Hidden away in a small pub garden in the south of England is the elusive four leaf clover. Despite a thorough search by three small girls who make their own entertainment while parents sip cold beer, the whereabouts remains a mystery.
So it goes when you take children to a pub that doesn’t have a swing or something to climb on. Locally of course, a play area in the pub is often sought after on a Saturday afternoon as a recommended alternative to a real park. It suits all. In the absence of such, whoever it was that suggested the four leaf clover hunt was a genius.
Other fun games to play while out and about are: looking for money in the supermarket aisles and the quiet race, (my personal favourite in the car).
This comes from a series of night photos taken with different cameras/phones for varying results. This particular outing is on a bridge over the A31. Yes I know, exotic. I managed to slow the traffic as I pointed my tripod mounted camera down on the cars below. The end results though were somewhat predictable and entirely unoriginal.
Other favourite night locations are of course campsites, but sneaking around between silhouetted couples in tents trying not to let my flash off has left me with deep scars from name calling. And that’s just from the Mother-in-law…
Growing up I spent alot of time at my Aunts and Uncles. I’d climb into their campervan when they were trying to leave our house and sometimes it worked and they’d take me with them. I have many fond memories of being there and tagging along with my older cousins. Brown Mini. Abba Gold. Meccano.
Uncle Reg’s shed is a bona fide fully functioning woodworking haven. Complete with proper bench, lathe and wall to wall tools, it has that very special ingredient only a real shed has; the warming, woody, varnishy smell that you don’t get anywhere else. Reliving the smell when this photo was taken was very special. Solitaire. Cheese and crackers.
Our own garden shed was a Dexion infested, fishing tackle and paint tin mosh pit, so being able to actually get in to one and bang a couple of bits of wood together was a rare and memorable treat. Thanks Uncle Reg.
It snowed and snowed and snowed.
Everyone was off work and the whole street was out building snowy things in other people’s gardens. The car wasn’t used for absolutely ages and every journey was an adventure. Major day walks to the big supermarket were made easier by the winter wonderland views and the pub at the other end.
Farnham park, where this photo was taken, is a sledger’s paradise. It only ever gets this busy on Bonfire night. You couldn’t move for homemade storage box sleighs and snowboards. We managed to find a quieter spot and trashed several plastic trays in minutes.
No one makes snowmen anymore. If you weren’t involved in the building of an igloo you were nobody. Some teenagers in our road built a massive one on the path a few houses up that lasted months. In Central Car Park the council had piled all the snow into a couple of spaces that I think is still there. I thought about making the pile into a car shape to see if it got a ticket, but it was too cold…
It snowed and snowed and snowed.
Motorist’s stranded on the A3. Panic buying. Shops running out of milk. The whole country closed down. You couldn’t get salt from anywhere. The first day it really snowed it bought half of the garden to it’s knees. Bushes and trees massacred just to get them to stand upright and to clear a path to studio. It lasted ages and then through that really slippy phase I couldn’t leave the house because I had no grip on my shoes. Some overtaking by old ladies on Firgrove Hill.
This photo was taken during a three hour expedition to Badshot Lea on a mission to find crickets for the gecko. It was at this point I made the decision that the gecko needs a new home.
Free to good home: Leopard Gecko. Comes with sand and house. Enjoys High School Musical. Ideally suited to someone living close to a pet shop.
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