Lettuce-eating

byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

2011-07-15T21:38:00.003+01:00

.....I think the time has come to acknowledge that I'm not actually blogging any more.....

PLUS

I'm off on Sunday for a Big Adventure Down Under, with Little Gem.

SO

I've popped in to say bye bye.

I shan't be back till the middle of August.
.....I don't know if I'll be returning to blogging.....

.....though having fully intended to come and post a VACANT notice here,
I find myself wanting to start blogging again.....

which is
TYPICAL

So: this blog is CLOSED for the time being.

(But it might only be temporary)

Byeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Gossip

2011-05-19T09:39:00.004+01:00

....on the streets

More gossip over at Theme Thursday

escape......

2011-05-12T08:44:00.000+01:00

..... is the Theme Thursday prompt. And today is my day off from work, I am escaping. yay! and have time to look through my photos and see if any fit the bill.....

television

2011-04-22T10:12:00.006+01:00

Not something I photograph much

but here, experimenting with the hippstamatic app. (which I love)

(no idea what we were watching......)

and on holiday with friends.....

(and we can see what/why Rosie is watching!)

more TVs over at Theme Thursday

spice

2011-04-15T08:27:00.009+01:00

is amongst the reasons why the state of Kerala, in India, claims the slogan: "God's own country".

The state is full of spices, everywhere - growing, being sold, being cooked and eaten.

Amongst the spices I saw growing there were chilli

coriander, curry, cardamom,

nutmeg

cinnamon

turmeric, vanilla, rue, allspice, clove,

ginger and pepper

star anise

Spice is a major part of the culture, as well as the economy - whole shops devoted just to spices

and they were a feast for the palate as well as for the eyes

Other posts about spice are over at Theme Thursday

faces......

2011-04-07T13:01:00.005+01:00

......in places!

gates to Greenwich Park, South London

as seen from Lewisham Station, South London

Greenwich Park - I love this tree

Britvic crate - South London

a friend's house (ex-house) in Suffolk, England

St. Aubins, Jersey Channel Islands

Sussex, England

Greenwich

South London

I could have gone on and on with this one, photos of faces in places is a bit of an obsession, this is just a selection ..... and you'll see that I am not alone if you go to flickr and searches for faces in places groups

wonderful weirdness

wonderful theme thursday

silly

2011-03-31T07:55:00.003+01:00

winter silliness

and summer silliness

Hoping for more of the later soon, its been quite springlike here lately.....

Happy Theme Thursday

paper

2011-03-25T14:51:00.002Z

An installation art piece by Lu Shengzhong, an artist from Beijing, using hand-cut paper figures carefully arranged in vistas and landscapes, swathes, crowds - assembled as screens or walls, with blocks of the negative cut-outs.

"I use paper to cut this little red figure to demonstrate he delicate fragility of human beings. Ephemeral. A human's life is shorter than a paper's thickness. The material is not important. What is more important is the process you use to create that material. This is more valuable to me." Lu Shengzhong.

The piece below is entitled The Book of Humanity.

from an exhibition at the V&A in London in 2008.

Theme Thursday - paper

space

2011-03-11T07:02:00.007Z

where do they come from?

how do they get here?

what do they do when they are here?

they watch......

Books

2011-03-03T16:50:00.004Z

Brick Lane, London

Islington, London

Reading books round and about the place:

LG, 2009

Greenwich Park, London

Greenwich Park, London

Books round and about our house:

and apologies if this is lazy, but - books being one of the great loves of my life - there are earlier posts on this theme, if you want to see them click here and here.

(no apologies actually, nothing wrong with being lazy from time to time)

thank you to Theme Thursday for the prompt to revel again in the luxury and privilege of having access to so many books

pointless

2011-02-24T09:12:00.004Z

I was sure I had a photo somewhere of a graffiti-ed "whats the point?"

But, I couldn't find it.

Maybe I shall scrawl it on a wall today?

I did find this, which I felt was close.....

and also, a pointer (pointing at a hen)

and some railway points

More points of interest over at Theme Thursday

Broken

2011-02-17T18:05:00.003Z

inspiration courtesy of Theme Thursday

sPIRAL

2011-02-13T08:05:00.005Z

saved from non-blogging, just about, by Theme THursday.......

and a few spirals in my photo collection:

theme thursday JUMP

2011-01-13T08:28:00.008Z

Kerala, India

Whereas this photo clearly involves some jumping

the others are more ambiguous.

did they jump? or are they about to jump?

St. James' Park, London

Woolwich, South London

Williamsburg, New York

Ipswich, Suffolk

Charlton, South London

Woolwich, South London

Blackheath, London

Happy New Year and Happy Theme Thursday!

I wasn't sure I'd be back here for a while, I'm finding so little time for blogging these days. To be honest, little more than no time at all. But..... here I am, can't quite let go, and will really seriously try to visit some of you too fairly soon.....

map

2010-12-17T10:52:00.005Z

I know someone who loves reading, but one of his criteria for books he will not read, is if they have maps in the front.
I think he has fantasy books primarily in mind.....

but I love them
this is a favourite - and this is the Middle Earth map I most like, partly because it was framed and on the wall at home when I was growing up:

And here is another favourite:

And another map which immediately came to mind is from Milly Molly Mandy, a favourite childhood book:

from Milly Molly Mandy, by Joyce Lankester Brisley

There is an earlier post here about Milly Molly Mandy, and.... maps
...... and other Theme Thursday map posts here.

Happy Theme Thursday!

test

2010-12-09T13:53:00.004Z

An indication of the stupid state of affairs in many schools in England : my daughter took her Maths GCSE (Age 15/16) exam a few weeks ago. This is a nationally set, public and externally examined qualification. Today she has to do a mock exam for exactly the same qualification, even though she has already done the actual real test.

England's school system is test-mad.

I am preparing, in a laconic and not at all test-mad sort of way, for my driving test and have been doing some practice for the theory test.
Rather than being a chore, this has been quite entertaining so far.

It is a multiple choice test. Below are some of my favourites:

You lose your way on a busy road. What is the best action to take?

Mark one answer.

Stop at traffic lights and ask pedestrians
Shout to other drivers to ask them the way
Turn into a side road, stop and check a map
Check a map, and keep going with the traffic flow

A vehicle pulls out in front of you at a junction. What should you do?

Mark one answer.

Swerve past it and sound your horn
Flash your headlights and drive up close behind
Slow down and be ready to stop
Accelerate past it immediately

A person herding sheep asks you to stop. You should

Mark one answer.

ignore them as they have no authority
stop and switch off your engine
continue on but drive slowly
try and get past quickly

Why is it a good idea to plan your journey to avoid busy times?

Mark one answer.

You will have an easier journey
You will have a more stressful journey
Your journey time will be longer
It will cause more traffic congestion

How does alcohol affect you?

Mark one answer.

It speeds up your reactions
It increases your awareness
It improves your co-ordination
It reduces your concentration

You see a pedestrian with a dog. The dog has a yellow or burgundy coat. This especially warns you that the pedestrian is

Mark one answer.

elderly
dog training
colour blind
deaf

A driver's behaviour has upset you. It may help if you

Mark one answer.

Stop and take a break
Shout abusive language
Gesture to them with your hand
Follow their car, flashing your headlights

Your vehicle has broken down on an automatic railway level crossing. What should you do FIRST?

Mark one answer.

Get everyone out of the vehicle and clear of the crossing
Telephone your vehicle recovery service to move it
Walk along the track to give warning to any approaching trains
Try to push the vehicle clear of the crossing as soon as possible

There has been a collision. A motorcyclist is lying injured and unconscious. Unless it's essentially why should you usually NOT attempt to remove their helmet?

Mark one answer.

Because they may not want you to
This could result in more serious injury
They will get too cold if you do this
Because you could scratch the helmet

Which of the following types of glasses should NOT be worn when driving at night?

Mark one answer.

Half-moon
Round
Bi-focal
Tinted

An accident casulty has an injured arm. They can move it freely, but it is bleeding. Why should you get them to keep it in a raised position?

Because it will ease the pain
It will help them to be seen more easily
To stop them touching other people
It will help to reduce the bleeding

how do you think you've scored?

