It’s been a whole weekend of family stuff for me this weekend. On Friday night, we had the great pleasure of having Jan, my little sis, to stay for the night. She was working on the south coast on Friday and Saturday so rather than go all the way back to her home and preferable to spending the night in an anonymous hotel, she asked if she could spend the night with us. It was fantastic fun, we sat on the sofa and giggled all evening.

Then I spent yesterday with other people’s families at the wedding.

Today has been my own family again – round to my Mum and Dad’s for lunch with Auntie Vron (Veronica), her partner Alan and her grand-daughter Anna. Auntie Vron isn’t a real auntie, she’s an old family friend and in the tradition of all good ‘working class’ families, we were not allowed to call adults by their first names as kids so if they were close friends then they too got given the moniker Auntie or Uncle….all else were Mr so-and-so or Mrs thingummybob.

After a lovely lunch with them (I don’t think I’ve seen them since my 40th birthday party) we then waited for my real Auntie Peggy (my Mum’s oldest sibling) to arrive with my Nan who has been staying with Auntie Peg for the last week. She’s now with my folks for the next three weeks I think while Auntie Jan and Uncle Rob (where Nan’s made her home since the scandalous treatment of her by my Mum’s little brother in January) go on holiday.

It has been so good to see all of these rellies, both real and adopted. It’s five years since I last saw Auntie Vron and eight since I saw Auntie Peg at the wedding of her youngest son. Considering we lived with Auntie Peg for six months as children (with Mum, while Dad was in Bahrain), it’s shocking and sad that I so rarely see her now.

This surreal shot of a clock is to symbolise the speed at which time passes without seeing these loved ones and also to celebrate Alice In Wonderland because the Beeb has been running a series of short stories on Radio 4 to celebrate this wonderful book. The stories are from current writers who have taken an element of the book and woven it into a story of their own – I had the privilege to hear two of them this week, while travelling and loved them both.

The shot itself is a ‘first attempt’ with my new toy, a Lensbaby – I think I am going to get as much pleasure out of the little beastie as I have had from my gorgeous starburst filter that I bought last spring. Mind you, the starburst was a fraction of the cost so I am looking to exceed the pleasure gained from that considerably with this thing really. Anyway, my attempts so far have made me realise a number of things….firstly you need to pick your subject carefully, second, it’s a bugger to get focus, third it needs good light (even with its wide aperture), you couldn’t use it on long exposures because you’d have terrible camera shake even with the camera on the tripod because it doesn’t stay where you put it and lastly, I reckon a tripod would solve the focus difficulties to some extent – let’s see how we progress with that one.

HHmmm - I just popped downstairs to get my credit card to pay for some online stuff and DM was working with the lensbaby so I expect he'll post something spectacular later!

BTW - for anyone who remembers this.... my Nan is now happily settled in her new home and looks like her old self again!

Last year I was cooking myself up some happiness, with my little sister's recipe and two years ago, I was discovering that childhood comforts don't work in your 40s!