Category Archives: Personal

Saturday Snapshot – Stepping Back in Time

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Whilst looking through old photos last week (when I posted one of my husband rock climbing) we came across photos of our holiday in Budva in what was then Yugoslavia. We had a wonderful holiday even if I was feeling sick every evening, which I thought was ‘holiday tummy’ until we returned home and realised I was pregnant.

In this photo I have long, dark curly hair (a very curly perm which fortunately was nearly grown out)  - sadly it’s now grey! It was the era of the mini-skirt and hot pants, but here I’m covered head to foot in a delightful yellow creation, borrowed from one of the other holiday makers to cover up when changing out of my bikini.

And here we are in Dubrovnik with the owner of the ‘cover-up’ on the left of the photo. I’m the one second from the right next to my husband.

Saturday Snapshot is host by Alyce of At Home With Books.

Saturday Snapshot: Rock Kids at Ratho

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Yesterday we went to watch our grandchildren rock climbing at Ratho at the Edinburgh International Climbing Arena.

This is our oldest granddaughter, underneath the overhang, looking like spiderman:

and grandson, in the middle of the photo, nearing the top of his climb – white stripe down the side of his tracksuit trousers:

and finally our youngest granddaughter, who was fearless as she scaled the wall!

We’d been to watch them once before – see this post.

And here is their granddad in his youth, rock climbing in Wales – note no rope, or helmet! Safety standards have improved since then!

But he is using a rope in this one:

More Saturday Snapshots can be seen at Alyce’s blog At Home with Books.

Saturday Snapshot

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I’ve been looking at old family photos again:

This is my Great Grandmother, my mother and her older brother. I don’t know how old my mother was at the time, but this was probably taken in about 1917/18.

I know very little about my Great Grandmother – her name was Elizabeth, she was born in 1855 in Wales. When she was 12 she made this sampler:

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce of At Home with Books.

Saturday Snapshot

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I have a scrolling photo viewer on the computer desktop and this photo greeted me this morning when I switched the computer on. It’s the view from the field near to my previous house looking towards the town of Aylesbury in Buckinghamshire. The grey tower block in the background is where I used to work at the County Council offices – I was on the 8th floor, just over halfway up the building.

I like this photo because it shows the contrast between the old and the new, although the County Hall tower block is not new, completed in 1966, it’s certainly centuries older than the timber-framed house in the foreground.

Believe it or not, the tower block, sometimes called Pooley’s Folly after the architect, is a Grade II Listed Building. It’s constructed out of concrete and glass and whilst I was working there it was discovered that the core of the building was crumbling and it had to be reinforced. We were surrounded by scaffolding for months. It’s also a most inconvenient building to work in, boiling hot in the summer, freezing in the winter, draughty windows and only two lifts serving 13 fours and no service lift. I spent hours in total over the years I worked there just waiting for the lift. Still, that meant I had more time to read whilst waiting.

Saturday Snapshot is hosted by Alyce of At Home with Books.

Saturday Snapshot

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Earlier this year we visited Conundrum Farm:

We walked the farm trail where you can feed the animals. Our granddaughter liked the pygmy goats:

I wasn’t too keen on this somewhat larger goat that apparently often jumps over the fence and wanders around the farm:

There’s also a Battle Trail, which we didn’t do, across the battlefield of Halidon Hill, where the English recaptured Berwick-upon-Tweed from the Scots in 1333. We’re saving that for another visit.

See more Saturday Snapshots on Alyce’s blog At Home With Books.

Saturday Snapshot

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There was a loud bang the other day. I looked around the house but couldn’t find anything that had fallen down to explain the noise. Later I noticed that the front room window was looking rather dusty, and then I realised what the bang had been:

There are lots of wood pigeons and collared doves flying round our garden and it looks as though one had tried to fly through the window. It had certainly left an impression, probably seeing the reflection of trees in the window and thinking it could fly through. Fortunately there was no dead or injured bird anywhere to be seen!  We’d better get some stickers on the window!