Stone

2010-12-02T18:10:00.006Z

Being a very big fan of stones, I've posted about them before, so that you can see pictures of some of my stone collection here

and here are some other stones which have caught my eye:

Perpignan, France

Jersey, Channel Islands (UK)

from the banks of the Thames, London

Andy Goldsworthy's wall, in Storm King sculpture park, New York State

remains of the Bishops Palace, Southwark, London

Suffolk, England

Ipswich, Suffolk, England.

happy theme thursday

Sepia Saturday

2010-11-27T08:43:00.005Z

Determined to post something sepia today, my blogging has really been suffering lately from work /family and other demands..... for the past week I've been on jury service which has been interesting a more than a little surreal - an insight into another world.

And heres another world - the world of my great Uncle Stan, with his brother Roy (who died in the 2nd world war) and various dashing daring friends of the 1920's.

This picture above is Roy, Hedda (I think?) and Stan on the right.

Hedda again, possibly on the left? and Stan is in the middle, Roy on the end with the bottle in his pocket.

and two young ladies, very shockingly attired.....

FOOD

2010-11-18T08:07:00.006Z

what a great theme for this Thursday, with chilly weather in the UK and the instinct to stock up, chow down, put on a bit of fat for the winter.....

though my food pictures come from wonderful and warm Kerala, from my trip there in August.

Delicious keralan cuisine, breakfast dinner and supper

idly, wada, coconut chutney, vegetable and sambal and beetroot chutney (breakfast)

ghee roast

thali - vegetable sambal, fish curry, chicken curry, various pickles, banana chips mmmmmm

fabulous fruit and veg

endless pickles

and oooooh the snacks

relax

2010-11-11T17:42:00.005Z

Hackney, East London

Cats know how to not try too hard, but relax.

Logan, almost 2 years ago

I find myself taking an inadvertent blog break. Sadly not because of time off relaxing but because of an excess of busy-ness and, probably, trying too hard to do better.

But relax is an excellent Theme Thursday prompt for today, and here are some relaxing thoughts, which make me thirst for the weekend.....

Excellent pub chair in excellent pub in Greenwich, South London

Excellent pint of excellent Speckled Hen (in another excellent pub in South London)

Nr. Brick Lane, East London

Happy Theme Thursday - and have a great and relaxing weekend!

graffiti monsters

2010-10-28T07:43:00.010+01:00

Brick Lane, East London

Invidia, Brick Lane, East London

Greenwich, South London

Pure, Mint Street, South Bank London

Krah, Brick Lane, East London

Sweettoof, Brick Lane East London

Asbo, Brick Lane East London

Hackney, East London

Hackney, East London

Happy Theme Thursday Halloween

new arrival

2010-10-24T09:27:00.004+01:00

Well... it doesn't take much more effort to look after two cats than one, we thought. Unlike children.

and this little cute and mad-whiskered kitty needed a home.

and, we fondly thought, it might be nice for Logan to have some cat company when we are out or away...

Well.
There have been occurrences.

Near-misses with cups of tea and computers

glasses of wine in peril

and a bucket-of-water-dalek spillage yesterday evening

Also frequent facings-off with Logan, who is grumpily not impressed.

They have been not unlike children.

Ah well, they'll learn. Incidence of growling and hissing is decreasing, I hope the penny will drop and Logan will realise that a bit of chasing could be fun.

Its been a week, and little kitty hasn't stopped purring yet, nor staring wide-eyed with a constantly shocked expression.
After drawing up a shortlist of names including Spock, Skaro and - a late favourite here, which almost made it - Emmett, he is now named Lemmy.

So, two posts in two days, whatever next.
Yesterday's post was supposed to appear on a different blog - I'm vaguely surprised thats not happened before.

Happy weekend everyone.

latest woolly things

2010-10-23T13:59:00.006+01:00

A few quick pics - this is how the knitted felted bag in the previous post came out :

its now listed in the made4aid Etsy shop, for sale.

I'm also soon going to list a waffle scarf there, which looks like this:

I LOVE waffle weave, its so 3-dimensional.

At my textiles course I'm weaving a length of waffle which I'm planning to felt, and make into a tea cosy. Pretty experimental..... but fun, at the very least.

I have felted some samples, they come out in fairly amazing ways, I'll try and get some pics to post here.

And, in the meantime, I'm knitting another bag to felt, and some scarves for made4aid. I'm doing a version of this one:

but in some beautiful black cashmere which was a fabulous find in a charity (thrift) shop.

soon to be for sale on made4aid.....
.....possible Christmas gifts for someone you know?

Wheels...

2010-10-21T08:07:00.012+01:00

....for Theme Thursday

Plenty of wheels... no time for words
Happy Theme Thursday!

Beautiful Kerala 4 - SPICES

2010-10-17T09:17:00.008+01:00

Kerala is an amazingly prolific part of the world. Almost everything good seems to grow there....

We made a list part-way through our holiday of the spices (and other things) we had seen growing during our holiday

it was a long list

pepper, tea, ginger, curry, cinnamon, papaya, cocoa, sandalwood, turmeric, cardamom, coffee, tree tomatoes, chilli, aubergine, green beans, nutmeg, vanilla, rue, allspice, mahogany, clove, coconut, jackfruit, banana, coconut, pineapple, paddy (rice), tapioca, rubber

and we certainly didn't see everything growing which is produced there.

Truly a land of plenty, in some ways.

Knot

2010-10-14T09:21:00.010+01:00

Well this was another Thursday theme which seemed a challenge at first. But then, when I start looking through my photo archives....

the next 3 by the side of the Thames:

I like knots actually.
I often doodle celtic knotwork, in long meetings. No doubt that says something freudian about me.

and these tassels are made from a series of knots - small and delicate

and big and hairy (inside my girl shed):

This is a Theme Thursday post

but I hope you don't mind if I also take the opportunity to announce the relaunch of made4aid

raising money for aid, through handmade art and craft - we now have an Etsy shop, you can find it here

You can buy handmade items, all profits to Médicin sans Frontières (Doctors without Borders) and World Food Programme USA (and probably Oxfam too, to be confirmed).
To buy, you do need to register with Etsy but that is quick and easy to do. I have more items to add to the shop when I get the time.

There are cards for sale there made with some of my photos - and there is a custom option, so if you'd like to order cards made with photos of your choice, let me know - almost any of the photos you see on this blog could be used, plus almost any of those on my flickr account.

We are also hoping for donations of handmade items - there is further info. and guidelines donating items to be sold on the made4aid website.

and there is a new button for made4aid on Etsy - please feel free to take the code (which you can find on on the made4aid blog ) and display the button wherever you can, in fact we'll be delighted if you do.

Theme Thursday - Games

2010-10-07T08:48:00.006+01:00

Fun fair games

some in London, and some on Coney Island, New York.

Can you guess which are London, and which are Coney Island?

Beautiful Kerala 3

2010-10-04T19:42:00.006+01:00

pink

and blue

in India

fence

2010-09-30T07:27:00.009+01:00

Ipswich, suffolk

school bus stop fence

Nr. Brick Lane, East London

All south London fences, except the ones labelled.
Look here for more Theme Thursday Fences

sepia Stan

2010-09-25T09:18:00.006+01:00

My great-uncle Stan was a designer for Ford, and cars were his great loves.

Well, one of his great loves - his greatest love was my Aunty Queen, his other loves included music and tennis / table-tennis.

I was never too much interested in the cars - I'm still not too much interested in cars. But the cars I like are usually vintage - and I would love to have now one of the cars which Uncle Stan was so proud of back then.

Here is a selection of photos of Stan and family, and his racey car-rallying friends and their vehiculars. Stan is on the left in this first photo

and thats his grandmother in the car and his mother sitting on the running board.

And finally, a photo of Stan driving the first Fordson motorised tractor in the UK.

This is a Sepia Saturday post - you can enjoy more over here and there are some earlier posts about Stan and his family here and here.

stre-e-e-e-etch

2010-09-23T07:20:00.004+01:00

as seen by me

in Williamsburg, New York. By Nick Walker.

in East London. By Mark Amehling

and as felt by me:

both photos by taken by a photography student.

More Theme Thursday stretchiness over here.

