Category: Personal

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 Margaret24 Comments

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

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

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

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

Birthday Presents

Published on by Margaret15 Comments

Today is my birthday and I’ve had flowers!

and jewellery!

and books!

From top to bottom they are:

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

Thanks everyone for these lovely gifts.

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

(Click on the photos to enlarge.)

Saturday Snapshot – 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.