My summer has mainly been spent…

by | Sep 7, 2021 | Creative Living | 0 comments

My summer has mainly been spent…
  • Nursing 75% of my family through COVID.
  • Feeling grateful for science, vaccines and the NHS.
  • Grieving cancelled plans and postponed adventures.
  • Somehow managing to work amidst the chaos.
  • Unlocking a level of stress and exhaustion I’ve never experienced before.
  • Binging Grey’s Anatomy on Disney+.
  • Finally sending Jesse off on his long-awaited road trip with my mum.
  • Living for his daily updates via WhatsApp.
  • Celebrating the end of isolation.
  • Taking a much-needed Instagram break.
  • Enjoying a week of peace and quiet while the children holidayed with their grandparents in Derby.
  • Eating bao and sipping cocktails with Mr. LA at Woky Ko in Wapping Wharf.
  • Anxiously awaiting Izzy’s GCSE results in the mail.
  • Packing her off to London with my mum for a week at musical theatre camp.
  • Opening the all-important envelope with her via Facetime.
  • Popping some bubbly and feeling incredibly proud.
  • Celebrating my 38th birthday with dinner at The Red Church.
  • Heading to London for the first time in over two years.
  • Soaking up everything I’d missed about my home city.
  • Visiting The British Museum, the Cutty Sark and the National Maritime Museum.
  • Eating a delicious meal at Greenwich Grind.
  • Reuniting with my best friend and finally meeting one of the two babies she’s had since the last time I saw her.
  • Watching Izzy perform in a showcase at The Phoenix Theatre.
  • Driving back to Bristol.
  • Hoping I won’t have to wait so long to visit London again.
  • Packing for my first ever glamping trip.
  • Surviving two nights in a yurt at Nesta Camping.
  • Hating the composting toilets {but loving everything else}.
  • Exploring Frome and enjoying dinner at Bistro Lotte, coffee at Rye Bakery and lunch at Tool & Gauge.
  • Wandering around Nunney Castle.
  • Sipping prosecco in a wood-fired hot tub tucked away among the trees.
  • Toasting marshmallows around a fire pit.
  • Feeling glad to be home.
  • Washing the smell of woodsmoke from our clothes and bedding.
  • Tucking into Sunday lunch at The Red Church after a long walk at Dyrham Park.
  • Falling in love with the American Museum and Gardens in Bath. I can’t believe we waited so long to visit.
  • Enjoying the Vanguard | Bristol Street Art exhibition at the MShed.
  • Visiting the Arnolfini for the first time in years.
  • Savouring the warmth and blue skies of a late summer heatwave.
  • Feeling nervous and excited for Izzy’s new beginning at drama school and Jesse’s first day of Year 8.
  • Wishing summer could last forever.
  • Love Audrey xxx

