London Family and Child Photographer

Recipe for Success (Lentil and Bacon Sauce)

There are some gals out there who love cooking and have loads of receipe's. Let us make clear, I am not one of them. I have about 1 or 2 and this is one is my favourite. Just as well for lots of people who I cook this for say its delicious and have asked for the receipe, so here it is. Enjoy.

(If you actually cook it, please do let me know - it will be good for my cooking ego!)

1 tbsp oil in a large pan
2 cloves of garlic
1 finely chopped onion
1 large carrot, finely diced

Cook until softened

Add ½ tin of chopped tomoatoes
Add 50g of lentils
Add 500 ml of hot water mixed with vegetable stock cubes
Add Spicy Season All, Paprika, Ground Cumin
Bring to boil, cover and simmer for 30 minutes (Add more water to create soup)

Either fry or grill some bacon, cut off fat and cut up, adding to sauce.

Add salt and water to season

Stir in juice of ½ lemon (or less)

Serves 2

I'm going to miss their pretty little faces and the way that every time I see them there is a small change to show that they are growing up.

I am going to miss the fun, laughter and chaos that usually occurs when we all get together.

I am looking forward to when I next see them and seeing all the big changes in how they have grown. I am looking forward to photographing such pretty little girls and cute little boy.

I am going to miss having the opportunity to see this little boy's first smile, crawl, laugh, but am praying its get caught on camera for my benefit!

I am going to miss her good food, and company and great advice!

I am going to miss her chicken soup.

I might even miss watching Pepper Pig and Thomas the Engine because it means I won't be seeing these two lovely girls...

I am going to miss the way she always grabs our hair for our comfort.
and I am going to miss teaching photography to him (but am looking forward to see him progress anyway)...

A taste of things to come

Its funny when you do a family portrait and say crazy faces to amuse the children, and then the children don't do the funny faces. LissaLou and CassCass just look as cute as ever, whilst us adults... Well I think I win the award for the craziest face. And proud of it.

Thank you to Naomi, who took this and a whole bunch of others which shall follow when I get them on to the right computer.

And finally, an update...

The blog is a little photo heavy with photos of the kids etc but ah well, its worth it. After Wednesday I am not going to get to blog my photos of them for a very very long time. Heather says fine to have blog address here though so if you are interested in checking out what they are up to and their planning and preparation as they move to Guadeloup, go here...

www.goinggwada.blogspot.com

My preparation is going well. Today I have been able to get various admin-type things done and then go see Heather and the kids. (Strange not to say 'The Girls' any more!) Where we had a lovely time at the park and hanging out. As I came down the stairs, my foot kind of slid and landed beneath me and I continued down in a most unceremonius manner. So now have a little bit of a sore foot and leg and a titchy little bruise to show for my pain. Pah. Happily I finally tracked down Butterkist toffee popcorn on the way home. I shall not reveal my source as my last two sources have strangely run out and stopped selling them recently. And it wasn't me.

Tomorrow I'm having a few friends over from my pastorate for a meal in the evening. Lentil and Bacon Sauce with Rice. My favourite! Guests are meant to bring dessert but I also got some Mascarpone Ice Cream (again, my favourite).

Before that, my friend Naomi is coming over to do some photos with Baby J and me and hopefully we can get a decent one with all the family in it, so all in all a good afternoon is planned.

Fundraising... Rather dissapointingly I found out today I won't necessarily be able to use the money I have in my CAF account for the YWAM. No one seems to know right know. A while a go this would have really stressed me, but it seems, I am not that worried - it will work out okay. I have to send some reminders and follow ups to my fundraising letter so hopefully that will help too.

This morning I received my guide book I got cheap from amazon. Fascinating stuff. No doubt at some point in the next few days when I have the urge to blog I shall share some of the information that I have discovered about Hawaii.

For now here is one tid bit: Hawai'i is the name of the State, made up of 8 Islands
Ni'ihau
Kaua'i
O'ahu
Moloka'i
Lana'i
Kaho'olawe
Maui
and the island which I am going to which is better known as 'The Big Island', turns out its actual name is actually Hawai'i.

