October

 I have read three newsletters this morning and all have been sponsored, makes you think doesn't it? sooo much is sponsored nowadays, when will it end and we go back to people just being normal and not needed to be paid to say they like something. If instagram didn't have that #sponsored or #paidpost next to it I would be fooled most of the time as I believe the best of people. My daughter works in media in the food industry and was telling me that one woman I follow on instagram charges five thousand pounds a post! 

Anyway, I digress as usual. Here are the things I have liked recently and I haven't been paid for anything at all. 

I recently went on holiday (actually it was only last week but the rain and cold has washed away my tan and my holiday mode) where I read four books and would recommend the following three - the first one I thought was so amazingly well written, she has honed her craft over the last few years with her books and this one gets my full five star rating on goodreads - the echoes by evie wyld - it jumps between Australia and London, it is so well done it makes you re read sentences and wish you had thought of that, won't give too much away but it's about a girl living in London and her past, I urge you to read it. I felt bad about reading it on a beach as it did warrant more time than a holiday read. 

The second book I loved was Going home by Tom Lamont - a truly wonderful, poignant book about raising a child, it was so lovely and I do admit to having a little cry whilst reading it. 

Finally, Robert Harris the precipice he just ticks all the boxes for a good holiday read, even though it's fiction, you know that he has researched meticulously. It is the story of Herbert Asquith and his lover and just what went on whilst he was supposed to be preparing for war is just unbelievable. 

I have been watching a few things on television. I am still loving Pachenko on Apple, highly recommend it. I also just finished Nobody wants this,  it was just so nice and funny and sweet, with Kirstin Bell. I also watched the perfect couple with Nicole Kidman looking thirty again......yawn......

Here autumn has arrived and halloween stuff is in all the shops. We have put the heating on and I am sitting in a cashmere cardigan that is over thirty years old and belonged to my husband but it's my comfort jumper (we all have one of those don't we?) I am seriously thinking of learning to darn, does anyone know how to darn?

My photography has stalled lately, I again can't think of what to photograph and need some inspiration to get a project going. Here are some pictures I took whilst in Turkey. Enjoy October and do let me know if you have been doing anything interesting lately. 

London life

I watched an interesting interview with a photographer the other day and he said he has lots of projects he dips in and out of. I have been in the habit of taking a photo a day or doing 30 days of something but his idea appealed to me more and I realised that I have actually got a few things on the go without realising. I have one side which is my nature photography and another that is more London life where I try and get everyday "edgy"photographs, glimpses of London life. Here is a selection I have taken recently out on the streets or on on the tube. What projects do you have on the go?

September

Well September has arrived and the air in London has that back to school feel about it. The weather is still warm and the nights are drawing in but yesterday I spent a lovely morning picking blackberries in the fields surrounding the house where my mother lives.  I think we will make some jam with them over the next couple of days.

My mother also has a lot of hydrangeas in her garden and I have picked them and I am experimenting with drying them, I am not sure how they will all go as two of them are not the normal hydrangeas you see everwhere and they are beginning to resemble dried hops but I'm sure they will be beautiful and give hours of pleasure and I might try and incorporate them into a wreath. 

My lovely friend in Sydney always takes the changes of seasons and re does her house, builds a nature table and puts pumpkins and fir cones out in October and daffodils etc in spring. I feel the need to start getting the house ready for winter, make it cosier and ready for another long winter. 

In other news I am so obsessed with Pachinko on apple tv. I absolutely loved the book and binge watched the first season but that came out 2 years ago so I had to rewatch the whole thing before the second season came out last week. It is so good, set in Japan in the 1900s and switches to 1990s, its so well done and I highly recommend watching. 

I am currently reading The heart in Winter by Kevin Barry It is set in Montana in the 1800s and I'm only halfway through but really enjoying it. 

I have set myself a few projects for September, I watched a photographer on you tube say you should always have lots of projects on the go, dip in and out. I am trying to do a watercolour tutorial each day on you tube, I did some classes a few years ago and seem to have forgotten everything. I would like to get into sketching something every day but don't want to set myself too hard a task at the moment. 

I have loaded my film camera with black and white film - soooo expensive now thanks to gen z taking over film and developing! I am hoping to venture out with it soon. 

I am not good at podcasts but I think I need to give them a try, one a day, any recommendations gratefully received. 

I committed to turning up every day on instagram for the last 5 or so weeks, it was hard and challenging and exhausting but what I have learnt out of it is that I know where my style is going. I have struggled with finding where to go with my work after Sydney and the beaches and sunny lifestyle there and here in England there are so many seasonal differences that affect the light etc. I used to be able to pick a photo of the beach or icebergs and use it anytime of the year as the sun was always shining and the sky was always blue but now I find if I look at the photos I have taken over the last year, you can tell what time of year they were taken! I have decided that I like the dark and moody way my pictures are forming on my grid so that has been a positive to this challenge. 

Do tell me what you have been up to and watching and reading etc.