2010 - Highlights

2010: heavy snow, a couple of weddings and an awful lot of rambling. Oh, and we did quite a bit of walking as well.

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It was a shame, in a way, that Joshua only got to go to a couple of days of school before they had to close the place because of the bad weather. Still, in the midst of the collapse of civilisation as we know it, there was a snowman, a whole bunch of icicles and a particularly playful cat. A word of warning: THERE HAS BEEN SOME DIGITAL MANIPULATION IN THIS ALBUM. Largely, you know, brightness and saturation. It's bloody difficult to photograph snow properly.
Snow, January 2010
   

So we went back to Butlins, and this time Thomas didn't shrink like a violet at every fairground ride. (There was an incident with an aggressive seagull and a stolen brioche that we failed to capture on film, but that's another story.) Daniel got a sickness bug, Joshua got over-excited, Emily and James got The Golden Compass from the DVD rental place and found it mediocre. On the way back we stopped in at Dunster Castle, which boasts spectacular views, and a reasonably-priced cream tea.
Butlins, April 2010
   

Emily’s new project for 2010 – one I have adopted with great enthusiasm – is to walk the Ridgeway. In bits. Here are the best bits of those bits. Given Thomas's agonisingly slow walking speed I have a feeling this may take us a while – years, probably – but I don’t think the Ridgeway is going anywhere. Also featured: Mike and Jo Nonweiler celebrate their recent marriage in Cambridge, James manages with great difficulty to climb onto a wall in Basildon Park on Easter Monday, and the gang go and visit the White Horse of Uffington.
Misc 2010, Part 1
   

Three boys, three birthdays. Daniel was first, celebrating his with a barbecue and a ride-on Thomas the Tank Engine. Middle child was next - you will see a Timmy Time theme running through those shots. At the end of June Joshua turned five, and invited a few school friends over: we tidied up the garden and filled up the paddling pool. Look out for the semi-artistic balloon shots.
Parties 2010
   
Long was the planning and gestation for this family holiday: a post-retirement celebration for my mother, who has finally got out of the civil service. She and my father rented an expensive house on the outskirts of Freshwater: Em and I joined them, along with the boys, and also my brother and his family (who, out of privacy considerations, are not featured in this collection). Highlights included windy beaches, beautiful National Trust gardens, sun-drenched clifftop walks and the long-awaited pilgrimage to Blackgang Chine, which is falling into the sea at an alarming rate, calling to mind Kevin Costner’s remark at the beginning of Dances With Wolves: “I wanted to see the frontier sir. Before it’s gone”.
Isle of Wight, August 2010
   

In 2010, Joshua started school, Daniel learned how to walk and Thomas consolidated his fascination for jigsaw puzzles. We roamed in and around Shropshire, changed the sleeping arrangements, and built various things with Duplo. We also invested in a zoom lens, which enabled us to get some candid shots from quite a long way away - look out for the sports day ones.

Updated 15 January 2011
Joshua, Thomas and Daniel - 2010
   
Over the course of the summer, Granny and Grandad saw two visits from grandchildren: first Thomas headed up there for a couple of evenings, followed by his brother a few weeks later. Featured: Croft Castle, geocaching in the hills, and several play areas.
Shropshire, Summer 2010
   
Ooh. Fuzzy festival pictures. I didn’t get a huge amount this year, largely because we spent most of our time either serving tea or complaining that we had no water with which to serve tea. That said I was able to experiment with the zoom lens and image stabiliser and get some decent night shots. Although I am annoyed that I forgot the camera the evening Courtney Pine was playing. You should have seen his hair.
Greenbelt, August 2010
   
The marriage of an old friend and her perfectly suited (in more ways than one) fiancé. We left the children with my parents and popped on down to my old church in Reading for the ceremony, before gathering at the riverside for fish, lamb and an awful lot of wine. We caught up with old friends and basically had a wonderful day, and it was lovely to see the bride and groom looking so happy.
Ross & Beth's Wedding, 16th October 2010
   

Not one, but two visits to Hatton Farm Village, both with different online communities and different groups of children. These (and a few photos from Halloween) sandwich another Pembrokeshire set: our camping holiday this year was a disaster, at least as far as the weather was concerned (last time we sleep in a salvaged tent). The one day we did get to visit Newgale beach the lighting was absolutely glorious, as witnessed by the shadowy effects therein: sadly after this it was all downhill, and eventually everyone decamped to Shropshire to celebrate Elisabeth's 65th birthday, in between drying off and finishing a feature-length volcano story.
Misc 2010, Part 2
   

Shots from the depths of winter. The Knights go tree-shopping, Kirsten and Judith pop in, the gang enjoys a day out in London and then pops over to Waddesdon park, and finds time to decorate the Christmas cake. And then we had turkey. Happy New Year, everyone!

(Thanks to Elisabeth and Michael, who took a few of these.)
December 2010
   
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