oof

this was me last night. shattered (as evidenced by dark circles and a slightly crazy expression) but with some champagne for the second night in a row as, approaching midnight, i *finally* submitted another chapter (a day late but still - hurrah).

but, save for some bubbly and a tiny lie in, there is no rest around these parts. motivation is still high but this is a SERIOUS test of endurance and i am constantly having to give myself pep talks and focus on the positive.

generally, i am *very* proud of what i have achieved to date but i need to keep up the good work for:

 source

thanks to the lovely ivana for tagging me in a '#merightnow' thing on instagram because it made me take a photo of myself there and then and document this achievement. oh i do love my iPhone and my photo diary that instagram makes so easy and fun to do. below are my latest pics. you can find me as nancyflowers on there. pop by and say hello!

right, i'm off to eat some pheasant risotto (made with last night's leftover roasted pheasant - yum) and carry on working but by watching one or two parenting documentaries so it's straightforward 'easy' work.

nancy x

brunnen sunset

i live here! *pinches self*

spotted via the brunnen tourism page on facebook and taken by irene schmidt.

my little brother is 30!

my wonderful little brother turns 30 tomorrow. he's in LA celebrating and currently lives in beijing so i haven't seen him for a while. this is a virtual birthday card to him with some of my favourite photos of the two of us plus one of my favourites of him at the end on a camping trip we took a few years ago to durdle door in dorset.

30 years ago my dad picked me up from school to tell me there was a surprise at home. my response: ice lollies? i was a very jealous 4 and a half year old and there are so many dreadful things i did to dan as a baby (!) but we are wonderfully close and i miss him.

so, happy birthday dan!! your 30th birthday card to me had me in tears and is the nicest thing i have ever read. i am still waiting for our picnic :) but maybe we can have it on a boat or up a mountain when you come and visit me and raffaele in switzerland.

i love you ever so much and am ever so proud. may this year be a fabulous one for you and this decade the best yet.

nancy xxxxxxxxx

stripes

i've been working really hard all week to pull together another draft empirical chapter and i am *almost* there. oof, working on a friday night and over the weekend can take its toll sometimes.

anyway, one of my favourite ways to take a quick break is pop over to pinterest and see what beautiful images are there to inspire me. and today i saw these fabulous tarts!

of course i love a stripey wardrobe as much as then next person but stripey food is so fun. you can check out my pinterest boards if you'd like to see what else has taken my fancy. also, click here to see this wonderful stripey beetroot, posted earlier this week by the chefs at the ethicurean.

ps - be sure to check back here this weekend for details of a figs and roses giveaway!

raff on the beach

as hoped, i have worked my way through a tough blip on the PhD and, despite being unsettled by some news at the weekend, today i have a spring in my step and writing is going very well indeed :)


so, in a very short lunch break (got to harness this high motivation), i thought i would share the second gif. i love how the water, as well as raff, moves.

to everyone in the uk, enjoy the last day of summer!

fun with gifs - part 1

i have been meaning to post some gifs on here for an age. but then i realised that viewing more than one gif at a time is messy. so, i'll post a series of them and break them up with some nice photos (or some other posts). just because...

first up, i was re-inspired to create some gifs when i spotted this *lovely* one back in july:

caught in the rain
via

magical ischia

well, WHAT a holiday.

 

there are so many highlights and those of you who know me in real life will have had the full details! ♥ ♥ ♥

here are some of the most memorable ones...

meeting some of raffaele’s family and, in particular, his 92-year-old nonna who was ever so sweet and it’s amazing how you’re able to form relationships with people with only smiles, hand gestures, kisses and a few words of italian. although raffaele was chief translator, the family spoke italian constantly to me and, within two weeks, my knowledge had gone from 3 to almost 100 words. SO motivated to learn this beautiful language.

sailing with raffaele off maronti. deep belly laughs from me even when i ended up in the water (twice). can't wait to do it again.

whizzing round the island on the back of the bike. just thrilling.

this is pretty much what it was like except on a smaller scale (and faster!). next time i’ll make my own video.

(for some annoying reason, i can't embed the youtube footage like i normally do so just click here to see the video).

 

bathing in the natural hot-water springs at sorgeto in the light of the moon. i don’t have any photos but this video shows what it’s like.


espresso (made by raffaele) or cafe crema at the beach (also known as cafe del nonno).

 

 

the food, obviously. most of the time i was too busy savouring it to capture it on film. we generally ate very simply and the tastes are still so vivid in my mind.

and, if you're still reading (since i still can't work out how to get links to open in a new page), you can view the rest of my holiday pictures here on flickr.

i am so excited at the thought of spending future holidays there. plus next time we’ll have to visit all the places we never got around to this time (capri, pompei and naples). there was just too much to explore on ischia. it really is the most wonderful place and this holiday was *exactly* what i needed.

inspired

although writing has been tough this weekend - partly because it's tough generally and partly because it's tough working at the weekend - i have felt really inspired for much of it.

it just sort of crept up on me, this desire to improve my photography and enjoy my digital SLR to its full potential. my favourite blogs are the ones with beautiful photos and i often scroll to the images and don't read the text.

i absolutely love my iPhone and have taken thousands of photos on it including the one above at winchester cathedral which i think is my favourite (iPhone) photo to date. it was taken using the hipstamatic app - remember that?? i love, love, love the instagram app (you can find me @nancyflowers) but i have always enjoyed using my SLR and now DSLR and am excited about learning new techniques and also learning how to edit them to get *exactly* what i'm looking for.

i turn 34 in six weeks (gulp) and although i'm sure i will keep it extremely low key this year, it hasn't stopped me thinking about a wish list. a sewing machine is right up there but it would just sit unused until i finish my PhD whereas photography goodies can be put straight to good use. so, i'm going to add photoshop software, upgrading to a flickr pro account and a new lens to my list. but the main thing i'll wish for is a sunny day.

hmm, this post is a little word heavy given that it's about photography. here are two of my favourite portrait shots (which is what i most want to focus on with a new lens).

top - maia, aged about 4 here.

bottom - me and efthymia (one of my dearest friends from cyprus)