30 Day Photo Challenge Day 30: Self portrait

Lots of people say my daughter looks like me; what do you think?

30 Day Photo Challenge Days 28 & 29: flowers & black & white

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 27: Celebration

By this time next week I'll have all the family home! Even if only briefly all together it warrants a celebration. Something like raspberry and chocolate cookies or date flapjacks.

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 26: Close up

In an earlier post I wrote that I hope I hold possessions lightly. In response Jay from The Depp Effect commented that she had trouble parting with things of sentimental value. I had to admit then that I too hang on to things that have significance for me. Like my sheepskin jacket.

My mum bought it for me for Christmas 1970. We didn't have much money and she was thrilled that she'd managed to be able to afford this for me. I didn't have the heart to say that a sheepskin jacket came nowhere on my 'want' list. And if it had it would have been a pale trendy one like my fashionable better-off cousin's not a dark traditional one that made me look like a dumpling.

February 1971 my mum died following a brain hemorrhage.  

I was wearing my jacket when we went to visit her in hospital when she'd had a second bleed and didn't recognise me except as someone who looked like her cousin. I was wearing it when we had the car crash on the way home. I was told to claim off the driver's insurance to have my coat cleaned of the blood that was smattered over it.

My coat has been hanging in my wardrobe ever since; I probably haven't worn it for 35 years or more - but I can't get rid of it. 

Until now. Today, sitting in the car on the way to deliver 2 Moses baskets to destitute mums, I thought, 'Why am I hanging on to it? When it could keep someone warm on a cold winter's night? Because my mum gave it to me? Because I never wanted it?'

I'll take it to Zac's. I don't know if anyone will want it - they're a right fussy bunch - but if not it can join the 'clothes for cash' pile and be of some use instead of taking up room in my wardrobe.

I will. I will.

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 25: Strangers

In the coffee shop this morning I was struck by the perfectly neat way this stranger was sitting.

An instant before I took this photo she was even more upright, her tummy tucked in, her knees and feet placed neatly together, everything about her just right. I would guess this is a reflection of her life and her personality - but I could be wrong!

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 24: animal

One from the archive: George at 2 months old when we brought him home for the first time.

30 day Photo Challenge Day 23: pattern

This picture hangs above my desk. 

It was given to me a few years ago by lovely Ros, when she made a short return visit to Swansea. She and her husband, Glenn, worked with Sean in Zac's for a number of years and we still miss them.

Aboriginal art uses icons, symbols, where each has a significance, to tell often ancient stories. There are a number of theories about how 'dot paintings' came into being, the most popular suggesting that it was a way for the indigenous artists to keep their stories secret, so they wouldn't be understood by outsiders.

For more information about Aboriginal art go here.

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 21: faceless self portrait

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 20: in my bag

Quite a well-sorted bag today.

30 day Photo Challenge Day 19: something you want

Strangely enough it isn't chocolate.

I was thinking about this yesterday and the first things that came into my head were family-related.

I want Younger Son and Nuora to return safely from their travels and to find jobs/careers that they love. And to have babies of course.

I want Daughter-in-law's pregnancy to go well with a resulting healthy baby.

I want Son-in-law's work dilemma resolved.

And all the normal health and happiness for all the children and grandchildren.

Oh, and, of course, for them all to come and live within a 10 mile radius of me. 

I thought maybe I could use a family photo to encompass all that but that wouldn't have said quite what I wanted. No, I needed something more easily visualised. The next thing that suggested itself was - no, still not chocolate - my desire to be a best-selling author. But how would I show that in a photo?

Finally I decided. This what I want novel 3 to be.

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 18: your shoes

Summer, winter, my mainstays, as you can tell from the worn down look of them.
And now I have caught up! And we're on day 18 already. How odd that photo challenge days seem to mount up so quickly while exercise days plod along.

I see that tomorrow's challenge is 'Something you want'. That'll take some thinking about.

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 17: Technology

My mobile telephone. Closer to a museum piece than cutting edge technology. No internet, can't take photos, in fact all it does is allow me to phone and text. And I only use it when I have no choice. Oh and I have discovered I can find out the time from it - if I happen to be carrying it with me rather than having left it somewhere about the house.

It does have its uses though: have you tried to find a public phone box recently? They are few and far between.

But yesterday you would have laughed to see me and another similarly-aged woman trying to exchange numbers. The process involved finding phones, writing down numbers, me calling her, her writing down my number then giving it back to me. Then calling me to test it. Such fun!

Still on the technology theme, Google and the massed knowledge of the internet are wonderful things but you can't beat a book when it comes to checking a word definition. 

And, yes, I know I'm still running a day behind but I'm hoping to catch up today. 

30 day Photo Challenge Days 15 & 16: Silhouette and a good habit

As there are no rules I'm making my own. This is photoshopped (obviously) to create a silhouette effect.

My good habit is baking. I love baking but I only do it when I have an excuse - like bible study each Tuesday at Zac's -  otherwise Husband and I would eat cake all the time. As it is we just have to 'sample' the cake - and eat any leftovers.

Today we have chocolate chip muffins.

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 14: Eyes

An old photo and taken by Elder Son not me but look at those eyes. Getting a bit misted by then but still the gentle loving eyes of our beautiful dog, Harvey

30 day Photo Challenge Day 13: cannot live without

30 Day Photo Challenge Day 12: sunset

Corsican sunset

30 day Photo Challenge Day 11: something blue

I'm embarrassed to say I only discovered Ella comparatively late in life but isn't she just superb?

30 day Photo Challenge Day 10: childhood memory

I grew up living with my mother, grandparents and great-gran (in photo). The house was called Albert House and there were slate steps to the front door. The steps, which warmed in the sun (although I think I might be sitting on a cushion in this one), feature in many of my photos from growing up.

I think my great-gran must have been about 80 in this photo. Her only surviving daughter, Joan, now lives next door to Albert House and at 94 shows no signs of going anywhere. She saw the doctor the other week because 'I get out of breath when I walk up the hill carrying my shopping.'

'You're 94! You shouldn't be walking up the hill carrying your shopping!'

When she tells us what the doctor said she adds, 'So I have to sneak out when no-one's here.'

30 day Challenge Day 9: someone I love

30 Day Photo Challenge day 8: routine

First thing in the morning, halfway through the morning, lots of times in-between, whenever I'm bored, worried, fed-up, hungry, tired, indecisive, lazy, or sometimes even thirsty, it's my routine to make a pot of tea. And it has to be a pot. And then to enjoy it from one of my favourite mugs.