Photographs of Colwyn Bay from before Christmas.  I met an American ex-pat at our parish who's from the Midwest.  He said it's always spring in this country: always green and humid and temperate.

There are bike paths all over; theoretically, one could travel across the country on the walking paths that span the island from the four coasts.

A murmuration of starlings over the old (condemned?) pier.

Every town has a main Anglican parish.  Not every town has a KFC.

Now the lights have been taken down, and January's settled in, with more cold and less comfort.  If only we had our own little hearth to build a fire and keep the chill at bay.

3/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2016."

Roan:  one year old! (always with the tilted head)

Afon:  an object in motion stays in motion (outside our parish, Saint Joseph's).

1st Birthday

January 14, 2016

Roan: you ate your cake with relish.  We sang you into your second year with friends; your first year behind us, with many fond memories.  I'm so looking forward into meeting you again and again each new day.  What surprises do you have in store for us?

Good things in life:

// small-town diners with the same customers the same days a week, where the owners serve you and cook for you and ask you how the baby's doing

// vegetarian English breakfasts (for a Friday) with tomatoes, hash browns, mushrooms, eggs, buttered toast, and beans, all drenched with vinegar

// forty-five minutes to sit alone with your planner and your notebook and write down a list of what you want to do with yourself

{pictured: the family at Gillian's from a few weeks back}

12 Months

". . . he believed there were more things in heaven and earth than most people dreamed, and told Humphry, seriously, over a beer, that he had seen uncanny creatures, not only in woods near Cambridge, but passing between market stalls, or peering out of windows, in the Mile End Road.  Our world was interpenetrated, he said.  We had known it in the past.  We have lost the knowledge."

A.S. Byatt, The Children's Book

{photo of Tan-y-Coed Gardens from August}

2/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2016."

Afon:  at the Conwy fish and chip shop.  He spilled his drink at least twice.

Roan:  fuzzball.   He's getting around very well these days.  It's the sweetest to hear him scrambling after me, or his brother, never very far behind.

Rule of Thirds

Don't be confused, you're in the right place! Ye olde blog restlessness is acting up again.  I've worked with the last blog for near on two years, which is a lifetime for this fickle perfectionist.  The new year is as good a time as any to change things up.

In the first picture, the subject (container garden) is more or less in the center.  When I reshifted focus to follow the rule of thirds, it looks more interesting, doesn't it?

In both pictures above, the motorcycle is off-center, but the second one has it at the intersection of two lines.  I think it improves the image.

1/52

"A portrait of my children, once a week, every week, in 2015."

Afon:  This was actually taken before the new year--but within the same week--on one of our walks.  These past two weeks have tested us to our limits, and we are more than happy to have him start back at school tomorrow.

Roan:  almost a year old!  He is so good to "help" me in the kitchen.  He stays in his high chair feeding on bits of bread and cheese while I cook, and when I'm finished, as soon as the floor is clean and the appliances cooled and off, he's let loose on the floor, just as he's starting to fuss.  I would have been an insufferably dreamy mama if he had been my first baby.