A week or so ago my girls and my OH ran the 5K colour splash run for Claire House. This is an amazing charity that works to help terminally ill children. They arranged this great run around one of the city’s massive parks with the added interest of at every KM mark the runners get doused in powder paint of different colours. I guess the idea being when they complete the race they are a rainbow of colour! Its such a lovely idea and i was keen to capture it on camera.

We were running a bit late getting to the park and so the kids and OH ran off to join the race and of course i foolishly thought that i would be able to track them down again…

Yeah…that would be not.

So my son and our two little ones jogged round to a few of the markers then gave up and headed back to the finish to wait….