Beautiful Kerala 2

2010-09-20T13:04:00.000+01:00

Backwaters are a particular feature of Kerala - interconnected lakes and rivers, lagoons, inlets, canals... there is a map here.

We had a couple of boat trips around some of these beautiful waters during our visit.

As well as wonderful trees - coconut and banana everywhere - and flowers - pond weed and lotus in the water, orchids on the banks -

there was wildlife everywhere : kingfishers, cormorants and kites, cows and goats wandering around,

beautiful butterflies and dragonflies / damselflies.

And there was also human life by, around, in and on the water.

There are houses along the banks of the various waterways

and the landscape was peacefully busy with colourful washing fluttering and people washing themselves, their clothes

their food

their pots and pans

and generally coming and going around on their everyday business.

revealed...

2010-09-16T17:37:00.004+01:00

.... glimpses of my LG's art coursework, being worked on further even as I write this.

bless the child for helping me out as I was quite stuck with this Thursday's Theme.

And the theme of her coursework is serendipitously "Pandora's box"

Beautiful Kerala 1

2010-09-12T15:54:00.010+01:00

Some pictures from my recent visit to Kerala, India.

For the first few days, everywhere we went we saw these beautiful creations

made from flowers, petals and leaves

sometimes berries

(the writing here says Happy Onam)

and on this one, the dark red is grated beetroot.

These flower carpets are carefully created (sometimes a fresh one each day) as part of the festival of Onam, in honour of Kerala's most loved king Mahabile

This man came over from the festival procession where he was representing Mahabile, and said hello to us in our car.

Mahabile is believed to return once a year to see how the people he so cared for are getting on.

It is also a harvest festival and the rice and coconut represent plenty and prosperity.

We shared a special feast - a Thali - with local people as part of the celebration. The various delicious dishes and chutneys are served in a set sequence on banana leaves - we ate with our fingers which was easier than I'd expected, I came to quite enjoy doing without the cutlery.

As well as the flower carpets, we saw onam flowers for sale in the streets

and I quickly realised that London, on my return, was going to seem somewhat grey....

why?

2010-09-09T07:45:00.006+01:00

well, why not?

Williamsburg, New York

Eastbourne, South England

London, Southwark

Islington, North London

Glasgow

Greenwich, South London

More reasonable - or irrational - stuff, over at Theme Thursday

TT - news - holidays

2010-08-19T07:30:00.000+01:00

Theme Thursday nearly got the better of me this time, I couldn't think of any photos in my archives which would do for "brush", even with my best lateral thinking hat on.

But then I noticed this arrangement in the kitchen.....

So this is today's Theme Thursday photo which is in honour of Anoia - in Terry Pratchett's discworld, the goddess of things that get stuck in kitchen drawers.

Most likely to get stuck - the bottle brushes

plus a pastry brush
plus the washing up brush
plus a paint brush of LG's
plus a dolphin nailbrush in the background. Nose only visible.

I've been a bit incommunicado in the blog world lately, for which apologies again.

I hit the ground running fast last September in a new job, on a year's contract after extricating myself from a nasty and unliveable situation in my previous job - and it feels as though I've hardly slowed pace or stopped since then.

I reached a high point of tension a few weeks back when I had to apply for my job, go through interview, worryworry lack of sleep etcetcetc, but thankfully I got the job.

Accumulated stress built up over quite a long period is seeping out of me, leaving me limp and intermittently vacant.

Last Friday at 5pm I jubilantly set my "out of office" message on my work email.

This Friday - tomorrow! eeeek! - I am off to India for 2 weeks, touring a bit in Kerala with a great friend and a few other people. I'm just, only just, just now, not quite, well almost beginning to believe that this is going to happen.

I'm very excited, and will be back in blogland - with photos no doubt - in a couple of weeks time.

toodle-oo

summer sepia 7

2010-08-14T18:58:00.004+01:00

This Saturday's sepia photographs are all pictures of previous Lettuce holidays, which seems appropriate as I'm off on holiday soon.

This photo is one of my favourites, I think because its such a lovely picture of my mother, and her mum - my nan. And it looks properly windswept as English beaches tend to be.
I'm looking quizzical there in the background, and my brother and sister in the front.

This second photo brings back memories of the sand creations my father used to make for us to sit in - cars and boats especially. And I remember that spotty tunic I'm wearing, it was towelling and would have been scratchy with the sand.

And here we are - mid-to-late-60's - with a family we holidayed with frequently. Before the days of factor 50 sun screen for kids I guess, we all look pretty tanned.

happy sepia saturday

palm

2010-08-12T08:30:00.000+01:00

These first photos are from Perpignan, which is a very palmy place.

Way down in the South of France, and within easy reach of
Spain

The next two are from Glasgow, Scotland

where they are protected by these wonderful Victorian greenhouses.

My local downbeat urban rundown downtown Woolwich actually has some palm trees, and I thought I had some photos I could post. But no, I must have imagined taking photos of them.

They are unexpected and look somewhat out of place in the high street by the red London buses.

Maybe I imagined them.

Here is a local and more indigenous palm:

summer sepia 6

2010-08-07T10:22:00.007+01:00

This week's sepia summer family photos are of my brother and sister, who I love very much and don't see or talk to half often enough.

My sister followed my brother's arrival by 18 months.

I remember these little collapsible beach seats

And by the time these photos were taken, I'd have been sleeping
in the shade somewhere, as I followed my sister's birth by only 17
months....

Brown

2010-08-05T06:56:00.000+01:00

This is a rather too autumnal theme for me, I'm not ready to say goodbye to summer just yet.
Though there is plenty of parched summer-brown grass around in the UK just now.

However, I've enjoyed revisiting some of my numerous photos of beautiful Suffolk brown countryside, taken while walking with a best friend and her dog:

This birdbath was in my father's ex-garden

and this door knocker was spotted in the South of France (Domme, in the Dordogne/Lot region).

This is Eastbourne.....

A couple of lost browns:

(apologies if you've seen this photo before, but I couldn't not include this particularly bizarre brownness)

Cob nuts, snapped and then snaffled last autumn...

and lastly and most favourite, a pint of delectably brown Old Speckled Hen.

more Theme Thursday brownness over here

summer sepia 5

2010-07-31T11:20:00.005+01:00

These are some of my favourite beach photos of my (paternal) grandparents, Win and Harold.

The first is probably around the time of their engagement in the early 1920's - on a pier or seafront.

the second, Brighton I'm pretty sure, with the old pier (now gone, derelict and then burned down) in the background - possibly where the first photo was taken. Though I think my grandfather here looks rather older than in the first.

Note his rather short trousers. I've read that a few inches of bare ankles is a current male trend. I'm not convinced, but Harold looks quite dashing.

I'd date this one some time in the (early?) 1950's or poss. mid-late 1940's.

And this last photo is in their retirement, in Bognor Regis on the coast.

There is an earlier post here about Winnifred, my gran
and here about Harold, grandad.

Happy Sepia Saturday!

Let there be

2010-07-29T07:42:00.005+01:00

New York, Coney Island

London Docklands, Silvertown Milennium Mill

Glasgow, Botanic gardens

Eastbourne

London, Villier Street, Charing Cross

Charlton, London

London, Greenwich Park

London, Greenwich

London, Leicester Square

Old Royal Naval College & Docklands, Greenwich, London

Greenwich Park, London

Light is the Thursday Theme

Sepia beach 4

2010-07-24T08:19:00.006+01:00

My great grandparents, Albert and Elizabeth Jiggins.

and with their daughter, Auntie (Great-Aunt) Queen.

These would have been 1920's, the 2nd picture is in Margate, possibly the first too.

more over at Sepia Saturday

London parks

2010-07-22T07:30:00.000+01:00

The prompt for this Theme Thursday left me struggling with too many photos to choose between.

I've chosen photos of 2 London parks - there are so many parks, its a very green city. In some ways at least.

One of my favourites is St James' Park, close to Westminster and Trafalgar Square:

As well as the wildlife, there is an allotment which began as a "Dig for Victory" garden in 2007, 70 years after the 2nd world war campaign in Britain - and which is continuing with an emphasis on sustainability, recycling, promotion of "grow your own" and allotments.

