I heard on the radio that wrens teach their babies their songs while they are still in the egg, and spring moves up the country at two miles per hour. These are the things I like to know about. The calm and the kind things.
I came home late one night and was met at the gate by a chunky hedgehog. The deer have been back, two of them, smooth and slinky. I’ve also seen a woodpecker head-banging the lawn, a lady pheasant in the bushes, and a great tit in the conservatory.
I went to Paris with a stranger from the internet, stayed at Hotel Beauregard. I survived, but some might say it was a close call!
WOMAC held their annual fundraising party at the Reform Club in Pall Mall. We raised over £15,000 for Oesophageal Patients Association (OPA) and Cure Leukaemia, and as a patron I’m hoping to be able to help raise more this summer.
We looked at a house. There were cigarette butts and cobwebs everywhere, bins full of sherry bottles and ferns growing out of the carpet. I quite liked it!
I bought a stack of old World of Interior magazines and a 1930s French cookery book from the auction.
I received a Points of Light Award from the UK Government for ‘inspirational service’ in leading Toiletries Amnesty. I hope it’s one of the last things Rishi Sunak signs as Prime Minister.
I didn’t see the Aurora Borealis.
I met up with the Visit Saxony team in London, we took a tour through the Dresden, Leipzig and Meissen porcelain at the V&A Museum, and had lunch at Steins Berlin. Later in the day we attended a private presentation on Meissen at Harrods. I’m fascinated by, but totally undereducated on, the living traditions of the Saxony region in Germany, but I do recall that Leipzig has an annual gothic picnic and I’m already planning my pack-up!
We went to Lincoln to an Audi 100 meet up and took a drive through the Wolds. People came from all across Europe. I’ve never seen so many 100s in my life, let alone in one day!
I saw a Great White Egret at Cley Marshes and ate a cruffin (it’s a pastry, not a bird!)
At Toiletries Amnesty, alongside the normal efforts we put in to supporting over 800 locations and 4 million people, we’ve been working on an interesting collaboration with beauty brand Lottie London and Netflix series Outer Banks. The ‘treasure me, don’t trash me’ campaign has already attracted more product donations from the general public, and good press coverage (like this feature), as well as a bit too much excitement from me when I heard that Lottie would be branding-up a bin lorry and driving it through the streets of New York! Disappointingly I didn’t get to drive the trash truck (or have my face printed on the back of it!) through Times Square, but I’ve seen the videos and that’ll do!
At Shutter Hub we’re welcoming entries for our next book FOOD STORIES, our YEARBOOK Awards, and two exhibitions, (RETURN) TO THE SEA, and the YOUR LENS YOUR TRUTH exhibition in collaboration with the Sainsbury Centre.
In a couple of weeks we’ll be meeting up at the Sainsbury Centre for a private curators talk and exhbition tour, I think there are a couple of spaces left, if your interested, RSVP here.
I hosted an AUTO PHOTO Photography Masterclass with FIA Girls on Track and BTCC at Thruxton Circuit. ITV presenter Louise Goodman popped by to share some tips, and we were given special access to the Excelr8 Motorsport garage, spending time with Tom Ingram’s team and car. It was a great experience for all of the photographers involved, and hopefully something we’ll be able to do more of.
The AUTO PHOTO exhibition at Motorsport UK headquarters came to an end, and then it moved to Great Northern Classics in Derby, where it will stay on display for a full six months. Alongside the print exhibition, the Top 100 will be shown on the screens every Monday and Thursday. Here’s the info! I’ll have some news to share on an event here soon.
We’ve another exciting location lined up for our Top 100 digital exhbition, which I will be able to tell you about soon, but in the meantime it’s also been showcased to our audience at Thruxton Circuit, and thanks to Adrian Flux the AUTO PHOTO books were on display in their Owners Enclosure at the London Concours.
If you’d like to keep up with what I’m up to work-wise (talks, events, exhibitions, that kind of stuff), you can find my Agenda on my website, for occasional updates in your inbox, join my Mailing List, and for daily bits and bobs, follow me on Instagram.