Category: Family

Saturday Snapshot: Rock Kids at Ratho

Published on by Margaret19 Comments

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

Published on by Margaret27 Comments

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

Published on by Margaret18 Comments

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

Published on by Margaret20 Comments

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.

Saturday Snapshot – Family

Published on by Margaret16 Comments

I don’t have many photos of my grandparents. Here are two.

The first is a photo of George Ellis Owens, my Taid (grandfather on my mother’s side) at his home in Penyffordd, North Wales. My mother has written on the back ‘My father 1930‘. He was born in 1880 and was a steel worker at John Summers at Hawarden Bridge Steelworks Shotton.

He is the grandparent I knew the most, because he and my grandmother came to live with us when I was 5. My granny died five years later and he lived to the ripe old age of 87, when I was 20. My other grandparents died when I was 6.

Below is a photo of  my granny, my father’s mother, taken in her garden at Bowdon Vale, Cheshire with my cousin Sylvia. I do remember her fairly well. She was always smiling in contrast to my granddad who was always grumpy, I thought. He had a big mustache and a loud gruff voice which made me nervous, plus he had his dog tied up to his armchair which scared me. She had her hair in a bun – just like grannies in picture books. She was born in 1878 and died when she was 74. I was named after her.

and this is me when I was 5½. I’ve cheated a bit here as this was a school photo.

To participate in Alyce’s Saturday Snapshot meme post a photo that you (or a friend or family member) have taken. Photos can be old or new, and be of any subject as long as they are clean and appropriate for all eyes to see. How much detail you give in the caption is entirely up to you. All Alyce asks is that you don’t post random photos that you find online.