P.S. 10 Things I’ll Miss About Summer

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Love Audrey
My summer has mainly been spent…
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May in photos 🤳 1. Finally, some Franky weather. One of the best things about this month has been dusting off my summer dresses and being able to wear sandals ☀️ 2+3. Coronation weekend. So many thoughts 💭 But the food was good! I made a vegan version of my mum’s famous coronation chicken and it was delicious. 4. Jesse staying upbeat during yet another trip to hospital. That steroid buzz though. IYKYK. 5. Some of the food served at the first meeting of Bristol Cook Book Club since 2020. It felt so good to get this going again. I can’t wait for our next feast! 6. Me among the cow parsley, snapped by Jesse. 7. I’ve been thinking about creativity a lot this month while working through the ‘The Artist’s Way’. 8. Breakfast outside. 9. {Still} scrapbooking December. Fingers crossed I can finally wrap up this project in June 🤞🏻 10. Izzy’s final show at The Tobacco Factory. After tonight, she’ll be done with college {and compulsory education} forever 🤯 We packed a lot into this month. Enough to fill two carousels! This might explain why I’m so tired! I’m looking forward to June though. Everything’s better when the sun shines ✨
@_charlieswift has been raving about ‘The Artist’s Way’ by Julia Cameron for years. I finally caved, ordered the book and agreed to work through the course with her and some other artists. The book focuses on ‘guiding you through the process of recovering your creative self’ to ‘help you unleash your inner artist’. It’s early days {I’ve only read as far as week two and I haven’t even started my morning pages yet - IYKYK}, but I’m enjoying the process so far. Today I took myself on my first Artist Date - ‘a block of time… especially set aside and committed to nurturing your creative consciousness, your inner artist’. I decided to treat myself to a solo cinema trip to see ‘Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.’ The film was brilliant and taking time out midweek to do something just for me felt… kind of naughty? And fun! It definitely filled my creative well {again, IYKYK}. Have you read ‘The Artist’s Way?’ Where would you go on a date with your inner artist?!
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Franky weather ☀️🌅🔆🌻✨ That’s it, that’s the caption.
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April in photos 🤳 1. Our trip to London over Easter was a definite highlight this month. Here’s the obligatory ‘flowers outside Liberty’ shot. 2. Finally! Some sunshine! More of the same please, Mr. Weatherman ☀️ 3. Dressed for a day of sightseeing in my new favourite pink jacket. It’s Boden and I bought it in the sale 💖 4 + 5. Scenes from a trip to the big Waterstones in Piccadilly. This poem by @charlycox1 floored me. Crying in a bookshop. Not awkward at all. 6. I was proud of these steps, so I’m posting them here for posterity 🚶🏼‍♀️🥄 7. The Easter holidays also featured lots of lazy days 🎮😴 8. We bought a nutribullet and I’m officially in my smoothie era. 9 + 10. Dinner and drinks at @thecoconuttreeuk with our IzzyBee. Taking your daughter out for cocktails is a season of parenting I’m very much enjoying. Not pictured: a family funeral and the chest infection I’m still getting over 🤒 How was April for you?
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Easter weekend in my hometown 💃🏼 No trip to London is long enough for me to see all the people and do all the things I want to do while I’m there, but we always manage to pack a lot in. It’s 17 years since I moved away, but somehow it still feels like coming home. Here’s some of what we got up to… 1. Being tourists. 2. Shopping at Westfield. 3 + 4. Hanging out and eating at Southbank. 5. Refuelling in Chinatown. 6. Enjoying the big Waterstones in Piccadilly. 7. Admiring the spring flowers outside Liberty. 8. Visiting the Imperial War Museum for the first time since I was a child. 9 + 10. Seeing Elton John at the O2 with my mama 👓🎹🎤🪩✨ I hope you’ve managed to enjoy the long weekend, whatever you’ve been up to! That sunshine though!☀️🤩
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March in Photos 🤳 1. How it’s going… 2. How it started. 3. My in-laws were involved in a terrible car crash earlier this month. They’re very, very lucky to be alive. It was a horrible time, so I’m grateful there was a happy ending. 4. My husband sent me this photo of a photo from our wedding day while he was visiting his parents. Turns out his mum carries it in her purse ❤️ 5. While I was waiting for news from Derby, I took myself out on a walk and ended up in @thesmallcitybookshop. It was like my feet knew books would bring me comfort. 6 + 7. Just spring things. 8. Vegan lemon and almond loaf and a green smoothie from @theorchardcoffeeco 🍰🌱 9. I bought it 🌸 10. Other music? I don’t know her. How’s March been treating you? Personally, I’m ready for April and spring PROPER!
There is a past version of me who cannot believe I get to do this every day 💭📝💻 She’s around 12yrs old, working on her first novel in a little ring-bound notebook, dreaming up stories, devouring books and trying to imagine a life filled with words. Everything that makes my business possible now barely existed then, so even she’d struggle to conjure up an image of what my life looks like now. I’m grateful that I get to do this, for the clients who trust me to find the right words, and I’m grateful to that past version of me too. Without her, I wouldn’t be here now. Sure, she’d probably want me to hurry up and get back to that novel, but I think she’d be proud of the business I’ve built and the way I’ve managed to create a life filled with words. What did you want to be when you grew up?
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Lockdown memories, three years on 🦠⏳ Very little of my life made it on to the grid in 2020, so this is the first time I’ve shared these images. They’re all from the first lockdown and most were taken between March and May. I think the arrival of spring will always remind me of this strange time. When Boris made his announcement on the 23rd, our children had already been out of school for a week. Jesse, who was initially deemed clinically vulnerable, spent the next 6m shielding. He left primary school one day not realising he’d never go back. He did not see another child his age until the summer. Like many kids and adults in the same situation, the experience had a deep impact on his mental health. Izzy was in Year 10. As the pandemic raged on, she did most of her GCSEs online, celebrated her 16th birthday via Netflix Party, finished secondary school with minimal fanfare and missed out on prom completely. When she finally had a normal night out with friends in the winter of 2021, I cried quietly in the kitchen when she got home. Seeing her so happy and animated after a simple ‘cheeky Nando’s’ only highlighted everything she’d missed out on in the previous 18 months. It’s easy to forget how little we knew about the virus in the beginning and how frightening that was for everyone involved. We had it easy in comparison to some, but I still marvel at the way we coped with it all. The way we isolated, home schooled and kept our businesses ticking over. My goodness it was hard! As my children often joke, I hope we’re done living through major historical events for a while.