First there was some snow, then a trip south for Christmas which included: 3 trips to the pub, 2 trips to the beach and new walks in new fields and lanes. Ooh and mustn’t forget Christmas dinner and loads of new people and dogs to meet. She had an absolute blast, and everyday she exhausted herself with her new antics and friends.

Then it was home again to our very quiet, in comparison, house. But then it snowed again and again! Lily loves the snow, and feels it’s her mission to eat it all and catch it all as it falls. Makes for some very amusing entertainment to pass those frustrating days of being snow bound that’s for sure.

Here are some images of her adventures, boy is she growing up quick now, and her snoring it getting really loud the bigger she gets. (She is currently raising the roof off my office!!)

First some Snow:

It sent her a little loony so there was lots of running around and jumping in the fresh snow:

We all love walking in fresh unmarked snow, Lily prefers a more energetic approach of jumping on it.

Then the eating began….

Brain Freeze!!!

We all know how that feels.

Who me? No I wasn’t eating anything! Honest!

First trip to the beach: (this is a puppy who will walk around puddles as she doesn’t like getting her feet wet)

oooh that water is moving….

Ahck! I got wet, shake it off quick!

This beach is different, that water is HUGE! and WET!!! I’m barking at it why isn’t it going away??  (Thanks Dad for getting wet with Lily! ))

I don’t think Lily is going to be a swimming dog, much preferring to stay clean and dry.  She is really growing up fast now, and her personality is starting to develop, with her making it very plain what she likes and doesn’t like. Not a morning girl either,  it means I have to be up early if I want to do any work undisturbed, or send her off to work with Simon. Failing that a long walks ensures a couple of hours peace and quiet while she sleeps it off, and if all that still doesn’t have any effect, then a nice juicy bone will keep her amused for hours.

I was off to meet The 33 Bombshells, 33 Engineer Regiment (EOD). They are the Wives and girlfriends of serving soldiers and are an integral part of the community at Wimbish. At Christmas each year they arrange for a collection of items to parcel up and send out to our troops who are currently deployed overseas. Wednesday night was all about packing up the boxes, getting them weighed, addressed and ready to go.

I was so excited to see that the grim winter weather hadn’t put people off coming to help, in fact the village hall was so busy it was hard at times to move around and capture everything that was going on.

This year they were very well supported by our local community with donations from the Saffron Walden Inner Wheel, the Little Walden WI, the British Legion, Saffron Walden Building Society and many individuals from the Debden and Wimbish Parish. The Saffron Walden Rugby Club turned up with some 40 boxes, and the local cadet group also donated and helped out very ably on the night. Waitrose and Tesco again donated goods to the value of £80. Not forgetting everyone who donated gifts to go into the boxes.

This year they smashed their previous years record of 95 boxes and packed ready for dispatch a massive 240 boxes.

These gifts at Christmas make a real difference to the troops, who are miles away from home and with few home comforts, they provide a reminder that there are lots of people back home supporting them and thinking about them often.

Here’s a quick peek at the fantastic production line it takes to get this boxes ready to go.

Take some Shoe boxes

Some good books, magazines, Cd’s, DVD’s and novelty socks

Some nice smellies, tooth brushes and toothpaste

And very important, some nice things to eat, lots of them!

Now encourage your ‘army’ of volunteers to fill up those boxes with a variety of  goodies remembering to stay just below 2kg.

Queue patiently to make sure they are the correct weight, you want to get as many goodies in a box as you can!

Add a little love

Tape it up to make sure all those precious goodies arrive safely

Don’t forget the address and customs labels

And now the parcels are ready to go to the post office for posting!

These simple gestures make all the difference to serving soliders who are away from home, their families and loved ones at Christmas and it’s amazing that the effots of The 33 Bombshells has resulted in 240 parcels packed with love and goodies making their way to our brave troops.

I wish them all a safe Christmas.

This week we had a trip to the vets as she had a small spot like lump on her leg that she wanted to chew. The vet decided that it might be a tumour and so he wanted to remove it and get it tested. I can tell you I wasn’t expecting that! So I left her somewhat nervously at the vets and drove away. I tried to keep busy and run some errands, but it was no use I had to come home. Boy it was quiet!

I hadn’t realised just how quickly she had taken over at home and how much her mischief kept me entertained during the day, or how much work she was stopping me from doing!

Anyway shortly after I got in the vets called to say all had gone really well and she had come round well so I could go and pick her up. Excitedly I jumped in the car and fetched her.

The vet said ” don’t worry she will be very sleepy and dopey for the next 24 hours or so, keep her warm and only let her out for the loo and then you must be with her, in fact keep her on her lead as she will be very wobbly on her feet.”  He then went on to say ” for the next 10 days you need to keep the plastic lamp shade collar on and keep her from running, jumping and other very active play”  I laughed! Anyone who has ever had a boxer puppy knows that being a nice sedate puppy is not an option, let alone for 10 days!!

I think Lily is destined to be different, she wasn’t sleepy or dopey when I got her home and hasn’t been since! Keeping her from running jumping and generally being a puppy just isn’t happening, but so far the stitches are holding and in fact the wound is looking really good and other than the lamp shade she seems completely unphased by the whole experience.

And just to show everyone that she is well here she is sporting her ‘how cute do I look with my new collar on?’ look

We started off by taking some portraits in an old mill yard, where you might think the backgrounds would be off putting, or odd, but as you can see there are plenty of opportunities in all locations to get some great portraits.

Moving around the village of Staveley, we found some great stone walls and autumn colours.