Another favourite and the most familiar is Greenwich Park, which I cycle/walk through on my route to and from work regularly, in all seasons...

falling light

2010-07-20T07:00:00.000+01:00

Sepia beach 3

2010-07-17T10:47:00.003+01:00

The next generation on from my last sepia beach photos - and the other side of the family.

This is my mum on the donkey, in the sea at Folkestone in the late 1930's. My mum's scrap-book notes on these pictures say that family holidays were taken in Folkestone until the war began.

With her mum, her brother Vic and his wife Anne.

Vic was in the RAF, and came safely through the war. He and Anne married in 1942 - it must have been a long and difficult courtship and first few years.

And below, Mum with her older (step)cousin Lily. My great Aunt Edie became Lily's step-mother - her first sweetheart died in the first world war. She married Lily's father (a widower) in 1942.

More sepia photos over at Sepia Saturday

HELP !!!

2010-07-15T16:32:00.000+01:00

creatures in peril as photographed in:
Bexhill, Jersey, Greenwich, Charlton, Eltham

Further takes on "Help" over at Theme Thursday

Daniel

2010-07-13T07:56:00.001+01:00

lucky daniel

sepia beach 2 - costumes and caps

2010-07-10T09:53:00.007+01:00

Continuing with my series of old family beach photos, these are some of my favourites. Though actually, most of them are my favourites.

In this first photo are my grandparents (paternal) - Harold and Win Jiggins, and Harold's sister Queen. Win and Queen are the 2 girls standing together just to the right of centre, holding hands and Queenie with a particularly clingy costume! I can't help wondering if she realised. Harold is behind and between them.
I'm pretty sure that the lady set just in front of Win and the man to her left (with the 2 boys between them) are my great grandparents, Win's mum and dad.

Aren't these costumes great! and all the women, bar none, are wearing those mob caps, most of the little girls too.

The second photo includes my Auntie Queen again sat in the water almost centre front, next to the woman holding a little boy, and with her brother - Harold, my grandad - on the other side of her. I'm pretty certain its Win, my gran, just behind and to the left of Harold holding up the seaweed.

And this last one I like best of all due to the larking about and face pulling. This really captures a moment, doesn't it?

Auntie Queen is there again, 2nd from the left at the back and I'm pretty sure that next to her on the end of the row is her mother, my great grandmother Elizabeth. Other photos of Elizabeth are formal, and serious and usually wearing glasses but I think this is her.

and just look at those costumes and caps!

Happy Sepia Saturday - more fabulous photos over here.

no ball games

2010-07-08T10:03:00.000+01:00

It was only after uploading these pictures that I reflected on their common theme....

over at Theme Thursday, you will probably find some less woeful examples

beach

2010-07-03T08:33:00.007+01:00

Its beach weather here in beach-less London.

Actually, thats not quite true, there is a beach (bizarrely) on the Thames.

Be that as it may, I'm posting a series of family beach photos weekly for Sepia Saturday.

This is my grandfather - "Little grandad", my mothers dad - also to be seen here and here

And my nan....

and my mum (right) with her cousin Lily.

All these (except the first) in Folkestone in the late 1930's.

blue

2010-07-01T15:00:00.000+01:00

photos all taken in Jersey, Channel Islands

the Swim Club, Havre des pas

the Swim Club, Havre des pas

more Thursday blues over here

pond life

2010-06-28T17:59:00.006+01:00

the tadpoles are growing in both size and frogginess:

with water wood-lice:

with weed and water-snail:

with lipz, eyez and noze:

and with live action. Sorry about the rubbish focus, I'm not sure what I am doing wrong but will try and figure it out and do better next time. But I hope it gives some sense of the wiggling.....

summertime

2010-06-26T07:54:00.002+01:00

Auntie Queen - as in my previous post last week for Sepia Saturday
More sepia beach photos to come over the next few Saturdays.

Triangles

2010-06-23T08:31:00.008+01:00

My previous post could have qualified for this Theme Thursday on triangles.

This photo was taken in the same place:

and some more triangles in triangles in triangles

the Moodna viaduct, New York state

here and there

2010-06-21T08:30:00.000+01:00

sepia saturday

2010-06-19T09:28:00.005+01:00

My great-aunt Ivy - known to almost everyone as "Queen"
1904-1992

there is a post about Auntie Queen here - she married Uncle Stan, who I've also posted about before here and here.

More Sepia Saturdays here.

Happy Weekend!

camera

2010-06-17T12:00:00.000+01:00

Theme Thursday

top two photos - London, South Bank/Southwark
last three photos - East London, Brick Lane

summer

2010-06-15T07:00:00.000+01:00

thinking

2010-06-13T09:00:00.000+01:00

Brick Lane, London

well I've been thinking about giving up blogging

and I've been thinking about taking a blog break

and i've thought about apologising - yet again - for my lack of reciprocal commenting and blog sociability

and i've been thinking about changes of direction and how I spend my time
(and how fast the time goes)

and i've thought about you lovely people and not wanting to lose the contact

And really, I just want to stop everything for a while.

A pause button is just what I need, after a year of what feels like living dangerously, and the year is not over yet but could - should - be soon.
Fingers crossed for a more settled future.

BUT

feeling the need for a positive decision, blog-wise, I am not going to stop, but I am going to make this a photo blog, for a while at least.

I will try and post a photo every other day (more or less, allowing for synchronising with Theme Thursday and Sepia Saturda as much as poss).

I'm unlikely to be writing or commenting much.

Silence suits me at the moment.

I'll appreciate any comments you leave here, as always
I'll try and visit your blogs sometimes, and keep up

and thats all.

candy

2010-06-10T09:18:00.007+01:00

thanks to Theme Thursday for the inspiration to keep blogging!

i used to love those sweetie necklaces.....

the garden i grew up in

2010-06-05T08:51:00.006+01:00

Its beautiful weather here in London at the moment and I plan to spend some time in the garden this weekend.

And thinking about that led me to choose these photos for today's Sepia post - photos of the garden I grew up in.

This is the garden from my bedroom window - the bedroom I shared with my sister:

You can just see here the garage which we were occasionally allowed to climb up and sit on, one of my favourite photos which I've already posted here. Just off to the right of this photo, this side of the garage, was a pond.

And here you can see my bedroom window. And it had bars! I don't know if they came with the house (which was new when my parents bought it) - or if they put up the bars. I guess it would have been pretty unsafe and would have had to be locked without the bars.

I like the random wheels in these 2 pictures - I don't know what their story was.

My mum - with my (big) brother. Behind her you can see the beginnings of the copper beech hedge. Mum and dad sowed that when they first moved in - in my memory, it was always taller than me and was perfect for hiding in, and for birds nests.

This is just outside the back door, by the swing. My brother is facing the camera, and with backs to the camera are my sister - on the left - and me in the middle on the chair. We saw a lot of the friends we are with here, their parents were good friends of my parents.

And the swing. We loved the swing so much. It was a climbing frame - and sometimes a substitute for a tree house, we used to put planks across it and make a den. And sometimes it was just good for swinging...

And here are my parents, who loved gardens and gardening - and passed the love on to the three of us.

whites

2010-06-03T07:09:00.001+01:00

theres nothing like it

getting one's whites out on the line to dry

garden-fresh, fragrant with the air

that wonderful calm smoothness of sun-dried sheets on the bed
crisp white cotton cool + a hint of a memory of the sun's warmth

soothing at the end of a dusty hot day.

and don't get me started on pillows....

you can look at other peoples' whites over here

wrinkles

2010-05-27T08:16:00.005+01:00

which is the Theme for this Thursday and which made me think of wrinkles in time

I have no photos of wrinkles in time

but these wrinkles in sand seem somehow time-related

all these photos taken in Jersey, Channel Islands.
More Theme Thursday Wrinkles over here.

sepia me

2010-05-22T07:52:00.000+01:00

I'm being a bit of a bad blogger, enjoying your comments but not finding time to visit and comment myself.
Bit of a bad busy blogger, please forgive me.

Birthday busyness this weekend, mine and my lovely niece, so this is my sepia me - baby Lettuce in olden days.

I think I remember this pram, though its hard to know if its memory or imagination.