See more Saturday Snapshots on Alyce’s blog At Home With Books.

ABC Wednesday – F is for …

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… one of my favourite flowers:

Fuchsia

Photos taken in my former garden.

A couple of commenters have asked is this a perennial. It’s a herbaceous perennial that flowers in the spring and summer and dies back in the winter. My next door neighbour grew them in profusion and I grew this one in our garden from a cutting off one of her plants.

An ABC Wednesday post for the letter F.

Birthday Presents

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Today is my birthday and I’ve had flowers!

and jewellery!

and books!

From top to bottom they are:

  • A Kindle gift voucher – a lovely present because I can enjoy choosing as well as reading!
  • Blood Harvest by S R Bolton – I’m currently reading her first book, Sacrifice and I’ve read that Blood Harvest is even better. It’s about the disappearance of a little girl two years earlier. A fire had devastated her home but her mother is convinced her daughter survived.
  • How the Girl Guides Won the War by Janie Hampton – this looks absolutely fascinating. I was a Brownie and then a Girl Guide (not during the war – I was a post-war baby), and it made up a large part of my childhood and teenage years. This looks a very comprehensive book. In the introduction Janie Hampton reveals that she had intended to write a satire on Guides and Brownies, making fun of them (how could she!) but the more she read and the more former Brownies and Guides she met she came to realise what an important part of 20th century history the Guide movement was (hurray!) with Guides playing a crucial part in feminist history and the women’s equality movement. I can see that I’ll be reading more from this book very soon!
  • The Distant Hours by Kate Morton – historical fiction featuring a dilapidated castle, sisters and dark secrets. I can hardly wait to read this one as well.
  • The Confession by John Grisham. It’s been years since I read any of John Grisham’s books – I binge read his books some years ago. This one is another of his legal thrillers about an innocent man days from his execution, with the guilty man deciding whether to confess. Should be good, I think.
  • A Companion to the History of the Book edited by Simon Eliot and Jonathan Rose. This book was a complete surprise! A mammoth book, covering many aspects of the history of bibliography, literacy and the future of the book. It includes the history of the materials used – clay tablets, papyrus rolls etc,  book culture around the world, book issues, such as censorship and  finally there is a chapter on the book’s digital future. This looks fascinating and no doubt it will keep me occupied for some time to come.

Thanks everyone for these lovely gifts.

I think of all of these I may start How the Girl Guides Won the War first. Time to go reading! and later on a meal out to celebrate (this will be the second one – the first was on Friday with our son and his family).

(Click on the photos to enlarge.)

Saturday Snapshot

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A few weeks ago I posted a photo of my grandfather on Alyce’s Saturday Snapshot. Today I’m posting a photo of his older sister Sarah, known to my grandfather as ‘Our Sal’ and to me as Aunty Sally. She didn’t live near me and my family when I was growing up but came to stay with us for a week each year. I used to love her visits.

This is how she looked when I knew her:

and this is her taken when she was a young woman:

and also:

Aunty Sally was born on 26 August 1878 in Mold, Flintshire, Wales. She died on 15 April 1967 aged 88. For many years she had been Matron and Housekeeper at Wellingborough School, a private school in Northamptonshire. She had worked until she was 78 and until she became ill she had visited the school chapel each week to arrange the flowers.

She had trained as a nurse in a London Hospital and had worked for a while in Chile as a children’s nurse. She first went to Wellingborough in 1940 as a member of the staff of Weymouth College which was evacuated to Wellingborough School.

By the time that I knew her she was an old lady or at least she seemed so to me, but she was great fun with loads of energy and interested in everything we were doing. She and my father used to sit up late at night, talking and sharing cigarettes, long after we’d all gone to bed. She bought us lovely presents, which were always different – not just an Easter Egg but a large Easter Chick, probably made of papier-mâché and decorated with glitter, containing small chocolate eggs. I’d never seen anything like it before and after I’d eaten the eggs I kept the chick for years afterwards until it fell to pieces. I wish I knew more about her.