#TheGallery Sun

 

Weigh in Wednesday having a break as I've injured my leg! So time to join in with Tara for first time for months. A lovely theme of sun this week so here is my offering:

 

 

These poppies and wildflowers were really worshipping the sun! Makes a huge difference to both nature and people when the sun is out.

 

#TheGallery: Family

This week's prompt has come with good timing as family is close to my heart after my grandmother's funeral this week. My family is very important to me and losing my last grandparent has left a hole in my life. Granny has always been there in my life and here are some of my favourite photos of her:

Goodbye Granny x

#TheGallery: Picture Postcard

Thanks Tara for once again setting a lovely challenge. Only problem is choosing just one photo... Well I guess my all time favourite was this postcard style shot of Grasmere this January:

we were on a 3 generation hike over Loughrigg Fell. It was a blue sky day but ice and frost on the ground. You can read the original post here. This picture just came out perfectly in terms of light and colour and is a great postcard for Cumbria.

 

#TheGallery: My Photography Resolutions

A good challenge from Tara this week to shake us out of our photography ruts for 2012 and make a resolution to change/improve something! Think I'm going to go with a lot of mums on this and try to take more pictures of me (whether I like them or not!). Bit hard to do on a camera phone but this is the kind of thing I have managed previously:

The look nervously into the mirror technique

Use the built in camera on the MacBook

#TheGallery: Faces

A lovely topic from Tara this week with Faces plus a chance to win a digital photo frame! Here are my contributions.

First up my children from back in August 2009:

They are sitting on a tree branch in Alexandra Park, Hastings. My daughter then aged 5 was taking very good care of her little brother who wasn't quite 3. We had just become a family of 3 and my daughter was especially caring towards both her brother and me - shame the sibling effect has worn off now! I love them both so very much

Then my granny and my daughter:

This was taken on my granny's 98th birthday last November. It was lovely to see how close my then 7 year old was to her great granny. Unfortunately Granny died at the beginning of the year so as we approach what would have been her 99th birthday next month there will be a few tears. You maybe able to see that my daughter has inherited the family eyebrows that passed down from my granny!

That's it from me for this week. Please check the links to see all the other entries!

#TheGallery: An Inspirational Person

Tara has been inspired by hearing about inspirational mums to ask us who has inspired us. I haven't had a chance to really trawl through the family archives for this one but I'd like to show you all my 2x great grandmother Jane Kellett (nee Dewsbery):

Born in 1861 she was the youngest daughter of Theophilus Dewsbery who ran the Railway Hotel in Skelmersdale, Lancashire. She married at the age of 17 to Mark Kellett in 1879 (possibly due to the fact they had a child on the way!). He was an engine fitter in 1881 but at some point after her father's death in 1880 Jane and Mark took over the Railway Hotel.

In total they had 6 daughters and 1 son. Tragically their only son Mark died in an accident at home at the age of 10. Shortly after this Mark senior died at only 46 leaving Jane with 5 daughters still at home and a hotel to run. This was still an age when women's lib was a long way away and there was no state support.

The bar of the hotel was frequented by miners working in the coal mines nearby. Jane was very strict and would only let them buy a beer if they came in with clean hands and faces. This wasn't a hygiene issue but more a case of making sure they'd been home for a wash first and given their wives some of their pay!

Jane died in 1945 when my dad was too young to remember her. All I have is the memories of my Granny who told me the stories I have put in here. She sounds like an incredible woman doing well against the odds and was truly an inspiration. 

#TheGallery: Home

Today Tara wants us to showcase some photographs that mean Home to us. I'm guessing there will be a lot of different takes on this one (click on the camera to see other entries!) but here are mine:

Home a safe place for my children to sleep:

Home is a place to cook and have fun with my children:

Home is a place my children feel safe and relaxed:

Home a place I love to be:

#TheGallery: A Happy Memory

For this week Tara has asked us to post a photo which brings back memories of a happy moment. I have plenty of photographs to choose from for this so its hard to just pick one! This is what I have chosen:

So I give you my granny and my daughter having a cuddle to celebrate my granny's 98th birthday last year. I'm so glad they had developed a really close bond in the time that we lived up here. A moment to treasure as it can never be repeated.

#TheGallery: Shoes

I've missed a few of Tara's prompts whilst away on holiday so I'm looking forward to having a crack at this one! She wants us to take a look at shoes and show them in our photographs this week. So here are my contributions:

These boots are made for walking!

