We’ve been away last week, over at Kentallen on the west coast of Scotland – near Glencoe. These were the views of Loch Linnhe from our bedroom windows, taken late afternoon on the day we arrived. Click on the photos to enlarge them:
Here’s a close-up of the flag:
We got back home last night and I’ve got lots more photos of the places we visited – I just need time to sort them all out.
For more Saturday Snapshots see Alyce’s blog At Home with Books.
Heidi’s new bed –
We bought this little bed yesterday and deliberately didn’t attempt to put Heidi in it or even to show it to her because cats are fussy creatures and like to find places to sleep for themselves. So we just left it on the worktop in the utility room, where she likes to sit and this morning this is where I found her. I’m so glad she likes it.
For more Saturday Snapshots see Alyce’s blog At Home with Books.
Stone circles fascinate me. They have done ever since I was a young teenager and went to Stonehenge. It was dawn as we were travelling to the New Forest for our annual Girl Guide camp there. The coach driver stopped so we could get out and see the sun rising over the stones. This was in the days when the stones were open and we ran across so we could be in the circle when the sun came up – it was magical. These days Stonehenge is fenced off and going there is just not the same experience.
There is a small stone circle not very far from where we live and we went to see it last Saturday. Duddo Stone Circle is a group of five Neolithic/Bronze Age stones – radiocarbon dating indicates they were erected around 2000BC. Originally there were seven stones. Excavations in the 1890s revealed the socket holes of the missing stones and also the cremated human remains in the central pit.
This is the view of the stone circle standing proud on a low hill next to the small Northumberland village of Duddo as you approach the stones along a permissive path:
Farmers used to plough across the inside of the circle.These days they don’t, but farm all around the circle:
It’s fantastic up inside the stone circle. Unlike Stonehenge (which is of course much bigger) you can walk right up to the stones and go inside the circle. The stones are sandstone, varying in height from 1.3 metres to 2.3 metres. The site is listed on the Schedule of Ancient Monuments – No. 1006622.
It was very windy last Saturday and I found it hard to keep my camera steady, but I did manage to get some close ups of the stones. Stones that have been sculpted by the wind into weird shapes.
We had the stones to ourselves and it was easy to imagine what it must have been like up there on the hill all those years ago, with views all round to the Cheviots and the Eildon Hills in Scotland and to wonder just why the stones were there and what they had meant to the people who erected them. The Defra information board below the stones indicated that the fragments of human bones found in the central pit dated from 1740 – 1660 BC suggesting that the use of the site for burial was a later event. Its original purpose remains a mystery – I like that.
Also in Duddo are the remains of a medieval tower house. We didn’t have time to look at it last Saturday, but we’ll go there another day.
For more Saturday Snapshots see Alyce’s blog At Home With Books.
Another photo from the family snapshots. I actually quite like this one of me, taken years ago. I’m not sure of the date but it must have been a hot day, or I wouldn’t have been wearing a little strappy top. And it must have been a long time ago because our son is all grown up now, with three children of his own! I think he must have been about 12 years old (is that right P?).Click on the photo to enlarge.
I like it too because it’s not a posed photo – I’m smiling naturally – and you can see our son casually walking into the picture. I’m holding our next-door neighbour’s new puppy, introducing it to our two dogs. Ben, our black, tan and white border collie/cross is interested and wants to play, but Zoe, our golden retriever isn’t bothered about it and instead wants to go to the photographer – my husband – so you can only see the top of her head. And I do like my Scholls. I used to wear them all the time, so comfortable. That reminds me I need to get another pair.
For more Saturday Snapshots see Alyce’s blog At Home With Books.
I’ve been going through family photos again:
When I was a child of five (living in Cheshire) my grandparents came from Wales to live with us. They had the front room in our house and on the mantelpiece were two miniature framed photos of my Taid’s (grandfather’s) parents. He was immensely proud of them and it’s a great shame that those photos have gone missing, so I was delighted to find this one of my great grandparents. It shows my great grandfather, Isaac Owens and my great grandmother, Elizabeth Owens, the lady wearing glasses. I have no idea who the other lady was (the one wearing the white blouse). Nor do I know when or where it was taken.
I know very little about them.
Isaac was born on 7 August 1848 (August 7 is also my birthday) in Bryn-y-Baal, a small hamlet near Mold in Flintshire, Wales. His father, George was a coal miner. Isaac’s occupation is described in the census returns as a Brickworks Labourer, an Agricultural Labourer and a Tin Plate Worker. He married Elizabeth Hughes in 1877 and they had five children, my Taid was their second child. Two of their children died, aged 17 months and 11 months, with a third, John dying when he was 19.
I have the family Bible in which he recorded the family births, marriages and deaths.
From the census returns I’ve discovered that he moved around the local area, presumably to get work and on some of the censuses he is not living with the rest of the family. He and Elizabeth spoke both Welsh and English. Isaac died aged 79 in 1928 at my grandparents’ home.
I’ve posted photos previously of my great grandmother, Elizabeth and also of the sampler that she stitched in 1867, when she was twelve.
For more Saturday Snapshots see Alyce’s blog At Home With Books.
D took this photo of Marlow Bridge in Buckinghamshire several years ago. Marlow Bridge crosses the River Thames between Marlow and Bisham in Berkshire. There has been a bridge here since the 14th century, but this suspension bridge was erected in 1829 -1832.
We used to live in Buckinghamshire and often visited Marlow. I took the photo shown below when the grandchildren were younger, playing in Higginson Park.
Marlow is also the home of Sir Steve Redgrave, the Olympic Rowing Champion who won gold medals at five consecutive Olympic Games from 1984 to 2000. His statue stands in Higginson Park – in the background of my photo. For a better photo of his statue see Wikipedia – I was taking a photo of the grandchildren, not Sir Steve’s statue. :)
For more Saturday Snapshots see Alyce’s blog At Home With Books.
BooksPlease 
