Suffolk

It was my Dad's 70th birthday last year.  We spent some time thinking through what we could do as a family and were hoping to find a holiday let somewhere that we could all enjoy.  Around the time of his 69th birthday a friend from work went for a long weekend to The Balancing Barn in Suffolk and sent me a link to the website when he got back.  I was quite impressed and after a bit if discussion with Mum, we decided to go ahead and book.

It looked like such an unusual place in the photographs and when we arrived, it didn't disappoint.  You approach the building from the opposite end to this picture up a long driveway and it looks like quite an unassuming little place on the drive up.  The pitched roof and patio doors look pleasant enough but they don't prepare you for the rest of the place. It really does hang off the side of the hill like this and it is possibly the most amazing building I've ever stayed in.  The room closest to you in this picture is the living room which has a glass floor.  There is a swing hanging off the bottom of the building and you can watch people on the swing through the floor.

We stayed for 4 nights so had plenty of time to explore the area as well as appreciating the building itself.  Those of you who have read previous entries will remember my Beach Hut Bicycle post from last year which was based on the beach huts in nearby Southwold.  That picture made the place look considerably warmer and sunnier than it actually was.  Being February, the biting wind meant it was too cold to spend much time out on the beach.  I remember sheltering behind a building to get a photo of these boats in the hope that I could do a painting of them at a later stage.  I ended up opting for a coloured pencil drawing although I'm half tempted to try another version in watercolour at some point.

My parents are now looking forward to their Ruby wedding anniversary so another family holiday is imminent.  This time will be the Lake District so I have no doubt you'll be seeing a few pictures from that trip coming up soon.

Beach Hut Bicycle

In celebration of his 70th year, my Dad recently undertook the epic challenge of cycling 1000 kilometers in a tour of Lakes and Cakes that lasted 2 1/2 weeks and took him from Hampshire through Suffolk, Norfolk and Lincolnshire.  I'm not going to write the full story as he documented his progress in his own blog which you can read here: http://blog.travelpod.com/travel-blog/nick.keeley43/1/tpod.html

In honour of this tremendous achievement, I decided a picture was in order so here's his bike leaning against one of the Southwold beach huts.  Southwold was a particularly significant stop along the way.  This is where we celebrated his birthday as a family earlier in the year (more pictures of that trip to follow) and it's also where my Mum met him for a well earned rest day.   

The beach hut itself came from one of my photos from our family holiday.  I liked the way this hut was painted and I thought it would be particularly pretty on a nice sunny day so I've modified the weather a little from the freezing cold February day when we were there.  The bike is Dad's bike from one of his photos on his trip.

I'm breaking with tradition a little here as I don't normally share these pictures until after they've been printed as Christmas cards at the end of the year but I want your feedback on this one so you're getting a preview. It's a coloured pencil drawing which didn't scan particularly well so I've photographed it instead.  I set out to do this as a pen and pencil drawing but I found that I quite liked the half way stage before I had added the ink details and now I can't decide which version I'll print.  So my question to you is which do you prefer - version one which is the pencil only one or version two which is pen and pencil?