Friends, family and photos...

Today my lovely friend and talented artist and sculptor Fiona visited with her mum and sister.  She is home from down under for an extended period to see her parents (after not being able to see them for two years due to covid.) It was so lovely to see them all.

There was a purpose to Fiona's visit.  She had asked me to photograph her latest painting commission (it is amazing.  Hopefully I can share it in the future) to allow her to make prints of it, and also to take some head shots of her for an art forum she is joining.  But of course we started with coffee and the delicious strawberry tarts and Chocolate Violets from Goodfellow and Steven bakers her mum had brought.  

Fiona's mum and gran always used to buy us Chocolate Violets when I stayed with them during the school summer holidays so they are a real childhood treat.  How lovely of her mum to remember.  Actually her mum is amazing.  In her 80s, she looks much younger.  Still driving and still playing golf at least twice a week.  She and David had a lot to talk about!  

Our families go back a long way.  Fiona's gran was friend's with my gran and her mum was friend's with my mum so it was inevitable Fiona and I would be friends. I really missed her when she set off to travel the world in 1990.  Within the year she landed down under and never returned.  Some letters were exchanged between us but life was busy for us both so communication was sporadic.  Thankfully the arrival of social media helped us stay better in touch and covid aside, she gets back home most years and we get to have a catch up.  She's off to Italy for a quick holiday on Saturday so we will have a proper catch up when she returns from that.

Like most people, Fiona hates getting her photo taken but I hope she likes at least one of the shots I took today.  I like this one and couldn't help having a faff in mono :-)