Bonjour!

I can only apologise for being MIA for 2 months. Life has thrown far too much at me recently and unfortunately blogging wasn't on the agenda. But while I was gone I passed my driving test!! Booyah :-)

I am currently in France on a family holiday so I thought I'd take up the opportunity to blog about it. I am staying in a beautiful gîte just outside of Cluny which is far from new to me, as my family and I used to stay here a few times a year, for about 10 years. This is a huge part of my childhood and being able to relive it is just wonderful! The gîte is situated in the beautiful french countryside, out of the way and hidden from the outside world. We arrived on the 6th of July and we're departing on the 20th (two weeks is the perfect amount of time to chill out and spend time with the family).

We haven't really ventured far yet. We visited my all time favourite french zoo, Touroparc. It was just as wonderful as I had remembered! I absolutely love animals/zoos, so as well as reminiscing I also got to take photos of beautiful animals, what more could I ask for?

The weather has been lovely, it hasn't dropped below 25'C and most of this week it has been around 30'C/31'C. If you are from England you will understand how exciting this is, although I hear it's been just as lovely back home so cheers all round.

Today my mother and I went on a little adventure round a gorgeous town called Cluny. We had lunch at a cute bistro, bought some beautiful pastries/desserts and thoroughly enjoyed each other's company. Unfortunately being the plonker I am, I forgot my camera so hopefully we shall go back tomorrow so I can take some photos! It's so beautiful.

mumma

dad

the beautiful views

this goat was so hilarious

so majestic

mr racoon having a snooze

giraffe love

this made my heart melt

the new addition to the giraffe family - so cute

I was quite upset about the fact the hippos at this zoo have the smallest enclosure. Very unfair to say the least. 

I wanted to take it home

chilled out chimp

this incredible creature named "balloo" has been in the zoo for over 15 years. he was my absolute favourite animal in the zoo. Seeing him after 7 years brought back lovely memories and a huge smile!

I hope you enjoyed looking at these gorgeous animals as much as I did. I will hopefully post again once I'm back in the UK!

esther xo

a beautiful spring wedding

on the 5th of May 2013, my cousin Natasha and her fiancé Ryan became husband and wife. I was fortunate enough to witness the marriage of the wonderful couple, and the day was just fantastic. I have a humungous family (mum's side) and we're all very close. the wedding was filled with happiness, laughter, wonderful food and drunken dance moves in the evening. the whole day was spent in a breath-takingly beautiful location in Kent. the afternoon brought sunshine and the setting looked even more beautiful. blooming flowers, tea-lights, ribbons and all sorts covered the gardens, very romantic indeed.

the ceremony itself was lovely, and I can assure you most guests were teary-eyed. the wedding breakfast was delicious, and the table setting made it even more enjoyable. personalised m&m's, gems and gorgeous flowers added to the beautiful room we were seated in. once the food was eaten and the speeches were finished, we were moved back into the garden while the room was transformed for the evening antics. a fantastic live band performed throughout the evening, as well as a DJ playing a mix of classic and new songs. a photo booth was placed in the corner of the room which myself and other guests thoroughly enjoyed playing around with. a delicious evening buffet was served, and a spectacular performance was given by my cousin's close friend who is a professional gymnast/acrobat/dancer.

the whole day was just wonderful and I had a fantastic day with my family/family friends.

I thought I'd post some of the photos from throughout the day, bare with me - there are A LOT of photos!

my uncle clive being cute

classic cutting the cake shot

first dance

the wedding rings

first kiss as husband and wife

sorry about the huge amount of photographs. I took over 300 throughout the day and narrowing it down to this amount was such a struggle for me.

tell me what you think of the photos?

esther xo

springtime

well hello, I can only apologise for the complete abandonment of my blog. to say I'm extremely busy and stressed is an understand the size of jupiter. the few main reasons as to why I haven't posted are as follows:

• sadly my grandmother passed away on the 6th of april, and the last few weeks have been a real struggle. unfortunately I put on a brave face a lot of the time, to make life a little easier, and it has back-fired slightly as I've only felt worse for it.
• I now also have a full time job, 8am-6pm, monday to friday at a local nursery.
• I am currently learning to drive. my theory test is booked for the 7th of may and I have to work 10x harder because my brain is awful.
• I'm also currently studying level 2 childcare, ICT and re-doing my maths (a GCSE equivalent in both) which are compulsory when doing the childcare course.

so if that isn't a good enough reason, I don't know what is.

today has been a lovely day and I've really enjoyed spending time doing something i'm extremely passionate about. sadly they're only photos of flowers, so nothing too exciting - but I had such a lovely time and I thought I'd make a blog post out of it.

and last but not least, my dog tarzan chilling out.

hopefully I will find the time to go out and take some new photographs some time soon.

esther xo