1962, pushing 2 years old!

Not a very good image at the moment, but this is the one I found the other weekend..a rare photo of me with Mum & Dad, they both look 'tidied' so I guess it was some event or other, perhaps a Feast Day, or maybe just a Sunday walk, after all, they did tidy on a Sunday in those days didn't they.

Firtly I thought it was at St Buryan, what with the hay bales, perhaps at the Playing Field, but I think that's the sea in the background, so maybe it was taken up at Treen with Penberth Valley in the background.. even better!

Paris goes fishing...

(Luckily Kate isn't one of my main readers so it may be a while before she gets to see this..)

We got out in the boat yesterday, long overdue, and as I laid back enjoying the sun while the others fished, this was my view.. and luckily my cameraphone agreed to play ball for once..

It was a great afternoon, we caught a few fish, enjoyed the sun and just all getting out together.

We had such a laugh.. and only Kate and Paris Hilton would go fishing in a SuperDry jacket, denim shorts and white sunglasses.. wouldn't they!

Kate and the Hayle massive have been off to Alton Towers today, she said by text that the Rita ride is the scariest and best thing she's ever done..more on that tomorrow!

Couple for Karen..!

Flowertime at Penberth too Karen! 

Jordan used our office SLR and loves the photos she gets with it. I have promised to help her buy her own soon, and with a few shifts being KP at the Bosun's Boat Shed I'm sure she'll soon be knocking on my door for the balance!

Rolling back the years?

Still enjoying looking at the pictures Jordan took last week at Penberth.. we arrived just as the boats were coming in and as ever it was just like turning back the years..and interesting to see how photographers forever choose the same areas to shoot!

The layout below is one I did for Ken showing our Dad involved with the building of the new winch house and the youngsters in that picture are the ones using it today, 40 years later.

Just loving this picture too of 'The Phonebox', 'Our Phonebox', 'St Buryan 358' to be precise!

Life was so quiet then, no television in our house and in the still of the day we could hear the ring from indoors.. no wonder then that we could give the number as 'ours'!   And if not ours, then lovely Auntie Janie who lived in the thatch house would be the only other person to answer it, and not one to miss a trick or some gossip she would always get there before the ringing stopped!

When, as a teenager my brother was getting more calls than he wanted from the latest girlie (he was working on violets in the field next to the box) he had to put a stone under the receiver instead of leaving the phone off the hook, beacuse Auntie Janie would see it off the hook and put it back!

Got there at last..

.. just not with you Linda!

Before the end of term Linda & I planned to go on my magical nostalgia tour around my childhood haunts, so I could show her all the places I drone on and on about, but weather and a kid's sickness bug put paid to it, until another fine day, when the moon and suns conspire to give us both a free day!

Anyway, Ross has an old friend here staying and she is way too nice, letting me waffle on and on about stuff from the past (I wonder sometimes if a little pre-dementia is setting in as I hear myself remeniscing completely mundane moments from a life way too ordinary!!).. she even endured a tour through my scrapbooks.. what a Hero!

Here I am, outsde my childhood home, with my 'two kids most likely to preserve the Thomas heritage'....

 

But Ross needed to have a rest from his own tour of West Cornwall haunts, most of which involve people he has worked with, or a visit to a bar or ice-cream shop, so I was more than happy to oblige..

Lamorna, Penberth, Minack (great fruit cake & coffee by the way) and St Levan church with sweetpeas for M&D..and topped off with a Jelbert's Ice Cream with clotted cream on top!

Now there's a day to remember, and I was back at work by 2pm!

Helen & Jordan took some great photos, should keep me busy scrapping for a month or two..

What a find!

How cool is this 'Pocket Kodak' which belonged to my Mum's brother?

.. I found it deep in a box amongst my aunt's things I sorted last week.. obviously Jordan put 'dibs' on it straight away, but it was Colin who managed to locate the magic hidden button which allowed it to open.

It might be interesting to see if it is workable.. maybe a project if she does 'A' level photography in a couple of years.

It reminds me of this nice photo Jordan took at Kuramathi last year....the sandbank was a lot busier when we returned this spring, so it's nice to remember the lone photographer setting up his traditional camera for the sunset....watching me, watching you..

Family day!

.. No, not quite what you might be thinking, no bouncy castles or tombolas, but certainly family played a part in my day today.

For starters our grand-daughter was 2 years old today..how time flies!