Prayer Requests:
If you are of the praying mentality...
1) Fundraising, that I would sort out things with CAF or raise the amount I need without it.
2) That this respiratory tract infection would gogogogogo GO! Its no where near bad as last time but the coughing is annoying and my voice stills sounds weird.

Well I guess this is been my first real proper update. Hopefully there is more to follow. Hope you have enjoyed it! Good Night

Baby Face

Well there isn't too much to do when you are two weeks old, other than eat, sleep, have nappy changes and ah yes, look lovely for photos.

This is the face of a baby who is wondering 'Gee you have to take my picture, again!?!?!'

'Now what if I don't want my photo taken, I can make a funny face like this, surely you won't want this picture on the blog?'

'Well I'd hate the blog readers to think I couldn't take a good photo so I'll give you a couple, are you ready?'

'Oh, I don't know about the double chin, maybe you should try again?'

I think someone needs to tell Baby J he is a baby and can't talk let alone hold conversations, or that his aunt is a little nuts?

Last day at Waterlow Park

Waterlow Park has provided some of my happiest memories of London, it is a little gem of a park located on the road up to Highgate next to Whittington Hospital and it is a must see for anyone living in this part of North London. The setting is bautiful, with grass, lake, old house and views over London.

After picking up LissaLou from Nursery today we all toddled on over to Waterlow Park for a little play and letting loose the built up rainy day energy.

First to the swings, the higher the better...

Then to the roundabout, the faster the better. Unfortunately on this occasion some cute 6 year old wanted to push them and was FAAAAAR to slow, hence the somewhat bored expressions on their faces...

Mummy to the rescue, this is more like it, fast and furious!

She talking about seeing her reflections in the water below, meanwhile Heather is noticing someone's discarded Encyclopedia. One wonders how an enclyclopedia ended up in the lake!?

One of the benefits of a rainy day is the puddles it leaves behind...
LissaLou's footprints

Blue Eyes

No idea how long they will last but he has

Blue Eyes!

In exactly one week I'll be somewhere over the Atlantic on my way to Hawaii. Woohoo!

Blog ready

So with Dad's purchase of a new camera as he has outgrown the compact, Heather and Alberton have inherited the compact to make sure they take lots of photos of the girls. I also started them with a blog and so when I go to Hawaii next week I can still keep in touch with all they are doing. And then when they all go to Guadeloup in July everyone in the UK can see what they are up to over there. Yay for blogs! If you would like to get the blog address please email me at trailofhope2002 @ yahoo.co.uk

Discussing the new blog and camera...

Cass developing her photography skills...

Hamy's lable fell off recently and we have discovered that LissyLou's affections actually lie with the lable as opposed to Hamy...

When your brother cries, eat chocolate cream eggs...

Our little snow suprise on Easter weekend...

{Christ has risen!} He has risen indeed! Alleluia!

Saying Happy Easter just conjures up images of Easter eggs and hopping bunny rabbits so the title for this is the traditional Christian greeting for Easter. No bunnies included!

Wow what a week. Today Jesse is 1 week old, and yesterday I got to do what I have been waiting for a long time, the photo shoot!

Jesse was such a wonderful model and not just cos I am his aunt! A variety of factors, the hot house, lots of feeding, fairly relaxed environment, and his young age meant this was one of the best newborn shoots I have done. From now on I am going to try and make the effort to do these photo shoots much closer to 1 week than 2 weeks old. So much easier. My wonderful model needed the occasional feed but was not sick, did not wee or poo without his nappy on which also made it simpler, and he slept most of the time in the poses we put him in. He

With promises of chocolate nests his sisters were also very co-operative, CassCass' hand was almost permently attached to her mouth and 99% pictures show this. They were both very excited by the black background material (who knew it could be so exciting?) So all in all it was a successful time!

Lighting and focus are a little off but I love this pose and this is the first time I have done it, usually by 2 weeks the baby is getting a little old and stretches their legs back out.

A Good Friday Indeed...

After the seriousness of church this morning and trying to sit one hour without coughing or fall asleep due to lack of sleep last night (cos of coughing), I got to go and collect my two beautiful nieces and take them home to make chocolate nests and watch Brambly Hedge and play hide and seek. I tell you, our house this afternoon was the height of excitement!