Angela Higgins – Wedding and Lifestyle Photographer » Wedding and Lifestyle Photographer based in Perth, Western Australia

One of my favourite things lately is my little vegetable patch in our garden. There is something therapeutic about having your hands in the earth and spending time in the warm sun.

Up until recently deciding to follow a vegetarian diet and not eat anything with a face, my vegie patch was neglected and not very well cared for. I would plant lettuces and zucchini and feel awful when I forgot about it and saw all the lovely produce go to waste. Right now I have a plethora of broad beans I have no idea what to do with, lovely spinach, kale, lettuce and spring onions thriving in my garden along with a selection of fragrant herbs. There is no better feeling than knowing my meal has something that just 5 minutes ago was growing in my garden. Just now I’m sipping a pineapple and mint juice with mint fresh picked. It gives me a connection with the earth that opens my heart and makes me feel happy. A sort of hippy-kind-of-happy – but I’m not about to start wearing Birkenstocks or drive a combi.

Needless to say I am growing all my lovely vegetables organically but the rest of the produce we need we buy locally from an organic store in our neighborhood. We get a big mixed box of fruit and veg at the start of the week and I love the challenge of using everything in the box and experimenting with new foods. I just feel better knowing we are all eating foods that are better for us and for the world.

Here are a couple of pretty plants in my vegetable patch. They are just so pretty and taste just as good. My little piece of happiness.

I looked at him expectantly. In between spasms of trying to catch my breath and nurse the stitch in my side. I am sure my face was beet-red and I may or may not have had drool running down my chin. I had just finished my first week of the Couch to 5k and was waiting for Grant to shower me with praise. I mean I had worked out 3 days that week alternating 60 seconds jogs with 90 seconds of walking for 20 minutes and I was still alive to tell the tale. Surely that warranted a small celebration in my honour. Cake. Soft drinks. A few streamers from the ceiling. Nothing too extravagant.

In case you weren’t aware, Grant is miles ahead of me in the fitness stakes. While he was training for triathlons, I was practicing with my camera. While he was getting in 10km runs, I was taking the dogs for a walk around the block. So when I told him I was going to begin the C25K in an effort to work on my fitness (in my best Fergie impersonation), he put his hand up to support me and come along. At first I was so proud and happy that he would support me knowing how boring it would be for him. So I downloaded the program for my iPhone, strategically selected some motivating music and began my first run.

Huffing and puffing and trying to find my stride while trying to remember simultaneously to breath and not fall on the pavement, I looked to my side and there he was. Grant prancing next to me like a gazelle. Graceful and bouncing like he had springs in his shoes and was as light as a feather, I can’t tell you how I felt struggling alongside him. Embarrassed, ashamed – more for him than me. It was, I am sure, hilarious for the few unfortunate people who happened to see us.

But even though each week I have increased my running times and my fitness has gotten better, he has never broken stride. He has never run ahead and left me behind. Patiently prancing beside me while I slog it out and then after I am finished, he will continue on for a lazy 10km training run to do what he needs to do. I am hoping it is a metaphor for our life together that no matter what we need individually we will never break stride and keep pace together while one of us needs the other.

Today I completed Week 4 and ran for 5 minutes with out a break. I felt that this was overshadowed by Grant who took the cake with his get up – wearing compression socks along with his skins, running shorts and new running shoes. I was compelled to share with the internet my running buddy in all his paraphernalia. Lets never break stride.

When Grant came into my life he had two very small people that came along with him. So small and wide-eyed, Ben and Phoebe have been a part of my life for 7 years now and we realised recently that I have now known Ben for more than half of his lifetime. It was in that moment where I decided that whether I wanted it or not, I had a responsibility to these children and I could quite confidently call myself a parent and friend to them both.

I like to think of it as an added bonus, that they have in their lives another person they can come to whenever they need something. I like to think that I am adding to their more human qualities like compassion and empathy and helping them see the world in a different light while their mother and father are offering other life skills for them to take into adulthood. My goal for them both is that they have a life better than my own and that whenever an opportunity arises, it should be grasped with two hands. I have dreams for their future and encourage them to dream about their futures too, no matter how large or how small they choose to dream. And there are the less impressive mutual appreciations Ben, Phoebe and I have for The Kardashians and Adam Sandler movies.

I’ve started to see a parenting style emerge as we have spent more time together and I’ve said way too many phrases that I heard my own mother say to me growing up which I swore I would never utter. Its terrifying and exhilarating to see the possibilities in children and full of contradictions. You want to hold and protect them from the harsh realities of the world but at the same time you want them to experience life, make their own mistakes and learn for themselves.

Just this morning Ben has flown with the WA State Team to Brisbane to compete in the National Cross Country Championships. Just 3 months ago he was in Adelaide for the National Triathlon Championships. When we heard about his being selected for Brisbane, we knew it would give him a level of independence not many other 13 year olds have and I am so happy we could make it happen and get him there.

While Phoebe is much like me at her age and is testing the waters about where she wants to go in life, Ben is confident about his direction and realising his dreams every minute of every day. I took these images a couple of months ago when Ben was given his new racing bike – a reward for all his hard work in his sport and school. There is something poetic about it considering how he is moving forward so independently and confidently into his life but I won’t get cheesy about him riding into the sunset. No sir.