Holiday Tidings | Reflections

December 27, 2014January 14, 2016Leave a comment

Merry Christmas, all! A tad late to say it but I think I have good reason…well actually I’ll make a few excuses about being with family.

I do hope that the holidays have brought good tidings to all you fabulous people out there! For once I was able to spend the holidays back here in England, away from Seattle…they are both homes to me. I have spent half my life in the Pacific Northwest, but my family and heart lie in England, usually so very far away.
It’s been crazily busy, seeing relatives and friends, joining in with festivities and food that I normally miss out on. My son has had the chance to feel included and involved (as well as reprimanded by many people who care!), which is what he so lacks and yearns for, and it’s been a treat to see him within the family I knows he wishes were always around.

I suppose I could lament about how I didn’t get my proper trip to London this time, how I didn’t get to go the cat café that I set my heart on. How I didn’t get to see some of the long lost friends that I wanted to, and most assuredly how I didn’t get the chance to slow down and spend time out taking the photographs that I wanted to (well there’s never enough time for all the photographs I want to take). I hadn’t spent Christmas here since 1999! I hope everyone had time to enjoy their families and friends, because they are precious gift.

I am flying back to Seattle today, much sooner than I’d like to, and with a heavy heart about leaving family I wish I could be with more often, as well as the green field-checkered landscape that is unspoiled in my mind. But I have to focus on what I’m bringing back, if it’s not what I’ll go back to. Aside from entirely too much Lego brought by Father Christmas/ Santa for my boy, I’ll be bringing back a business plan that I’ve been working on to relaunch my photography venture, goals for the coming year (look out!!), and new memories. There are several memory cards of images that I need to back up and process too.

I wish everyone well and hope you all hang in with me in 2015; I’ll be posting about my new photography session offerings really soon! So excited for the New Year. On my way to the airport right this minute!

merry christmas from K.A.Moore Photography, Seattle Pet & Lifestyle Photography

Wishing you peace, love and joy this Christmas.
Copyright K.A.Moore Photography. All Rights Reserved.

Maid in England | Reflections

May 12, 2013January 14, 2016Leave a comment

I’ve been back in my home country of England for ten days now, and we have hit our half way mark already. We make it over from Seattle only about once every two years and then 2-3 weeks go by in a flash. Half way means that my man has just gone back to Seattle (so he can get back to work), and it means that the rest of my time will evaporate way too fast…
I’ve been living in the States for just about 19 years now, from exchange student, to college student, to movie-maker, and now mama and photog. That’s a long time, a long history. But I’m always homesick for England, as much as I love my adopted city of Seattle. So when I come back here, I start wondering what my life would’ve been like had I stayed, how it could be if we moved back, and I appreciate the little things so much more.
I love how so much stays the same, how the countryside is still pristine, how London still speeds ahead in the midst of all that culture and with its historical landmarks all intact, how I can feel at home as soon as I land.
They say you don’t appreciate something (somewhere?) until it’s gone; I suppose my absence from the UK has made my love for it grow. I can hear now the echoes of those who say ‘well, why don’t you just move back then?’. That’s a big move and it’s not easy. There’s a lot to consider when you make a huge move, and this time I have a family to consider, animals who would have to sit in quarantine, belongings to ship, new immigration dealios to contend with…the list is long.
I don’t travel much anymore, alas, and while these may be akin to someone’s vacation/holiday photos, they hold more sentimentality for me. They aren’t just travel photos or a documentation of ‘been there, done that’; they are pieces of me, things that I hold in my heart.
When you adopt a new country as your home, you still hold pieces of other places you have lived close to you. Born in England, but raised chiefly in Hong Kong, those countries are a part of me. And I’ve been in the Pacific Northwest for close to 20 years now, longer than anywhere, so then I wonder how I might feel should we move back across the pond at some point.
This is the first trip back here to the UK where I have been struggling with emotions that are saying I wish I could stay, if only it weren’t for some friends back in the States, my beloved animals and a slice of the amazing Seattle. I see the excitement in my 5 year old of being surrounded by family here (family on both sides are in the South East of the States and in England, so all of them are far).
I had far less fear when I made the move over here when I was 20…I have different fears for myself and my child today. I’m impressed by those who can take the leap of a big move; my parents did that with us when we moved from England to Hong Kong, when I was just 4, and my brother was 2. My life would be very different today if my parents hadn’t been so bold, and I feel so fortunate that they did what they did.
Great changes happen when you make bold decisions and take risks (calculated or otherwise!).
What I must do at the least when I return to Seattle, is have us at least move house, amongst other things. Being away gives me perspective on the things that are to be put on my
‘action’ list, so while a big move back here may not happen just yet, I do now at least have renewed energy for quite a few things…and I plan to go home with a fair amount of English chocolate and sweeties to tide me over…until next time.
Some iPhone moments from me to you…
Cheers from England! Xo ~ K

Oh, England… | Reflections

February 27, 2012January 14, 20161 Comment

I’m ending the week with a lot on my mind, a lot of projects to finish, groups and fundraisers to sort out, and a major desire to get out of town. This time last year, me and my little family were planning and prepping for our trip back home to England, and it now seems like an eternity has gone by. I am very much needing what I think is a much-deserved break and that would be a wonderful one to have coming up again.

I moved to the States from the UK over 17 years ago but as much as I have assimilated and have my life invested here, naturally I miss much that lies across the ‘pond’ (also know as the Atlantic). All my family is there, my son is thousands upon thousands of miles from seeing his grandparents regularly (as well as being far from his other set of grandparents, who are in North Carolina), and I dearly miss having proper fish and chips. I even got desperately excited at the site of several shelves of British goods in the local supermarket the other day, and more than one person reading that on Facebook pointed out that I need to get out more. Umm, yesss.

I will save the gig photos I edited last week and all my reminiscing about ‘Old Blighty’ for another day and instead post some photos from our trip last year (please view the gallery). If it stands to motivate me to push for us to get out of town for even one night so that I can recharge and have a change in scenery, brilliant. I am feeling a need more than ever to feel revitalized in body and soul so I can continue to be the person I need to be for my son, and to preserve my sanity! At least I now know I can just hop down the street to buy a packet of English Hobnobs and Branston Pickle.