It's been a while - a year in fact - since I've updated this site. This was mainly due to being very busy with our growing family. However, last month I received a disturbing email from Blogger, the service I have used to update this part of the site for the last seven years.

It seems the system which has served me well is no longer to be supported by Blogger, which is owned by Google. At the moment I can select a photo in Flickr and write a blog post, click a button, and then Flickr will talk to Blogger which happily updates this page, and works very nicely without upsetting the other parts of the site. For the last seven years it has worked perfectly. Unfortunately, it seems this is now no longer technically possible, or has been deemed uneconomical - something I find hard to believe for a company with the resources of Google.

My problem is this: I would like to keep on updating this site from time to time, when I can. Sometimes I am busy, sometimes not, and a low maintenance site can always be added to now and then. But I don't have the kind of free time I had 7 or 8 years ago, not enough to rebuild the site and integrate a whole new blogging service into it - possibly having to migrate tens or hundreds of pages. So, from 1st May 2010, this site will go into prolonged and probably permanent hibernation.

My plan is to set up a new, and much simpler, family blog. I'll use Wordpress, and host it at www.horton-szar.com - so not too much of a jump. I'll be working on this over the next few weeks and will keep posts going here till then.

I thought this shot from last weekend would benefit from a sympathetic conversion to black & white. Our friends Mat & Ruth came to visit with their new baby son Ethan - who we met for the first time. Won't be long before he's running around with Gabriel and Milo...

In this shot, there's a lovely view along the River Stour as it passes through Fordwich, and looking lovely in the spring sunshine.

I love this picture of Gabriel in one of his little sulks, a habit he is just starting to develop as he approaches the 'terrible twos'. Fortunately these only last about 30 seconds and then he is smiling again - may it always be this way!

Here's a shot from a couple of weeks ago, while we were out on the bikes and stopped for a quick break and the boys decided to climb trees...

Rich colours and the gleam of chrome caught my eye the other day, while tidying the garage and putting the boys' bikes away; I had a camera to hand, as usual, and a few minutes of experimenting produced this abstract shot and a few others like it on Flickr. I know, I should probably get out more...

It's Red Nose Day today, with lots of people dressing up and being 'Funny for Money' for Comic Relief. The boys' schools and nursery are all encouraging dressing up for the day, so I managed to get this shot of them all ready to go this morning.

While out on a bike ride at the weekend, the boys discovered this dark and murky pond complete with dead motorbike. Milo couldn't resist poking stuff with a big stick. It's a boy thing...

At the weekend we took the boys out for the first cycle ride of the year. Milo got to ride on the trailer bike attached to the back of mine, and Gabriel was in a little trailer of his own. We found this community park on the way to Canterbury with a BMX track and skateboard park - I can see us spending a lot of time here over the next few months...

There aren't many things that will grab a small boy's attention like a plate of freshly baked cakes with small chocolate eggs on top... I caught this shot of Milo as he sized up the trove before grabbing a muffin and making off with it.

A beautiful sunny afternoon today - and while tidying up the garage, Vanessa and I noticed the family bikes all lined up, and realised this needed to be photographed to remember in years to come.