These are the boots of my family after a summer hike on the shores of Windermere. From bottom to top (clockwise) myself, my son, my mum, my daughter and my dad. I have to say that my kids boots are lot more fun and colourful than our boring adult ones! My boots must be well over 15 years old and I do wonder where I have walked wearing them... As a child I was taken on family hiking holidays staying in Youth Hostels and aged 7 walked up Ben Nevis. We are trying to get my children into hiking now that we live in such a fabulous part of the country for the great outdoors.

Big girl shoes

As my daughter is approaching her 8th birthday I thought it was high time she learnt how to do laces! So this holiday when I got her new trainers I made sure that they had laces on them. It only took a day for her to get it and this is her proudly showing off her first successful self lacing. I'm sure as a child that we learnt to do laces a lot sooner as we didn't have all the velcro fastenings modern children have? Any way I'm proud of her quickly mastering this important life skill and hope she can now do up her own hiking boots!


Please pop over to Tara's site to see all the other fabulous entries in this week's gallery.

#TheGallery: Black and White

This week's challenge from Tara makes me wish I'd done some more scanning from the old album.... Oh well looks like its back to the one from the family photo album that you may have seen before! But this time with a bit more of a story with it...

Here is my brother and I with our granny Margaret back in 1977 at my grandparents' home at the Isle of Whithorn in Dumfries and Galloway:

So many happy memories of summer holidays and other visits for nearly 30 years in their remote cottage over looking the Irish Sea. They were down a farm track with cattle grids and I can remember aged about 10 being allowed to drive my granny's car on the private road! We had BBQ's in a sheltered cove and braving the icy waters for a dip.

My granny was a hairdresser so when we went to visit she used to give us a new hair do. Mine really dates the picture along with the slightly flared trousers and the buckle shoes. I was about 6 1/2 at the time and my brother was 8 years old.

Car enthusiasts may have no noticed the Morris Marina we are standing next to. This was the family car for a few years. Not sure if it was a crash on the M6 that finished it off but we had many long drives visiting relatives all over the country. Don't tell a dentist but we used to pass the time having competitions as to long a polo could last (no wonder I have so many fillings!). The in car entertainment was a tape deck and we listened to Don Maclean's American Pie.

My grandparents had a variety of dachsunds over the years and we used to enjoy taking them for walks. The last of these was long haired black called Willie (wouldn't call a dog that nowadays!). Here he is with my grandparents and my brother and I:

Hope you have enjoyed this little dip into my old family album. For more black and white pics you need to click on the logo at the top or Tara's name!

#TheGallery: Vintage

Tara wants us to dig out our vintage pictures today! Left this a bit late so all I can do is drag out some vintage clothing pics showing my families vintage clothing...


My great, great granny


Oh dear she was wearing a fur stole! 

This was her in an earlier time:

Fashions from 1915:

My great grandmother in the early 1900s:

Sorry this was short and sweet but no time to do anything else! Click on the logo for better posts ;-)

#TheGallery: Travel

Tara has asked us to put up our Travel photographs this week. At this point I wish I had scanned in one of my major holidays from pre-digital days.... instead here is a selection of my more recent and more mundane travel pics:

My son travelling Spiderman style - not!

Travelling slowly on the Lancaster Canal

Travelling on 4 wheels and 1 foot

Heading off for their first ever foreign holiday

Think I took the scope a bit loosely this week! Click on top logo for more exciting entries...

#TheGallery: My Weekend

The lovely Tara reckons she has set us an easy challenge this week with My Weekend. Mine wasn't as exciting as all of those lucky bloggers going to Cybermummy11 but here's what we got up to:

1) Selling books


We spent most of Saturday at Dean Gibson school sheltering from the rain selling Usborne Books:

part of my display

2) Post box chasing


I finally added the Victorian post box to my collection:

how many times can I get this on my blog!

3) Had a PJ day on Sunday being silly

mask she painted day before

4) Ate popcorn and watched lots of movies:

they didn't leave much for me...

If you click on the camera logo at the top you can see what everyone else got up to this last weekend - probably a lot more exciting than mine ;-)

#TheGallery: Dads

In honour of Father's Day Tara has picked the topic of Dads for this week's gallery theme. My dad is very close to my heart as was his dad my granddad. So in honour of the theme I bring you photographs of my granddad and the other men from his side of the family that make my paternal line doing what dads do best:

My great grandfather Owen Evan Jones paddling with 4 of his children in the 1920s

My Great Grandpa Charles Band cuddling his eldest grandson Owen in the 1940s

My grandfather Walter cuddling my son in 2007

My dad having cuddles with my son last year

When Tara gets the linky up you can check out all the other fab dad photographs that are doing the rounds this week!