E-Postcard From Belgium !

Mini European road trip planning in our Belgium holiday farm house

Today as is the first day of the Olympics in London and here we are away from it all in Belgium!! After a good few years of not having a holiday due to little things that life throws at you, we finally have been able to have a break from work and daily routine and leave the country for a couple of weeks.

The old Ferry across the channel to Belgium-  NO one in sight !

Initially we were going to rent a cottage in Suffolk, then it was France, but after exchanging forthcoming holiday travels with numerous friends, most of the people I talked to were going to France!!  Since I was a kid (my Mother would very much agree on this one!!) there is always a part of me that wants to do the opposite to the others...so I mentioned to Matt ‘Why not turn Left and visit Belgium and Holland instead for our mini European road trip??? Matt got excited about the idea too, so within 48hrs we were   doing our research through the net, looking at maps and travel books   ! One worry that I had to deal with was our cats Kato and Woody!!!  Who was going to look after them??  How would they cope?? Somehow it all worked  out like magic and through mutual friends Glen and Judy our new friend appeared on our doorstep as we were leaving reassuring me over and over that it was all going to be OK, so thank you Holly  for putting my mind at rest !!

Matt looking very pensive on our departure from England...

Having crossed the channel many times in my life with the ferry over to France and used to seeing many travellers on board I was amazed to see that we were NO more than 20 passengers, the boat was nearly an antique and there were only two crossings scheduled a day instead of one every hour; it made it all more delightful adventure!!  On our arrival to Belgium we did a two hour car journey to the beautiful area of Wallonia, where we are staying in a gorgeous 250 yr old farm house in the rural village of Eprave.

The lovely house and rural village in Eprave

Wallonia is a beautiful part of the country surrounded by mountainous landscape, river streams and tinny little stone built villages.

Local villages and interesting architecture 

The villages are immaculately clean and consist of your local amenities together with a couple of beer gardens, French fries fast food shops, boulangaries and pastisseries with amazing eye candy as their essentials! We are certainly the only tourists with a foreign  car number plate to go through these places which is very refreshing and what I have seen of Belgium so far has enamoured me with the country with a certainty of our return!

Country walks beckon in our local village surroundings

Tomorrow we depart our stay in the rural countryside whilst we take or journey to Brussels, Bruges and Ghent followed by Holland! Aux bientôt  ! Until the next e-postcard !

Jubilee & Olympic Greeting Cards - The Story Behind The Photos !

When I received an email from The Great British Greeting Card Company with the exciting opportunity to produce a photograph for the London Olympics 2012 and Golden Jubilee, I was thrilled and very daunted at the same time! The brief was sent to me and other photographers, but I was determined to get my image through the selection process! The email also mentioned it had to be themed as English afternoon tea and the Union Jack flag had to be displayed in the image - so it was a bit of a challenge!!

I didn't know where to start initially then as the ideas developed in my head I contacted two fabulous local bakers to see if they could help me out with the project.  I commissioned  Lisa Rossiter Kidd ( from

 Vanilla Rose Cakes) a couple of cupcakes using the Union Jack flag. I then asked Ryan Wilson, head Chef from Wellington College if he had any afternoon cakes I could use and he ended up giving  me a great selection to choose from! They both came to my rescue immediately with amazing creations.

Above is Lisa Rositer - Kidd from Vanilla Rose Cakes in the weekly Stall in Wokingham market.

Don't her cakes look delicious ?? !!

Then it was all  work at Le Petite Studio which  went on for nearly a week taking endless photographs, selecting and editing. Finally I posted a large selection of my best images and wished for the best! A couple of months later I received the email I had been hoping for from Nick at The Great British Card company saying they had selected two of my images!! I was so thrilled and so were Lisa and Ryan ! It is a great privilege to be part of such historical events here in Britain 2012 :-)

The Cards are on sale Nationwide or you can contact here to purchase Wholesale. 

Bellow is Ryan Wilson, Head chef From Wellington College and the amazing looking and delicious strawberry pavlovas he provided shown above.

Great Picture Tweeted from Boston !

My friend Dan and his brother are currently traveling through the States. Dan has just tweeted me this awesome picture from Boston !!! Ahhhhhhhhhhh !!!  I love spontaneous creative moments !! Thank you guys !! :-)

Jubilee and Olympic Greeting Cards!!

I was sooooooooooo pleased to know two of my images were selected by The Great British  Greeting Cards Company for the Jubilee and Olympic Theme to be sold Nationally !! I will tell you more about the story behind the images in a couple of days when I have more time.

 In the meantime I hope all of you are having a great weekend wherever you are. I'm off to The Malvern Hills to visit very good friends for good wine and food, catch up and country walks !! Bliss :-).