Then it was onto the funky flash, in the rain. The first shot shows that even in pretty miserable conditions you can get some cool shots and make those less desirable weather conditions work with you in the creative process.

Some more natural looking flash in the iron shed.

Whilst in the iron shed, we lit the door with some coloured flash and it looks pretty cool, considering it looks pretty awful in the daylight, all bent, rusty and wonky, this gives it quite a dramatic feel.

A plain wall suddenly provides a fabulous studio background.

I had a great time and have come away armed with a whole host of new ideas to try out this winter, rain no longer stops play!

The Squadron have just had an arduous and very long 6 month tour of Afghanistan clearing the roads and routes across the country of improvised explosive devices (IED’s). So as you can image everyone was excited to welcome them home.

Whilst out in Afghanistan the Squadron raised a phenomenoal £15,000 for BLESMA, the British Limbless Ex Service Men’s Association. BLESMA is the national charity for limbless serving and ex service men and women and their dependants and widows. This charity is close to the hearts of those in the Unit and it was an exceptionally proud moment when they presented the cheque to BLESMA at the parade.

I am not going to share their intimate portraits with you.  I want to share an image of remembrance for all those  who have been seriously injured or who won’t be coming home, we won’t forget.

“They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old,
Age shall not weary them nor the years condemn.
At the going down of the sun, and in the morning
We will remember them.”

So here she is in all her puppy cuteness:

First night in her new home, note the short legs as they have grown a lot in the last 3 weeks!

Nothing like a good shake!

Nothing like a good bit of running to stretch those legs and reach those treats quicker!

A little exploration of the garden

I’m trying to teach her to be a good ‘model’ as some dogs hate the camera as it hides your face and that worries them. Right now it makes her curious so I will be making the most of it and I am sure I will be sharing more photos with you as she grows up.

This one is super special, it’s a shoot sac! Unlike all the other big bulky camera bags out there, this one is beautiful and slim line! Not only that, it holds and protects everything I need it too right there are my finger tips and still has room for my phone, wallet and keys! Such amazing qualities from something so small and beautiful. It fits me too which is a real bonus and it’s so slim there is no danger of me knocking anyone out with it as I spin round, camera to my eye, unlike my backpack!

And there’s more!! You have a choice of covers so that you can personalise it and look uber cool! I chose a gorgeous black and white cover.

So I’m sorry old green camera bag, you are now retired.

Here is my new pride and joy.

Having used it at the weekend extensively, I have to say it’s the best camera bag I have ever had!  Simon – I won’t be looking at another one again! (But I might have to have a choice of covers for it! ;o))

There has been a secret project going on in this house, my new logo and branding. It’s nearing completion, so you won’t have to wait much longer to have a peek. 

This means my website will be getting a bit of a new look too. In the next few days the pages will be changing and I have lots more to add on there as well as some new gallery pictures. It’s changing everyday in little ways, as I pull it all together. Then in a few weeks it should have a complete make over with the new logo. So keep your eyes peeled!

In the same vein my blog will be getting a new make over and new address, all will be revealed on here, and all your favourites from this site will move to the new blog.

Why you might ask? Well this one is really restricting the size of the photos that I can post on it and I need something that I can customise in my new style. I also want to develop the information of fantastic suppliers that I know and trust to provide you with exceptional service and quality.

In addition to all of these changes, I will be ordering new stationary, and new products to offer my clients so there will be lots to show here.

As if all this wasn’t enough I have also been meeting with a local poet, who writes bespoke poetry for any ocassion and we are developing  an exciting new wedding poetry service, so that you can say all that you want to, in a really special and personal way. While we get the website up and running, if you are interested in the poetry, please drop me a line.

So as you can it’s been really busy here and in the next few weeks I have 6 weddings and 2 portraits sessions so I won’t be quiet on here for much longer!

In the meantime because you all know by now I don’t post without a picture I would like to re introduce you to Edward. You might remember him from one of the early posts on the blog, he wears the coolest rattle shoes. Well check him out now! HOW much has he grown and just how cheeky is that face!!

Murray Newlands, famous blogger and affiliate marketer, has just published his interview with me, as a Cambridge Wedding Photographer, over at his website MurrayNewlands.com.

Murray is taking the blogging and Twitter world by storm, you can read more about Murray in Clickbooths interview with Murray Newlands.

Read the full interview where I talk about my blogging as one of the Cambridge Wedding Photographers.

Because I just can’t bring myself to blog without a picture, here is just a little sneaky peek preview of a STUNNING Cambridge Wedding Venue where I will be shooting a wedding in a few weeks.

What was it?  I hadn’t ordered anything. I wasn’t expecting anything. Had they got the right house? Label check, having dropped all my bags all over the path in a hurry, showed that yes it was indeed for me and therefore at the right house.  

I do love a good surprise, and I am always curious and excited when I get one, so as you can imagine I didn’t hang about in opening the door so I could get in and open the box.  So excited in fact I left my bags in a heap on the path, opened the door, picked up the box and carried it carefully inside. At this point I should say that the box was 2/3rds the size of me!

What on earth could it be?

Carefully prising open the top of the box I was met by the most wonderful smell and sight of a stunning bright yellow flower arrangement. Mouth now open and tears welling up I carefully lifted them out of the box and hunted for the card to see who was sending me flowers…..

What I found was a lovely message of thanks from Sally and Jon that tipped those tears over the edge and left me speechless.

Sally and Jon, thank you so so much, the flowers are gorgeous and completely unexpected.

Here’s a peek at the glorious yellow flowers in the stunning April sunshine.