I think this - below - is the earliest photo of me. My brother, sister and I were all born within 4 years. My poor mother! I wasn't planned....

And my earliest birthday memory is coming home from school, everything ready for my party - with little friends waiting downstairs - and me, crying and refusing to come down from my room until my sister came home from school.

Here I am with my big sis:

Wishing you all a great weekend.
There are more Sepia Saturday posts you can find here.

cats and pigs

2010-05-20T09:30:00.000+01:00

First there was Freycat - bought in Durham (North East England) market because the little cottage where we lived was infested with tiny tiny field mice. Cute little things, but they couldn't control their toilet behaviour, so had to go.

Oh and there was the occasional shrew - far worse so far as the toilet behaviour was concerned....

We didn't mind the little rodents, but they weren't viewed as pets.

Frey - short for Gallifrey, though we never called her that - was the sweetest cat in the world.

She moved south with us to Watford (North West London) - then to Greenwich (South East London) and lived to be an extremely elderly skin-and-bones sort of cat, sweet and lovely till the end when she tucked herself up in a neighbour's shed and died.

Then there were the guinea pigs.
Harley and Brandon, named after LG's cousins.

LG - 8 years old here - had just come back from a trip to the Ragged School museum. She didn't normally dress like this - she preferred it to her School uniform.

Harley and Brandon fought. Real fights, worse than their name-sakes. Ears were torn, blood was shed. They spent at least a couple of years constantly segregated by a fence of chicken wire.

Then Brandon died a lingering and very expensive death, and Marigold moved in, to keep Harley company.

She was the most placid guinea pig in the world.
And, as they didn't fight, we could let them roam about on the patio.

After Harley's death, Marigold moved back down the road, as company for another bereaved guinea pig delighting in the name Sendak.

So, she was a serial monogamist of sorts.

And now there is lovely lovely Logan who arrived about 16 months ago

as he was then

who is a delight

as he is now

Logan works on our current occasional tiny tiny house mouse problem (similar toilet issues)

between foot-fighting

garden prowling

and of course, napping.

mystery

2010-05-13T07:42:00.001+01:00

Well, its a mystery whats going to happen in my country over the next few months & years, with our newly notquitestrictlyspeaking-elected government, with its coalition of really notquitestrictlyspeaking-allied parties.

Not so much a magical mystery tour ahead, I suspect, as a gritting of teeth and bearing it.

Here are some other mysteries.
I'd quite like to know the stories behind some of these:

between the National Gallery and Trafalgar Square, London

yes, they are pants

Giant Panda, abandoned in Suffolk

East London, in a Brick Lane car park

pavement find, Greenwich London. why? did he go? did he need a filling?

hubcap impaled. but how?

mystery date

ah, the mystery of abandoned footwear

inexplicably dumped ties

and this remains-of-a-car was encountered on the Thames foot/cycle path

Click here for other Theme Thursday Mysteries

Sepia Saturday

2010-05-08T07:46:00.000+01:00

This is my mother - a photograph taken by dad, on their honeymoon in Scotland in September 1951.

There are more photos and a bit of a biography of mum over here, and some additional photos I've posted since Sepia Saturday started here.

Mum died on May 7th 2007, I love her and miss her so much.

I'm away over the weekend so sorry again that I wont be visiting blogs much until later next week....

PINK

2010-05-05T08:35:00.009+01:00

"Schoolgirl"

and its May

Mme Alfred Carriere

so my first thoughts were floral

Kazanluk

but I did find some other random pinknesses

East London, Shoreditch

Cosmos

lost in sarf london

Bougainvillia petals in Perpignon

Raspberries from my garden

South London - recycling for girlie stuff?

Hollyhock

random in so many ways....

....and the final pinkness is less random
and I shan't comment on it for fear of ranting, but there are a couple of interesting articles

First this one, reporting on a study widely reported as "proving" that there really is a female preference for pink

and secondly, an analysis and de-bunking of this study, or at least of the way it was reported and interpreted.....

You'll find more pink over at Theme Thursday

great and small

2010-05-04T17:39:00.000+01:00

creatures

Here are the tadpoles, just about 6 weeks on from the arrival of the spawn.

Not yet looking much like froglings

though some of these do seem to have the slightest beginnings of little legs

They're as wiggley as ever, if you can catch them.

And at another extreme of some kind or other - in fact, maybe more than one kind of extreme? - these had just arrived in London yesterday

'Taxi Elephant' by Benjamine Shine

'Cosmos' by Ewelina Kawarska

They are part of London's Elephant Parade - a conservation campaign for endangered Asian elephants. Today I took a break from work and found the 3 elephants which have made their way to Greenwich. They were more fun than what I was working on.

Sepia Stan Part 2

2010-05-01T10:08:00.005+01:00

Two weeks ago I posted a photo of my great-uncle Stan in his Home Guards uniform and promised more to come....

..... so here is a little bit more.

I don't know much about Uncle Stan's family. He married my father's Aunt, and we saw a lot of them but I have no memories of seeing or meeting any of his own family. However we have quite a few photos of them.

This is his mother as a child, with her parents and nurse. I guess they were fairly well off.

Mabel Nellie Boswell, I don't know her date of birth.

Here Mabel is, all grown up and with her husband,

Arthur Cornelius Woodruff, born 21st November 1878.

And this is Uncle Stan - back right - his mother front left, and to the front right is his brother Ray who died in WW2.

Stan was born in August, 1906.
I thought this was the earliest photo I have of Stan, in his choir boy robes...

...but, though this photo is labelled (by my father) "unknown", I think that Stan is here, middle row 2nd from the left. What do you think? or maybe it is Ray.

bicycle

2010-04-29T08:05:00.000+01:00

Sadly abandoned:

On the beach, St. Helier - Jersey, Channel Islands

In the harbour, St. Helier - Jersey, Channel Islands

mysteriously missing:

Williamsburg, New York

just bizarre:

London South Bank, Nr the London Eye

Williamsburg, New York

pedal power:

Critical Mass - Soho, London

I recently freecycled my old bike, for parts, as it was unfixable. I'll add a photo of my new bike later if I get the time. It is, of course, my favourite of all bikes and its been wonderful cycling to work this week in beautiful spring sunshine.

I'm hoping to get back into my usual cycle of posting and commenting, after a while of computer/internet "issues" and being away...

Other Theme Thursday bikes here

distracted by dust

2010-04-18T09:19:00.030+01:00

dust in the house.
I have resumed DIY work on our dining room. Stripping began in June/July 2008. Work has progressed to the sanding stage. I'm itching to slap some paint on those walls but constrained by family perfectionist traits which prompt me to prepare the surface as well as possible.
So - its dusty and it will be for some time.

dust affecting our IT.
Or something is. We've had intermittent internet problems over and since last weekend.

I think its not entirely unconnected with our lack of net access that I spent a couple of luxurious hours sitting in a deck chair in the sun at the weekend (I did have to dust off the deck chair first...) reading the weekend newspaper and dozing.

Which was A Very Good Thing.

Additionally, M's computer has gone caput and is off in Mac hospital, so we're currently into a computer-sharing scheme.

Which I suppose could give me more time for dusting?
(there is a very dusty empty space on M's desk at the moment)

dust in the national consciousness
We're in the midst of the national election campaign here in the UK.

Actually its not been too dirty so far, but its definately dusty: hard to tell what lies beneath the rhetoric and what colours would be uncovered if a thorough clean was done; whether theres actually anything there of lasting and substantial value; what any of the parties might really do once in power.

It'll be done and dusted by May 7th or so [if the vote is significantly split and we get a "hung parliament" (we might wish, hehe) it may take a while for the dust to settle on who exactly is in charge] but its hard to be hopeful really for public spending and services, fair taxes, closing of tax loopholes or significant moves towards great equality and social mobility in our society.

dust in the atmosphere
I should be flying to Jersey, Channel Islands, tomorrow for a very good friend's 50th birthday celebrations, but who knows if I will get lift-off? On Monday it looked more hopeful. On Tuesday it looked less likely. Now, Wednesday morning: well, maybe. Latest news is that the dust may be less dangerous than previously. So I will after all be going up into the loft to get down my suitcase.

