Sometimes I forget to breathe – I heard an older lady say it, in the hairdressers, as she leant her head slowly back into the basin. Yes, I thought, me too! While she was talking about the actual physical function of inhaling air, I was thinking about the ability to stop, slow down, step back, take stock. I think that’s what the winter’s for, to slow us down, it’s just sometimes we’re going too fast to realise it!
I went to The Hague for Princes Day celebrations, and enjoyed a street party breakfast with 500 people, a private tour of the Royal Waiting Rooms, a champagne reception at Museum Bredius, and a horse drawn carriage ride through the city, amongst other things!
I went to Houghton Hall, saw sculpture, ate ginger cake, and had a stand-off with a gang of white deer.
Our friends Mark and Debs got married. We had to run through a swarm of wasps to arrive on time, and I lost my voice singing all the hymns. It was a lovely day.
We stayed in a hotel where the TV switched itself on in the middle of night. It was a shopping channel. I think a ghost was trying to make me buy power tools.
My feature on Frans Hals and Haarlem is in this months Homes and Antiques magazine. Six pages of loveliness to lure me back there.
I wrote my last lifestyle page for Chicane magazine, having shared 16 favourite things over the course of a year. (See them all here)
After an initial purchase price of £150 and almost ten years of magic, I finally said goodbye to my Mk4 Golf GTI.
I went to Austria, and in strange first for me, my hair got searched at airport security.
Our big, and beloved, chicken Margaret died. She had reached her tenth year on this planet. I found her asleep in the grass, damp from the early morning rain.
I competed in the LCUK Speed Championships at Hethel (the home of Lotus) and came 5th in my class, met up with the Practical Classics team for a secret project, and spent days in the sun at Concours of Elegance and Goodwood Revival.
AUTO PHOTTO Awards judging is underway. It’s a big job! We have a great team of judges onboard and lots of awards will be announced soon. We’ve been lucky with some great coverage in Revolution, Influx and Chicane magazines, and had an amazing time hosting the Ace Cafe + AUTO PHOTO Meet Up to celebrate 85 years of Ace Cafe London.
And, in even more exciting news, I’ve been invited to speak at an event as part of the first ever F1 Grand Prix in Las Vegas!
This season’s reading list goes something like this: My Mum’s Nighties by Moose Azim, Farm & Folk Quilt Alchemy by Sara Larson Buscaglia, Moon Garden by Jarema Osofsky, Farmhouse Fare by Famers Weekly, and The Royal Observer Corps Underground Monitoring Posts by Mark Dalton.
We hosted a really special Shutter Hub Meet Up with Kettle’s Yard the other week. It’s one of my favourite places, where no two days are the same. I shared some of my photos here, and you’ll find a lovely range of images from Shutter Hub members over here.
Our exhibition, TO THE SEA, has opened in St Gilles Croix de Vie. It’s there for a whole year, but I can’t want to get over and see it in person. We’re showing the work of over 120 photographers, and I’m really pleased to be able to work with the team in France to make this happen.
I’ve just finished judging work for Photo Lucida’s Critical Mass, this weekend I’ll be reviewing portfolios for Vogue as part of their Photo Vogue Festival, and, later this year I’ve been invited to join the jury for the Gomma Photography Grant, tenth anniversary edition.
Next month we’ll install and open the Shutter Hub OPEN 23/24 at Cambridge University. Another big show, there’ll be the work of over 130 photographers shown across all 4 floors of the Alison Richard Building. We’re also holding a Book and Zine Fair as part of the exhibition launch event (with doughnuts and coffee, and lovely people of course!) on Sunday 10 December, and you’re invited!
It’s been all go at Toiletries Amnesty too. There’s so much need for our support (and so little funding!) but in positive news, amongst other things, we’ve recently been featured in sustainability-led articles in Country and Town House magazine and The Times, and we’ve been working on some small partnership projects with Whole Foods, Soil Association and LUSH. It’s not easy, but we’re busy working around the world, doing what we can, where we can.
I live by a very simple rule – when things are bad, do good.
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. And, if you’d like occasional updates about all sorts of other nice things, in your inbox, you can join my mailing list here.