Meet Tom…Big Tam…TD…Papa…Our Dad!

Welcome to another personal blog post on this gorgeous sunny Sunday in June.  It couldn’t really be anything else today as it’s Father’s Day.  I am not really one for celebrating these media hyped commercialised ‘special days.’   Like many of us, I think it’s more important to celebrate and show appreciation to the people you love day to day (okay maybe I don’t quite muster up to that every day!!!)

BUT anyway, I decided it was a great opportunity to do a photoshoot with yours truly’s Dad.  I mean, how often do your family let you have them as models?  Not so often I would bet.   And how many times will they say, I HATE having my photo taken…I’m not photogenic?  Well it’s probably one of the most common things that we as photographers hear.  And yet, at the end of most of the photoshoots that I do I frequently hear…Wow, that was great fun, I really relaxed into it and I can’t believe you can took such great photographs of me!  Em, well…here’s a little fact!  I didn’t photoshop you or anything like it.  I just helped you relax, enjoy the moment and capture just how amazing you really are!  So Dad…I think you scrub up not to badly and take a pretty great photograph!

So without further ado let me introduce you to Tom, Big Tam, TD…Papa…our Dad!  He’s a pretty welcoming kind of chap really…and he LOVES his garden.  So it was certainly a great place to start this little visual tour of a day in the life of our Dad!

As you can see from TD’s relaxed and chilled demeanour, he puts in the graft to get some outstanding results in his bonny garden :)  It’s not unusual for us kids (okay so we are not so much youngsters, but he will tell you…”You will always be my kids!”) to arrive in the front door and be immediately escorted out the back door to see his latest new wee tree, plant or gorgeous hanging baskets.  Or sometimes even a lesson in how to get a GREEN and beautiful lawn!!!! Eh Dad?  Joking aside, it’s a pretty impressive place I have to say!

And behind that big yale lock is where the tools for his labour of love lie.  And here is a sneak peak inside :)

And all that hard work, hoeing, weeding, watering and generally walking around admiring his handy work sure pays off…

Oh and occasionally he stops to hang out the washing…though it’s more likely that he says to Margaret…watch ‘my’ grass as you do that!!!!  Eh Margaret? :)

And every now and again we take him out…or more accurately…he takes us out!  This time I needed to do a little reckie for a photoshoot I had planned and he had played the part so well in the garden that I couldn’t resist.  Well actually I needed him to drive me there!  But there was going to be cake and coffee in it for him :)  So here’s a few shots in and around Chaterlherault Country House and Park.  It was a gorgeous day!

Well I don’t know about you…but I think our Dad takes a pretty mean photograph!  And I think he probably even secretly enjoyed it!

There’s a lot to Tom Dunbar, so here’s a couple of things you might not know.  He doesn’t just do his own garden, no sirey…He does the garden of a couple of his neighbours that aren’t able to for one reason or another….even when it means he needs to sleep for 3 hours on his chair afterwards because he is so tired.  (Actually he does that most days nowadays :)  He doesn’t suffer fools gladly, but will go to the ends of the earth for his family and friends with a generosity of spirit that’s to be admired.   He makes a MEAN lasagne and coleslaw and it still proves to be a favourite with some of his kids/grandkids!   And his chicken liver pate is to die for…honestly, it is…I have never tasted anything that compares…and I have looked!  He’s had a longstanding history with that odd game called golf, once playing off a handicap of 4…nowadays just playing a few holes with the boys during the week and having a drink in the clubhouse afterwards.   Like a good wine he has mellowed with age, and like a great cask malt…he has let his surroundings and experiences permeate his character to give a full bodied (sorry pops – that’s all the good food you cook and like!) colourful and unique flavour.

So here’s to a very special Tom, Big Tam, TD…Papa and of course our DAD!  Happy Father’s Day Dad…You are one in a million (aye, that’s for sure!)

Love from Jacqueline (Sunday name…usually reserved for when you are giving me a row!) Gillian and Iain xxx

But as everyone knows…behind every good man….is a great woman!  So let’s not forget to introduce the good woman behind Tom.  Our very own Margaret Dunbar, Mum , Mags, Aunt Margaret, Grandma…yip you make a team to be reckoned with! x