I could certainly do with sea breezes to blow some personal dust away.

"Mankind" by Eric Gill, in the Victoria & Albert museum, London

And, all this talk of dust makes me realise that its been too long since I read Philip Pullman's Dark Materials.... I shall find volume 1 to take to the airport with me, something tells me its worth taking plenty of reading with me.

So I hope to be absent from blog-land for a while and will miss Theme Thursday and Sepia Saturday this time around... (and if I don't miss them, you'll know I've been defeated by the dust).

see you in a week or so!

(PS who knew you could buy motorised dusters? yes, its the green one)

(pictures should all link to their source, if clicked)

sepia stan

2010-04-17T06:13:00.004+01:00

This is just a quickie, as I am off to a seminar all of today.

Last weeks Sepia pics. were of Uncle Stan's mum and grandparents, in great hats.
This is Uncle Stan - my great Uncle.

I think he stayed home during the war because he worked for Ford, so was counted as essential to the war effort in that role - but here he is in his uniform. Looking, I thought, a little bit Bing!

I'll post more about Stan next week.

Theme Thursday

2010-04-15T15:45:00.001+01:00

I was. Today.

And meant to take a photo of my lunch to post here.
And entirely forgot.

My brain is also out to lunch.
Two sandwiches short of a picnic.

So this is a failed Theme Thursday post.

Though I can tell you that I had steak and ale pie for my lunch, with a pint of Old Speckled Hen.
Which looked pretty much like this pint

drunk at the same pub but some time ago.
And it might even have been lunch time, but I can't remember for sure.

But here, at least, is the latest on my now-wiggly little tadpoles.

I hope they wont become lunch for a passing newt....

other Theme Thursday lunches

topography

2010-04-13T08:15:00.000+01:00

from Milly Molly Mandy, by Joyce Lankester Brisley

Checking the map recently, on the way to visit my father in Sussex, I got drawn - as always - into exploration of the map-minutiae: the multiplicity of little tors, copses and valleys; the generous spattering of "historic" symbols indicating earthworks, monuments and other ancient remnants; the water water everywhere, thin blue veins meandering up, down and around the contour lines.

And I take a particular delight, always, in some of the place-names.

The names below - towns and villages - all come from a section of Sussex in South East England. They are the kind of place names which I imagine appearing on a map like the one shown above, which comes from one of the books I loved as a child.

Some of the names we spotted in Sussex might be suggestive of a particular type of resident:

Catsfield

Warbleton

Crabbet Park

Plumpton Green

Muddles Green

Cackle Street

Limpsfield

Wartling

Ripe

don't some of these conjure up delightful images?

Some of them are prosaic and - possibly - descriptive:

Small Field

Underriver

Crouch

some of them are simply picturesque:

Rose Hill

Sunnyside

Brightling

or its opposite:

Foul Mile

Hellingly

(what is term for the opposite of picturesque?)

while some of them hint tantalizingly at some past history:

Tarring Neville

Saint Hill

Blackboys

Toy’s Hill

Iron’s Bottom

And some of them appeal to me for no clearly definable reason:

Flimwell

Pease Pottage

Small Dole

In which of these places do you think you'd choose to live?

Sepia saturday

2010-04-10T09:08:00.004+01:00

This is a section from one of the family scrap-books I've been working through, and scanning - my father's handwriting.

Uncle Stan was my great-uncle, married to Auntie (great-Auntie) Queen - I just love these pictures of his grand-parents. What relation would they be to me? I have no idea.

They look so jolly and like characters who should be in a Laurel & Hardy movie.

more Sepia Saturday here

Plus
for those of you who are following them....
tadpole update!

This was taken a week ago, so I will try and update soon as they change constantly, and have begun wiggling.....

boxes

2010-04-08T10:15:00.000+01:00

more boxes over at Theme Thursday

cat's life

2010-04-06T09:00:00.000+01:00

I have a week's leave and need some help switching off, slowing down...

I'm caught between the instinct to completely slob out and go inert for a week (which I suspect would make me feel bleeeagh) and the nagging conviction that I should be "getting on with things", "getting things done" ..... and also the knowledge that I ought to be resting and re-charging and living in a less task-oriented way for just a precious week ....

Balance is so tricky sometimes.

Why do we laugh so when the cat falls off the sofa or misses his step? I suspect we envy his mostly-perfect and thoughtless balance

as well as his ability to sleep and sleep

to lie and just be, no anxieties in his golden eyes,

to make the most of time to stretch

and laze.

Not that he is immune to task-directedness.
He has few desires, but one of them is that penguin

It remains elusive

but he takes the foiling of his plans with equanimity and settles for the pen instead.

Equanimity. Wouldn't that be nice?

yellow

2010-04-02T07:47:00.000+01:00

Miscellaneous - and oops! rather late - yellowness

kerbside in Ipswich

Welsh Poppy

Charlton, South London

De-commissioned Mack - Liberty, New York

Traffic cones, Nyack New york

Duckies - Bank Holiday funfair, Blackheath

Street art by Spok, part of the Tate Modern Museum Street Art exhibition, 2008

A pint of Bitter & Twisted + marigolds

More Theme Thursday Yellow

spawn-watch

2010-03-29T17:51:00.005+01:00

One week in ...

....and the spawn is starting to melt and transform from an amalgamation of distinct egg-sacs into a more general porridgy gloopiness. Or gloopy porridgeness.

The little black dots are elongating - they're quite distinctly sort of foot-print shape now, well depending on your footwear I suppose. Plimsolls. (do plimsolls exist any more in this world of trainers, converse and high-tops?)

Some of them even have the beginnings of a waist.

Wow, they change so fast.

Further reports will follow in due course.

And in the meantime, there are also daffs

and though it seems almost sacriligeous to bleach away that glorious yellow,
I found it interesting to view this one in black and white, and take a different kind of notice of its shape and structure.

And my little baby magnolia tree has beautiful buds, emerging slowly and faintly pink-tinged, slyly delightful tongues poking out at the back of retreating winter.

Health & Safety in the 60's

2010-03-26T19:06:00.011Z

I have such vivid memories of this. Thats me on the right, with the fair hair which didn't stay fair.

I don't know how often we were allowed to scramble up the ladder and sit on the top of the garage, but its a treat I remember well - which could indicate that it happened a lot, or that it had the impact of occasional and special privilege.

Today I'm guessing that any one - parent or otherwise - who put children into such a high-risk position might be liable to reporting by neighbours, rebuking by authorities....

School trips in the UK have become hugely complicated and difficult to organise because of risk assessment procedures, and a top "nob" in the world of Health and Safety has recently urged Schools to take more risks. I applaud the sentiment, but I can't help think that thats easy for her to say, given the way Schools are likely to be criticised - if not sued - by parents if anything goes wrong.

There have also been reports in the UK of Schools banning cake sales on the grounds of Health and Safety. I remembered this as to do with allergies and other similar hazards - thats what this report suggests with its mention of the non-lethal nature of jam. ("normally" non-lethal.... hmmm)
But a quick google reveals that this may also have been linked with the issue of childhood obesity.
For which the occasional School cake-sale is responsible..... how???

I'm so happy to have grown up in a less risk-averse age and I mourn some of the aspects of childhood which may have been lost .....

.... like sitting on garage roofs.

Other Sepia Saturday posts

SIGNAGE - miscellaneous

2010-03-25T16:48:00.005Z

Youth Drop-in Project.... dropping in South London

Meard Street, Soho London

Hackney, North East London. £12.95!!!

Level Crossing sign, South London

Pea Thingy. Bexhill, South East England. who knows?

Le Hocq, Jersey, Channel Islands

Keep clear of Cooks - South East London

Grumpy Roger, Woolwich, London

Old Royal Naval College, Greenwich, London
Lucky roft?

Other Theme Thursday signs here

SPAWN!

2010-03-23T07:00:00.002Z

Spawn has spronged! Spring has spawned! the frogs have been busy busy.

Who'd have thought these gloopy splodges of sticky egg sacs could cause such glee?
yes, I am gleeful.

The frog pool was new in my garden about 3 years ago, after a massive end-of-garden clearance and construction of my girl-shed.

