Cupcakes by Claire

My flatmate, Claire, is a cake decorator. She is currently working at a cake shop in Putney, and often brings home lovely treats for us. These ones here are an example of some of the lovely designs she can do, although compared to the wedding cake she recently brought home, they are incredibly simple. Either way, enjoy some photos while we enjoy the cakes!

Yes I do believe the appropriate response is "Om nom nom nom!"

London at Night

Last week a friend of Kirsten's came to visit and, as a fellow photographer, I jumped at the opportunity to show him around London a bit, taking photos as we go.

The weather was lovely and warm (if not a bit too warm), but I did manage to snap a couple photos before it got too dark for me to manage with my mini-tripod.

I had a really fun time and hope to get back into London at night to so some more photographing before I go.

Wimbledon

It's that time again, folks! Wimbledon is in the air and my neighbourhood is packed! I think we're all going to try to camp overnight on Friday to nab some Saturday tickets, so expect more photos then!

Barry Island and a Beach

Last Thursday I visited Cardiff again, and we decided to spend the day at the beach! The beach in question is Barry Island, and it's about 9 miles away from Cardiff. As fellow Canadians you will understand my love of beaches, and lament the fact that we don't have any good sandy beaches near us in Calgary.

While the water wasn't warm, it's certainly warmer than the icy waters of Vancouver. The weather was perfect and sunny, and the wind off the water kept me cool.

Here's a panorama of the lovely view back towards the beach.

Look! A photo of me! And we're not wearing any shoes. Lovely. (Ignore the crazy hair).

Just beside the main beach at Barry Island there is another quieter, more secluded beach perfect for wandering and being pounced on by wet dogs.

Afterwards we enjoyed a chocolate milkshake (Oddly called a 'schmoo') to cool down!

It was a lovely day at the beach and I'm looking forward to going back one day!

Trooping the Colors

Happy June 12th everyone! It's the Queens (official, not real) birthday! And to celebrate, they have a parade, and us common folk (read: peasants) get to stand along Pall Mall and watch.

We got to see Prince William and Camilla whats-her-face.

And the stars of the show! The Queen and that husband of hers, Prince Phillip, who says the most ridiculous things and really should keep his mouth shut.

Of course, the best part of the whole show is the air-show at the end! They had several planes fly over before the Red Arrows stole the show and painted the sky in England's colours, blue, red and white.

Decorating Cookies

Over the weekend Amanda made Kevin some birthday cookies! While she did all the hard work (mixing, waiting, baking, rolling, etc), I got to help at the fun stage and decorate them! Here's a little sample of my handiwork.

Yeah. That's a cupcake. On a cookie. Deal with it.

Amanda didn't like decorating the little men, that was my job!

I haven't had this much food-related fun in a long time. Seriously.

OH MY GOD WHO STOLE MY ARM?!

Aaaand my favorite, the pirate collection. Arrrr!

Really, for me at least, the cookies were way more fun to decorate than they are to eat (I'm destroying art!), so I've left the eating to Kevin. After all, it's his birthday cookies. Yum!

Revisiting Bushy Park

Last week while Amanda was off we made the trip out to Bushy Park to see the deer. We were fortunate in that it took little time to find them, and the ones we did find didn't seem to mind us being around at all. It was a hot hot day, so the deer stuck to the shadows which made them more difficult to photograph, but we managed.

You can see Amanda's photos over on her blog here.

Caerphilly Castle

This is Caerphilly Castle. It is the largest castle in Wales and the second largest in Britain, second to Windsor Castle. It is located in a town called Caerphilly, which is just outside Cardiff.

Built between 1268 and 1271, it is an early example of a concentric castle.

Unlike many other 13th-century Welsh castles, Caerphilly Castle was not built by Edward I in his crack-down on the Welsh lords, but by Gilbert 'the Red' de Clare, a powerful, red-headed nobleman of Norman descent, as a response to a dispute between him and the Prince of Gwynedd, Llywelyn the Last.

Here is a panorama view of the inside of the castle.

Here you can see the leaning tower.

After visiting the castle we grabbed sandwiches and sat on the hill for lunch. Not a bad view, hey?

A quick stop at the train station, with its vintage posters.

After Caerphilly Castle, we decided to head to Roath Park to enjoy the sun and some ice cream.

It was super hot and super sunny, and while I managed to get a bit of a sunburn, it was a lovely day for snappy photos!