Last week I drove down the country to Whistable to celebrate my lovely son Dylan’s birthday. A lot has happened since. I was involved in a car crash (I got hit by a lorry) on the way home and my car got written off, I’m in the middle of some huge life changes and a work project that is taking me back to my prop styling days has taken up quite a bit of time - in a really good way. So I’m a little behind sharing images and posts here.

Anyway, back to the birthday celebrations. Dylan didn’t want a big party. He had requested a lemon meringue pie which I duly baked and transported all the way from North Yorkshire to the Kent coast. In one piece. No pics (yes, it still happened!), but it was a success. I put it down to two facts: one, I added lime to the curd, two, I made an Italian meringue which is more stable and able to survive a whole day in a car without collapsing.

The celebration itself was Dylan and I having fish ‘n chips and sharing a bottle of wine on the beach at sunset. Partly my idea and his wish. We were very lucky with the weather (especially considering how much of a wash-out this summer has been so far) and had the most incredible sunset and therefore light. It was perfect. Perfect in its simplicity, perfect in the way he wanted to celebrate. And I was more than happy to “go with it” and just spend some wonderful hours with my child and best friend. These are just some pictures of the evening…

The next morning was interrupted by heavy showers between moments of warm sunshine as we had our first coffee at a lovely friend’s house. We all made our way to a fab bakery for some breakfast before I had to leave and make my way back to North Yorkshire. Little did I know then how much that drive would change things…

Last pic taken on my iPhone by Isabelle with thanks (edit by me) :-)