That year I reported here regularly on the progress of my frog-spawn, re-located in a deus-ex-machina fashion from a friend's pond.

The year after that there was no frogspawn. But there were little frogs coming and going.

Last year there was frogspawn but I failed to keep much track of it.

This year I plan to pay more attention as this weird stuff transmogrifies into tiny black commas, tadpoles, big black fat tadpoles without - then with - legs, little bitty frogpoles and finally tiny froglets.

Big Grandad

2010-03-20T09:30:00.001Z

This is my father's family - his paternal grandparents Albert George Jiggins
and Elizabeth Ann Mundy (who became grandma Jiggins), his father Harold and his Aunty Ivy.
(Both photos will enlarge a bit if clicked)

At a glance, these pictures look as if they were taken on the same day, but Grandma's blouse is different - also, I think possibly the children look a little older in the 2nd photo?

But the children's clothes do look the same in both photos, so maybe they were wearing their Sunday best. I think my aunty Queen's dress looks a little more roomy in the first picture.

There are quite a few photos of grandpa and grandma Albert and Elizabeth Jiggins, my great grandparents. No photos from earlier stages in their lives than this, but from this sort of time onwards, and I'll post about them again some time.

My grandfather, Harold George is on the right - and he became quite interested in photography, which is why we have some lovely photos of his parents.

On the left is his sister Ivy - who became known as Queenie, who I always knew as Aunty Queen.

There was a child born between Harold and Ivy - Alfred Cecil - who died at the age of 5.

Harold, my grandad, was born in 1901 - here he is looking serious, formal and carefully nonchalant.

In this picture he strikes me as looking a little too young for that stiff collar and moustache - I see something touchingly vulnerable in this picture.

and here is a photo I love. My grandad closer to the way I knew him. We called him "Big Grandad" - he was tall, and this distinguished him from my other "Little" grandad.

This is grandad in his Home Guard uniform during WW2 - he looks really quite like John Le Mesurier from "Dads Army".

He was a lovely gentle man. I remember his quiet smile, and how he'd put an arm around me and ask how things were. And how I, teenager and embarrassed, would squirm away.

Here are other Sepia Saturday posts.

BESTMs

2010-03-18T07:45:00.002Z

Full English Breakfast - lets call it FEB - is one of the best, imho.

I do like croissants and danish pastries. And I very much like waffles or pancakes, bacon, maple syrup, fruit... mmmmmm and had wonderful American breakfasts in NYC.

But nothing quite hits the spot like a FEB, when you're in the mood.

This photo isn't a bad example - its a pub breakfast, could be improved for me by the addition of black pudding and fried bread (I hardly ever ever ever have fried bread, it is so unhealthy and so so very delicious) and the subtraction of the beans - oh, and more mushrooms please.
And followed by at least a small piece of hot toast and good marmalade.
And of course a large, really hot and quite strong cup of tea. Ideally in a large but fine bone china cup or mug - but I wouldn't want to be fussy.

Good home-made FEBs are the best. (GHM FEBs?)

A lot of eateries in the UK now offer all-day breakfast. (ADFEB)
I have mixed feelings about this phenomenon. A FEB is good up till around 11.30, I reckon, but it is segueing into brunch rather than breakfast at that point. (BFEB) (or is it just FEBr?) (that would be confusing) (or possibly even silly?)

My parents ran a guest house in Devon for around 10 years - those were the best ever home made FEBs, (oops, sorry GHM FEBs) cooked on the Aga in the large farmhouse-style kitchen. They developed a system for taking orders, so the "full works" became known in my family as BESTMs.

BaconEggSausagesTomatoesMushrooms
Though the fried bread seems to have disappeared here, and they did do the most scrummy fried bread. I must consult my father about the status and designation of the fried bread in relation to the BESTM acronym.

During the week at home I usually have fairly delicious and nutritious meusli - with lots of seeds, nuts and fruit added (can't be doing with sawdust+floor-sweepings style meusli) - or else porridge. mmmmmmmm porridge.

Saturday mornings though mmmmmmmmmmm possibly even more:

toast or bread (homemade brown/wholemeal) with a little bit more butter than is healthy, homemade marmalade, and blogging. Bliss.

(oh, and of course a large, really hot and quite strong cup of tea (or a few such). Ideally in that large but fine bone china cup or mug - I feel its ok to be fussy at home ....)

Other Theme Thursday breakfast posts here.

mothers

2010-03-13T08:29:00.007Z

My last Sepia post was pictures of my father, who I visited last weekend and who is doing well.

Tomorrow is Mothers Day in the UK, and here she is, my wonderful mother, in a couple of fairly rare childhood photos:

and with her mother.

There are 2 Carol Ann Duffy's poems about her mother which I particularly love.

The first - Before you were Mine - reminded me when I first read it of this photo of my mum, with her 2 best friends Jean (in the middle) and Doris (on the left). They worked together, took holidays and went dancing together, and remained friends all her life.

Before You Were Mine

I'm ten years away from the corner you laugh on

with your pals, Maggie McGeeney and Jean Duff.

The three of you bend from the waist, holding

each other, or your knees, and shriek at the pavement.

Your polka-dot dress blows round your legs. Marilyn.

I'm not here yet. The thought of me doesn't occur

in the ballroom with the thousand eyes, the fizzy, movie tomorrows

the right walk home could bring. I knew you would dance

like that. Before you were mine, your Ma stands at the close

with a hiding for the late one. You reckon it's worth it.

The decade ahead of my loud, possessive yell was the best one, eh?

I remember my hands in those high-heeled red shoes, relics,

and now your ghost clatters toward me over George Square

till I see you, clear as scent, under the tree,

with its lights, and whose small bites on your neck, sweetheart?

Cha cha cha! You'd teach me the steps on the way home from Mass, stamping stars from the wrong pavement. Even then

I wanted the bold girl winking in Portobello, somewhere

in Scotland, before I was born. That glamorous love lasts

where you sparkle and waltz and laugh before you were mine.

Carol Ann Duffy

in Meantime, May 1993

And the second poem was published just last year and takes me back in so many ways to my mothers last weeks and days, nearly 3 years ago.

Premonition

Dedicated with love to the
memory of UA Fanthorpe

We first met when your last breath
cooled in my palm like an egg;
you dead, and a thrush outside
sang it was morning.
I backed out of the room, feeling
the flowers freshen and shine in my arms.

The night before, we met again, to unsay
unbearable farewells, to see
our eyes brighten with re-strung tears.
O I had my sudden wish -
though I barely knew you -
to stand at the door of your house,
feeling my heartbeat calm,
as they carried you in, home, home and healing.
Then slow weeks, removing the wheelchair, the drugs,
the oxygen mask and tank, the commode,
the appointment cards,
until it was summer again
and I saw you open the doors to the gift of your garden.

Strange and beautiful to see
the roses close to their own premonitions,
the grass sweeten and cool and green
where a blackbird eased a worm into the lawn.
There you were,
a glass of lemony wine in each hand,
walking towards me always, your magnolia tree
marrying itself to the May air.

How you talked! And how I listened,
spellbound, humbled, daughterly,
to your tall tales, your wise words,
the joy of your accent, unenglish, dancey, humorous;
watching your ash hair flare and redden,
the loving litany of who we had been
making me place my hands in your warm hands,
younger than mine are now.
Then time only the moon. And the balm of dusk.
And you my mother.

Carol Ann Duffy, March 2009

Hats

2010-03-11T08:30:00.002Z

Some hats. Lost, abandoned, waiting to be found:

Last week I posted something on the Tuesday which really I could have kept and used for Theme Thursday,
as it was Green-related, and last weeks TT was "Green".

Last Saturday, my Sepia Saturday post ended up being hat-related

So, in the spirit of cross-overs, here is some sepia today.

The hat in question on Saturday was an inter-generationally worn baby hat,
I posted photos of both my father and my daughter wearing it as babies.

Here it is again, in a photo collage my mother made some years ago:

The same photo of my dad with the fluffy hat, a baby bonnet
which probably also came from his family,
and a photo of him with his mum, both be-hatted.

Theme Thursday

dad

2010-03-06T08:15:00.001Z

Well we're off to see my dear old dad today, so I'm a little short of time - but an easy choice as to whose picture to post. And it seems apt, as my last 2 Sepia Saturday posts have been photos of my gran, his mother + his grandmother and great-grandmother.