And I heard also from our dear friends in Baltimore that they too have welcomed a grandson in the last 24 hours...welcome to Nolan, a compact little guy at 4lbs 5oz, but they say he's doing good.. Happy Grandparents Day Will & Michele, love to you both and Karen, Ryan and that baby boy!


Also in the States, Uncle Bill called with details of cousin Mikey's wedding in November next year.. such a great opportunity for Uncle Bill to bring the two sides of his family together.

I spent quite a lot of the day sorting out boxes of stuff which has been packed away since my Auntie left her home about 8 years ago.  At the time we moved her stuff we cussed and bused about the sheer amount of stuff,  junk, rubbish... whatever you call it I have decided is a reflection of how you feel about the past, your past... and today I feel humbled that she was in fact a fantastic hoarder.  If she had been orderly and channeled in the right way she would have made a fantastic archivist and her memory was sharp til the last time I saw her.

I have mentioned before her father's diary from WW1, but today I found a letter he'd received from his wife (my Gran), telling him that her brother had been reported killed in action on Easter Sunday that year.  The words in the letter didn't sound like the same lady I had only known as a sad and slightly grumpy 70-something when I was a kid. These were the words of a young woman, desperate to ease the pain of her mother and to get her own husband home and safe. 

Later I found the obituary from the local paper for my grandfather who died suddenly at the age of 46, he was the local teacher and it seems the whole village mourned his passing as he was so much part of St Buryan at that time... I guess at 46 he was full-on in the village and it said he left many offices open when he died. I really did know this already, from what Mum had told me, and from stories of him being 'the best teacher ever' but to read it as an official obituary was quite touching.

Maybe too that accounts a little for my Gran's demeanour as an elderly lady, sad after being widowed for 35 years or more.

My favourite find was a super photo of me, aged about 2 years, with my Mum & Dad, I think at some summer event, they were sitting on hay bales, but looking pretty spruced up!

Oh and I found the letters I wrote my Mum when she was in hospital after my Dad had died..I reported to her that the lunar module had lifted off from the moon and it was 'exciting'...Colin laughed, he said maybe I lost my excitment for it when I found sociology!

(It would seem that I have found myself plenty to work with for the next Just Scrapbooking session.. working on journalling!) Oh, and Linda, if you're reading this I found some nice old books to share with you.. and some very old (but quite ugly)buttons... oh and wooden scrabble letters!

Birthday fortnight..

.. has come 'round again. Seems a moment away I was talking about this last year.  Ross turned 24 and his baby sister 22 today.... how different their lives are at this point, though I guess in ten years they might both be meeting up with families in tow?

We had the babe to sleep over last night, she is such a cutie, almost a birthday girl herself, two years old on Friday.  She slept all night and woke us at 7.30 shouting 'Naaaannneeee', so sweet that she realised she was still here and that it should be me who would come to her.  Lisa had her first lie in in two years, much deserved after such a stint!

We had a little baking session, Lilly decided she should taste the 'chocolate', pity it was cocoa and no sugar added..yukkky! It's a trick they have all fallen for over the years. We ended up with flour all over the floor and only then I realised that the hoover was out of order!

Had great lunch with my scrapbook mate Linda on Friday.. well lunch wasn't quite the right description, we had a coffee and a cake at 1015 and a pot of tea later, the next thing we knew it was 1.15...luckily the cafe knows her well and they didn't eject us due to lack of purchasing!

I always get a bit of jip for talking so much from most people I know, but Linda said a much nicer thing (I think?!).. she reckons that 200 years ago I'd have been one of those wise old women, living in a cave somewhere, offering words of wisdom to the young..mmmm, does this mean I am at last a mature person?.....is this what becomes of the girl who liked to know the latest news...!!!

If I was a child..

.. they would say I am unteachable, that I never learn!

You may remember my last sortie with asking the family what they think of a new dress?
Time passes and I forget, and this evening, with there being a lack of grown men to feed and cater for in the house, I thought I'd treat myself to a long bath and a film...and that I did.

When I came back downstairs I put on my new maxi dress... partly to get used to wearing it, (as yes, it does feel a little nightdress-ish but hey it is the night), and partly to gauge reaction.
After several twirls around the sitting room, with kids peering around me to see the TV..I made the fatal error of asking opinions...
Kate 13 looked at me a lot, said she doesn't really get them, but told me to please myself, but don't go out in it!  Ross 23, asked what it was and maybe I could wear it out if I wore a bra (it's like grecian style, who needs a bra in Greece?) so I asked him if I should wear knickers too... to which he replied...urghh Mum!!!
Zac came in, so before he said anything, I said, okay I'll let my hair out of the clip.. and then I'll at least look like 'me'  He creased up, said that's like saying 'do you like my car, hang on, I'll take the shoes out of the boot , it may look different then...'

