Holidays in The Dolomites and Venice

We have four smashing kids. The eldest two have slipped through the teen years into earliest adulthood, so 'kids' is a bit misleading really. Luckily for us they still want to come on holiday as a family, and the time together feels so very precious. Our holidays are now pretty carefully planned to have appeal for the whole family and the range of ages and interests our family of six now represents.

Our summer holiday this year has been a week of amazingly beautiful sights and extreme differences of environment. Our youngest would have probably enjoyed less sightseeing and more time playing in a pool, but overall it was a brilliant week together, and a joy to spend time together as a whole family. We had five days high in the Italian Dolomite mountains and three days in Venice. We had adventures in those mountains, long walks at over 7000ft scrambling over boulders and steep mountain tracks, wild swimming in freezing mountain lakes, walking in wonder through beautiful forests and meadows full of wild flowers. I wanted some adventure this year, and the Dolomites certainly gave it to me!

This was a good spot for a morning snack at about 8000ft, mid mountain hike!

Even in these inhospitable heights, there were beautiful flowers and ferns growing in gaps in the limestone.

Following the high paths down into the tree line, the waterfalls, forests and meadows were such a contrast to the rocky outcrops above.

Imagine the contrast arriving a few days later in sweltering, tourist crammed Venice!

It was all a bit of a shock, so we snuck off into the backstreets of some quieter areas to soak up some much less frenetic atmosphere. It paid off, the quiet canals and crumbling facades were the perfect place to soak up the spirit of the place and enjoy a gelato or prosecco or two four.

The beauty of Venice is disarmingly surreal, every corner and narrow street seems to open out on a suprising view more distractingly gorgeous than the last. The tightest of footpath can suddenly lead out to a view of the open sea, a series of ancient bridges or a faded palazzo.

The colours! 

Like Rome, the past and present seem to live and breathe together in the fabric of the buildings and streets in a way more potent than one is used to. It seemed easier to get a sense of place in the backwaters of the local residential areas than the central tourist spots around St Mark's Square and the Rialto Bridge. It was fun seeing it through the eyes of our kids too. There is never a dull moment with this one!

We had a simple but really delicous dinner by this quiet canal, at a family run trattoria, dusk falling around us and turning to night as we ate. Memories made.

Our second son is leaving home in September, bound for med school hundreds of miles from home. These times together feel like gold. I hope you are having a fun summer, and make some lovely memories wherever you are. x

Lets play catch up 1: Norfolk

Ok, where do I begin? These last few weeks have been a blur of work, holiday, sunshine, showers, work, play, wilderness, city, jewellery-making, gardening..... so a big sorry for neglecting my blog here, life has got in the way with more gusto than normal! So, a few posts in the next few days to get back on track!

In half term, we went to the very beloved cottage in Norfolk, place of so many of my childhood memories, and now our kids' too. Man, I love this place. The way it cradles so many of my family's high days and holidays within its ancient flint walls, its steady peace and solid views over local farmland, the huge skies and skudding clouds, and close by, the wild marshes and pulsating tides that scribble on the sandy expanses of coastline. I love it all.

Occasionally, I actually pat the old walls of this place in gratitude. Possibly weird behaviour, but the place has my heart! My parents saved it from demolition in the 1960s, so there is something extra special about it still being here over 450 years on from when it was built by the west gate of the huge priory in the village. The place has soul.

This is the view from the back garden, it may not be grandly impressive or majestic in scale, but I have known it from my earliest days and nowhere feels more part of me or more comforting.

We were so happy to luck out with the weather for the few days we were there, the local beaches did us proud. They are always so uncrowded once you walk even a few minutes from the coast carpark, even on a sunny day  in half term, this is one reason we love it here!

No filters on these photos, Norfolk light is something else! I also always come away with my imagination buzzing with all the colours and textures - always lots to inspire the jewellery making. This time I found lots of really teeny shells that I might cast in silver or gold, exciting!

Those few days were a lovely lull before a slight storm of activity on the Wild Acre jewellery event front, but more of that in the next post. x

Inspiration: the coast

We try and spend some time by the sea in the summer, and by September all the lovely images and textures and sounds of the coast begin to feed into my jewellery designs.

 I have never done a 'coastal' range before, but I think I have enough ideas now to formulate one for 2013. I shall be spending lots of time this autumn and winter at my jewellery bench trying to create shapes in precious metal from the wealth of memories in my mind. The haunting marshes of north norfolk, the huge expanses of sand imprinted with the eddies of the retreating tide, the tiny, sea-smoothed pebbles and spiral-shaped, roughly ribbed shells left on the tide line - all these things are filling my mind and I hope will find ways of interpreting their patterns and curves in my jewellery.

So, plenty of material to work towards a coastal - inspired range for 2013, watch this space!