My first concert

I just found this ticket while tidying up and it is bringing the memories of being 17 years old come flooding back.

Nearly twenty six years ago I went to my first ever concert.

It was Peter Gabriel playing at Earls Court.

The ticket price of £14 seems so cheap now, but at the time it was a lot of money to me, especially when you add in the price of the special coach trip up to London.

Even the trip up proved to be a bit of an adventure, with our coach breaking down somewhere along the M3.  Luck was on my side as I was able to jump into the second coach travelling up with us.

I can't remember much from the concert except for 2 things.  The first being we had really rubbish seats, and the second being that Kate Bush made a special unannounced appearance to join Peter on stage to sing "Don't Give Up" with him.  I might be wrong but I believe that's the one and only time they've ever performed the song on stage together?

By the time we arrived back in Southampton, the buses had long since stopped for the evening, and being so broke we had to walk the 5 miles home.

What a show!

Man's best friend

Skip, my lovely border collie is 10 years old later in the year.  Hopefully he has many good years ahead, but you just never know what might happen tomorrow.  I have lots of good photos of Skip that I've taken myself, but only a handful of half decent ones of him and me.

It was time to put that right.   Just before Christmas I contacted someone who had attended one of my Photo Experience Days earlier in the year.

Hayley had been on one of my Night Photo Experiences and her photos had stood out from the crowd as being that little bit different.  She also shoots in a similar (ish) style to myself, which was quite important to me.  As it happens she was also a dog lover and jumped at the chance to help me out.

I'm struggling to find the words here, but don't leave it too late to take photos of you and your loved ones.  I'm speaking from experience here as I have no good recent photos of my Dad (who passed away in 2011) and myself.  Whether it be getting a professional photographer in to take the shots, or just asking a friend or family member.  Just don't leave it too late.   

The photos were taken on a particularly cold January's afternoon, in a very muddy woods.

A big thank you to Hayley B for the photos.  I love them!

Snow Day

When you live in the south of England, snow is quite rare.  Maybe once every couple of years will we get a decent covering of snow.   When it comes, even I get a little excited.   This time I grabbed my camera, and my faithful friend Skip and went for a walk...

Finding Lucky...

I found Lucky and mum again today!  What am I talking about?  Read this blog post from last year.

Today was the first time I've seen Mother and Daughter since that day in May last year.  I knew they were both okay because I'd bumped into the farmers daughter some months before (yes I know how dodgy that sounds!).   It was great to see them both out and about in the forest and looking so well.