JB for her soul, didn't say anything.. yet.. but maybe she learns faster than me..

...but at least they give me something to blog about.

Oh and the banana cake went down a storm again..x

Nice day...

.. despite it being warm drizzle pretty much all day it panned out okay...didn't do much, but what we did do was just nice...finish it off with Indian take-away and that was cool.. no roast, not much washing up..

Zac & Tom away paintballing, Col & Pops travelling north to visit some more of the Jones clan for day or two, and me hanging out at home with the girlies.. including eldest and the babe, though at almost two she's not much of a baby any more!   Such a sweetie, she is so clever (there speaks a proud Nan if ever there was one!)...she knows all her colours, lots of numbers and pleases and thankyous too! 

So often I find myself doing things just like my Mum would have... like after her bath, putting on her jammies and tucking in her top, with the bottoms pulled up to her armpits.. yes, we've all seen our Mum's do it, and I even said..'just like Great Granny would do!'

I can't believe how emotions and physical feelings can be repeated in yourself and suddenly you see exactly why or how your own mum felt.

I read a book this week.. the 'Private Lives of Pippa Lee', picked it up at Mazey Day.. turns out it is a film too. Interesting as it charts the life of a woman and she talks quite a bit about her relationship with her Mum and with her own daughter.  She thinks that every generation tries to raise their kids in a way to put right the wrongs of the previous generation, and in so doing may even do the opposite...

... not sure about that, I feel so often that I am walking in my Mum's steps (even the ones I 'bused her for being /doing in my own time)... guess we just all do the best we can...

Family history..

This week I finally started writing up the notes from my Mum's dad's WW1 diary. 

He was a local teacher at St. Buryan and I have kind of view of him as like the character played by Tom Hanks in Private Ryan, a little misplaced and pehaps too much of a thinker to go away to war without a heavy heart..

..I don't know a lot, but in the notes I've copied so far he has spent a year near Plymouth in training for going away to war...

''Declaration of war may have been accompanied with the ringing of bells and expressions of hilarity but deep in the hearts of thousands there was the greatest anxiety.'' August 1914

Kuramathi : Sandbank Sunset

It may be slightly offline, but I like being able to show a double page layout together like this at last.. good old Blogger design team!

Anyone who knows me will know how I like two page layouts tobe complimentary, if not a pairing..as the same goes for these two, which I did today at Newlyn. Linda's technique of the day was quilting and my maths mind came good so I found the repititon of the pattern nice to follow!  I cut a few corners with Rub-On stitching and Cuttlebugged numbers but I had a really relaxing day with such a nice bunch of people.

I loved doing 12x12 layouts of some pics I've already included in the 2010 Maldives mini-album, but these are for my 'Kuramathi album', so not much need for titles, barring the year.  Jordan was the main photographer and she did good, so creative and imaginative, we think she may do Photography at 'A' Level, but she'll be spoilt for choice as she has so many other talents..

Banana box cooker

I've had this layout in my mind for ages.. and have had it half made for several months..

We used to have a mobile grocery van (or two) come to the cove where I lived, it was the 1960's version of Tesco online shopping I guess!  Now and then, (well maybe twice in my childhood, but it felt like more), Mum asked them for a used banana box if they had one and I got to use it as a cooker..a  far cry from the yellow blown plastic Fisher Price version of the last 25 years, but hey, I thought it was perfect..

Other times I remember digging earth out of the wall at the old crab-pot stand between our house and the Nook and using that as a cooker, I'm not sure if I had pots and pans, but I just loved having something to occupy me while my Dad was making crab pots.. Mum must have enjoyed it too, not having me on her apron strings for once!

I used some of the first backing paper I ever bought, pure vintage styling, with Cored'inations papers, brown revealing a lively (banana) yellow, perfect... I love the sand papering effects you can achieve.  Last month at Just Scrapbooking we played with altered art dominoes and I covered some in embossed foil and accented the '64' as I guess it must have been about then that this picture dates from. 

Lovely to see the detail as I scanned and made the photo larger... I took the pictures this evening (yes, new camera at last, all I need now is a new computer which will read the memory card!)... and warmed at the feeling when I looked at the image.. 'I just so loved that man, would swap a lot of stuff to have another day to speak and share life with him'  

People who don't do nostalgia never lost someone from their childhood, wh0'd they'd like to ask some questions of...