Twins.

They're twins. Sometimes I forget seeing as they're about as different as it's possible for two two year olds to be, personality-wise. And then occasionally, when I haven't been paying attention, I'll turn around and they've picked matching-ish outfits and they're standing still, together and playing with the same things and ohmygod, they're twins. It doesn't happen often but when it does it's mindblowing. Two babies, at the same time. Twins. Two.

Magnolia Bugs no. 6672

A quick glimpse at the list of blogs that these have appeared on makes me wonder that I hadn't seen them already and suspect that you probably have. But whatever, they're beautiful and if like me they're new to you, enjoy. (If anyone is looking to gift me, Magnolia Bugs no. 6672.)

By Kari Herer, via etsy.

All images copyright of Kari Herer. 

A silver string.

when she concentrates 

a silver string of
saliva unravels from
her lip gently as
a spider descends 

or silken gossemer pulls
or icicle melts

by 17 Beats. 

I've written before about 17 Beats and how the tiny little poems she writes make actual physical things happen to my body. Her current work is taking me right back to when the girls were smaller and it's making my heart swell and my ovaries ache.



*Puke, aged 18 months-ish. She was such a very serious baby and is now such a very ridiculous toddler. (I couldn't find a better drool photo, not at 8am on a Saturday morning.) 

Bird and Bear {London family photography}

It's been a little while since I mentioned Bird & Bear, in truth because I've been too absorbed with settling in to London to think much about it, but over the last couple of weeks I've been really feeling the gap in my life that is filled by spending time photographing families in all of their natural, imperfect and beautiful glory (nobody puts baby in a basket) and longing to fill my days with family photoshoots again. 

I'm still offering what I think is a pretty nice deal, £200 for two hours of photography with you and your kids (or just your kids, if you don't fancy having your picture taken!) and high-res digital files of 30-50 images sent to you a couple of weeks later. This deal will run to the beginning of August, at which point I'm going to be switching to a more traditional model of charging for time and prints separately. So, if you are interested in some pictures capturing your kids as they are right now, before the little beasts go and change AGAIN (because they keep doing that, and it's really annoying) get in touch and we will set something up. 

I'm based in South London now (in case you didn't know) and will travel throughout London for no additional travel costs. I'm always more than happy to travel further afield though and would love to hear from you if you live outside London too. 

I'm also working on putting together a photobook option, where I design and print a beautifully bound book with the photos from your session. I wasn't sure that anyone would want this because they're not exactly cheap (well, there are cheap options but they look... cheap.) but Nye and I got a book of our photos from W&P's first year printed at Christmas and ohmygod, it's the loveliest thing. A book, an actual book, to sit down with on the sofa with a glass of wine and get completely lost in. It's not quite the same as flicking through thumbnails on your phone. In fact it's a whole other thing, having a tangible object, that if you don't spill your wine on it, will still be in your bookcase to show your kids when they grow up and then their kids when they grow up. I remember a time when that didn't seem magical, when that was just what you did with photos, but now in the iphone era a book full of pictures of your loved ones seems like a truly precious thing. 

There's more info on www.birdandbear.co.uk and you can contact me at peonies@btinternet.com

London, a weekend.

Continuing the series; London things what I have done since moving to London. I'm going to start with this weekend and work back, so I've got something to write about another day.  The London Things series going to slow down a little as I make a conscientious effort to stop panicking about doing ALL THE THINGS straight away. I think I've been having a little trouble coming to terms with the notion that this London lark is a long term project, that it's not a holiday and I don't have to fit ALL THE THINGS in before someone makes me go home. This is home. Mindblowing.

So I'm trying to slow down, to once again practise being and not doing. Wish me luck.

In the meantime, here are some London Things we did this weekend, while my girl Sophie was visiting.

Columbia Road Flower Market. It's true what they say: GET THERE EARLY. Especially if you're going with toddlers, animals or people who get angry in crowds (me). We went this weekend with Sophie, she had a professional interest, we just wanted stuff for the garden. And stuff for the garden we did buy. We got there at 8.10am, it opens at 8am, and it was already getting busy. By the time we left at 10am I was on the verge of some sort of breakdown, in fact I nearly punched a tiny Japanese tourist because she kept stopping right in front of me in shop doorways to take pictures of the shops before she went inside. I didn't punch her, I just muttered 'for fuck sake' very loudly, multiple times. You can't get arrested for that. Overwhelming business aside, it was pretty amazing. 

We set ourselves a budget of £20 each to buy whatever we wanted (but no more fruit trees for Nye, not one single one.) and it was a good thing because otherwise we could have spent a lot of money that we didn't have. I bought: a pale pink astilbe (£5), a foxglove (£2.50), a delphinium (£2.50) a small eucalyptus (£4), a tray of pale pink tulips (£5) and a small metal bird (£2.50. I went over-budget) because he felt nice in my hand and a bird in the hand is worth two punches in the face of annoying tourists. Nye got totally overwhelmed and spent a tenner on two white Hellebores and three little pots of herbs before joining the rest of us in a cafe and muttering 'it's all too much'. There is a pretty good selection of plants but it's all a bit random and not much good if you're looking for a particular variety or species. It also helps to know a bit about plants before you start, lest you come home with a tiny £4 eucalyptus to discover that actually, it grows to 80ft. We nearly spent £15 on a beautiful contorted willow which would have looked lovely in our garden, but a quick iphone google came up with the warning; 'only plant in wide open spaces, this tree gets big.' Which is a bugger, because it was gorgeous. 

The cut flowers are of course beautiful, plentiful and cheap. But as I have a big ole bunch of supermarket daffodils on the go at the moment I couldn't bring myself to buy something that wasn't growing. 

Notes:

sorry to the woman who jumped out of her skin when I squealed 'PEONEEEEEEEEZ!' at a ridiculous pitch. 

hello to the woman with the spaniel who recognised W&P. 

If you spot a hummingbird in London don't make a tit of yourself following it around the market saying loudly 'look! A hummingbird!'. You don't get hummingbirds in Europe, it's just a dirty great moth. 

Sophie and I spent Saturday alone in Central London with absolutely no toddlers, it was bliss. We started at the V&A where we took in the jewellery collection (holy hell, SPARKLES!) and she tut-tutted and Caitlin-Moraned at my wistful sighs of 'I wish I was a princess'. Then we made a swift dash around the fashion department, me lusting after the 20s, Soph after the 60s before departing for lunch. We had planned to stop at Harrods to buy some macarons but in the event we forgot. Turns out neither of us rates macarons that highly when there are burritos and tacos and quesidilas on offer. We went to Wahaca (silly name, patchy service, excellent food) and ate everything. Then doughnuts dipped in chocolate sauce. 

Then we walked down through Soho and Chinatown to Trafalgar Square to take in a little pillow fighting. I say 'little', Trafalgar Square was hoaching with pillow fighters. Soph thought it was excellent, I was completely skeezed out by the feathers everywhere  Don't. Like. Feathers. It was World Pillow Fight Day (that's a thing) and people were really going for it. Nelson kept his back turned throughout, I don't think he approves of that sort of thing.