Dad has had a rough patch of illness lately, but the doctor acted quickly and he seems to be doing well now - I'm so looking forward to seeing him.
It was my father's family (unlike my mother's) which was the more moneyed and had quite a lot of photos taken and even owned a camera, so theres quite a bit of choice amongst the pictures of him as a child.
Here are a couple of favourites:

Dad - Alan Henry - was born in December 1927, so this was probably taken in 1928 or possibly early 1929.

We still have this little hat - heres my Little Gem wearing it in 1995. I loved those stripey baggy trousers. And she loved that bizarre Richard Scarryesque mushroom house-thing.

The photo below was taken in 1935, when dad was 8

which we know for sure as the photo, which is hand-coloured, is in this presentation folder:

Sorry if it takes me a while to get around to visiting your blogs this weekend, I'll try to get there sooner or later...

And for other Sepia Saturday posts - look over here

green

2010-03-04T08:03:00.000Z

Well really, had I thought ahead I could have kept my previous post for today's theme, Green.

But then I'd not have had the excuse to post some of this lovely green-ness

frosty moss in South London

and though this first photo might be a little chilly around the edges,

ivy "tree" by the Thames in Greenwich, London

some of these greens are pretty saturated in sunshine

seed head - can anyone identify this plant?

Storm King Park, New York State - Andy Goldsworthy wall

New York State

Catskills, NY

Meadow, Storm King Park, NY

Cabbage! London!

France - the Dordogne

Suffolk, England

Wheat - Suffolk, England

Suffolk, England

Sussex, England

You'll find more Thursday Greens over at Theme Thursday

anticipation

2010-03-02T07:04:00.003Z

keeping very still

dormant
expectant
vigilant

silent with anticipation

no impatience

waiting for the green

female generations - Sepia Saturday

2010-02-27T08:30:00.004Z

This is my paternal grandmother again - Winifred, Winnie - as seen in my last Sepia Saturday post. In this photo, I can see definately my gran as I knew her, especially around her eyes. She was always "Gran" - my other grandmother was "Nan".

Here Gran is with her mother, Annie, in 1917 when she was 16:

What a world away from my daughter, who will be 16 this September !

This was Gran's maternal grandmother, Annie's mother.

She seems to have lived a fairly long life, there are some photos of her in later years,
with her hair still just like this - piled up on her head.

And this is her paternal grandmother, my great-grandmother Margaret France, born 1850 and died 1874. I don't know how or why she died so tragically young.

you will find more Sepia Saturday posts here

Bottles

2010-02-25T07:00:00.000Z

Well this is another Theme Thursday topic which fits right in with my habit of snapping pictures of the Lost, Abandoned and Rubbish.

So here are three of my favourites:

green

Ipswich, Suffolk

and brown

South London

and festive

South London, by the Thames, on January 1st

What I like about these is the way each of them suggests so many stories...

what stories do they suggest to you?

Weather

2010-02-22T08:00:00.000Z

Our London forecast for this week:

As my old Grandad used to say :

whether the weather be cold
or whether the weather be hot
we must weather the weather
whatever the weather
whether we like it or not.

True 'nuff.

sepia saturday

2010-02-20T08:35:00.005Z

Unlike my maternal grandmother, my dad's mother was much photographed. We have photos of her as a child, as a young woman, newly married, with my father as a baby...

She was an only child, which - along with being in a different income bracket - may be part of the reason. An only child in a comfortably-off family, so unlike my nan in a very large working class family.

She may have been rather spoiled - she was, as my father puts it, "rather difficult".
As kids, we loved her - she was funny and made us laugh.

I have a hand-coloured version of this last photo, I'll try and find the time to scan it in and add it here.

ADDITIONAL
So, here is the hand-coloured version:

Look here for other Sepia Saturday posts

Bells

2010-02-17T20:54:00.003Z

Bell is the Theme Thursday post for today - and lots of bells are ringing around Blog-land for Barry, who will be ringing a bell as he leaves hospital today at the end of his chemo. Wishing you well Barry!

sepia valentines

2010-02-13T10:02:00.007Z

M and I have never really celebrated Valentine's, but our wedding anniversary is Feb. 12th so that gives us an excuse, if ever we need it.

And being the day between our anniversary and Valentine's, what else could I post but a wedding photograph?

This is a slight cheat as I've posted this photo before, but there are two reasons I'm re-posting it :

first, because its the wedding of my nan and grandad who have featured in the last couple of Sepia Saturday posts.

Second, because its a particularly special photo. My mum's family don't have too many old family photos - certainly when compared with my dad's family. My nan and grandad weren't great ones for keeping things, and they came from working class families with little time and money to spare. So there are no photos of my nan and grandad themselves before around the time they got married, none of them as children. A few of my mum as a child.
And we thought there was no wedding photo.

Until this was found at the back of a photograph of my great grandmother.

My grandad gave the photo of his mother to me, in its old heavy dark oak frame, when I was a teenager and he saw that my walls were covered with sepia photos. (Mixed in with the David Bowie, David Essex, Pete Duel, David Cassidy). Its a wonderful photo and my grandad, my uncle and my mum all look so like her.
Which means that probably I do too.

I was so delighted to receive this treasure from little grandad and it was on the wall in our first two homes. But it wasn't until about 15 years later when we moved to this house in London that I took it out of its frame to clean it all up.

And so, I found this other lost treasure.

And a further treasure is the memory of my mum's expression when I gave it to her.

Its now been copied and passed around the family, and my uncle Vic has annotated it for us.
Only 6 people unknown from the group of 35.

Its the only photo we have of their wedding, and also the only photo we have of various aunts as children - my nan's younger sisters sitting at the front of the picture to the right. Aunt Daisy - from my last 2 Sepia posts - is right next to my nan, and my grandad's mother, whose photo he gave me, is 2 to his left with the hat with the white feather standing up. She's noted down as "Granny Walker (single name unknown)".

Don't they all look fine? my mum was so proud, looking back, of the way they'd pulled out all the stops to look fine and celebrate.

This was going to be a short post! I'm short of time! was in a hurry!

but this is one of the things I love about Sepia Saturday - the way these faded faces draw out stories from the past.

The final words in this rather wordy post are by Carol Anne Duffy, I love this poem and had planned to use Valentine's day as an excuse to post it.

And in fact, it somehow seems so appropriate to thinking about my dear grandparents. Hard working and unsentimental, not often demonstrative and so very loving.

Here they are arriving at my wedding, 26 years ago, both in their late 80's:

I remember during the service they made us smile, my nan saying something rather loudly about his hearing-aid, he shushing her.

and here is "Valentine" by Duffy:

Not a red rose or a satin heart.

I give you an onion.
It is a moon wrapped in brown paper.
It promises light
like the careful undressing of love.

Here.
It will blind you with tears
like a lover.
It will make your reflection
a wobbling photo of grief.

I am trying to be truthful.

Not a cute card or a kissogram.

I give you an onion.
Its fierce kiss will stay on your lips,
possessive and faithful
as we are,
for as long as we are.

Take it.
Its platinum loops shrink to a wedding-ring,
if you like.

Lethal.
Its scent will cling to your fingers,
cling to your knife.

Mirrors ....

2010-02-09T17:51:00.009Z

... on the outside:

This top building is right on London Bridge - and you can see the Gherkin reflected to the back right, one of London's most famous (and favourite) buildings now, designed by Norman Foster.

The other photos here are of a much earlier Norman Foster building - the Willis Faber & Dumas building in Ipswich, Suffolk.

Theme Thursday

caught

2010-02-08T18:37:00.003Z

I'm reluctant not to post something on a Monday or Tuesday .

Theme Thursday and Sepia Saturday are great, I love them and they make posting easier when life is busy.
But I sort of feel that at least once a week I ought to come up with something entirely out of my own head.
Which might just be rather silly, especially as my work hours have gone up recently and I'm more than usually pushed for time.

But I'll keep trying for now.

And this photo is a little how life feels just at the moment - complicated and not entirely comfortable, with potential sharp edges, but moments of colour and interesting shadows.