Since my last newsletter, I turned 40. Forty?! I hear you cry. But alas time waits for no man, and despite my youthful looks and boundless energy (my back hurts even just writing this newsletter), I am in fact at the beginning of my fifth decade. We spent my birthday week out in Portugal, in the Algarve, staying in the town where my sister and her partner met 10 years ago this year. So we all rented a big Airbnb with a pool and got to work on our various celebrations, making our way around all the pastel de nata bakeries in the local area.

To further celebrate the occasion, my wonderful partner bought me my first SLR 35mm film camera….

I’ve stood on dozens of start lines as a runner, not a very good runner, but a runner all the same. But I’ve now stood on one as a photographer too. The week before last, fellow Photo Club Devon member Dan asked me if I’d like to be the race photographer for the local Exeter City Community Trust 5 miler, which is run in combination with their Exeter Marathon. I’d never been paid to photograph an event before….

I’ve been away on holiday with the family. It was both hilarious and exhausting in equal measure. We drove to Germany and back, via stops in France, Belgium and the Netherlands - visiting family while we were there. On the final morning, as we left our French gite and wound our way past windmills and over rolling hills towards the ferry port, we wished we could do it all again….