Last weekend was a big, happy one for our family. One of my six lovely nieces was married at a beautiful old church in Kent, with a rocking reception in the village hall.
It was a triumph of creativity, individuality and joy. Handmade paper flowers, hand-drawn orders of service, bright pink and red dresses for the bridesmaids, fish and chips for dinner, a particularly nice prosecco flowing freely, a five-layer cake baked by the groom, the bride's father's jazz playing in the background, speeches so funny and touching that a lot of mascara was also flowing freely.
A warm and personal occasion, perfect for the couple and family involved. When I shared my album of photographs on social media, many people commented "lovely photographs, especially because of the lovely people in them". So true.
Wicken Fen, Cambridgeshire: understatedly beautiful. A lovely midwinter walk.
And Mum and Dad came along too. Well, actually, they drove me there, as I sat like a teenager in the back of the Astra, playing on my phone.
Sometimes I find east-facing coasts a bit frightening. They seem cold and light and you're not always sure what's out there, as a new part of the day turns towards you.
West coasts somehow seem more comfortable - warmer, maybe a little more nostalgic and emotional. Maybe it's living in Ireland - in a way, you can't get much further west.
Is there such a thing as a "west-facing" personality? I don't know, but I might be one.
So I find east coasts a challenge, and sometimes a challenge is what I need. A visit to Aldeburgh, on the Suffolk coast, last week, was just that. I'd been there once before and knew how beautiful the light was, how unique its colours, how intriguing its combination of weathered details and huge emptiness. I wanted to look and listen and try to capture something of all that in my images.
I found my weathered textures.
My companions didn't worry about the looking east thing.
Before we went, I had a plan in which I'd buy a huge bunch of helium balloons and make my family members pose on the beach, holding them in romantic fashion. Probably everyone is glad that that didn't work out. But some of the buoys on the ships almost compensated for the lack of balloons.
Don't miss the little paper boat. There might be some kind of parable in this shot.
I did bring a single hydrangea bloom with me. I know, that might be a bit weird.
Fresh fish. And we made sure we ate some.
