Boomps-A-Daisy

This morning Becky e-mailed me this superb photograph to add to Louisa’s collection. She captured it in Llanberis in 1986. The story is that Jessica, who was driving, stopped the car and dashed up the rock to take in the view. Becky saw the action and the outfit – an Alison Ellen hand knit, a pretty skirt blowing in the wind, and wellies – as typical of Louisa’s mother. Alison is Jessica’s cousin.

All I did was to brighten the original a little and send it on its way through the ether.

Danni and Ella joined Elizabeth, Jackie, and me for lunch with Mum at Woodpeckers. Mum’s great granddaughter vigorously, jerkily, flexed her knees, splayed her prehensile feet, and gripped arthritic fingers in her digital vice. The infant’s grandmother simply doted. The first four of these pictures were produced by Jackie.

https://youtu.be/BsfmDa4BlHk

This was a popular dance in Mum’s teenage years.

Mum and I both chose an excellent beef and Guinness pie, with well cooked vegetables and roast potatoes, for lunch. Jackie’s meal was equally good pork; and Elizabeth’s mushroom stroganoff. Dessert for Elizabeth was chocolate ice cream; for the rest of us, upside down pineapple cake with vanilla ice cream.

Soon after Jackie and I arrived home we were joined for the rest of the afternoon by the other three.

Eggs and bacon sufficed for dinner for Jackie and me.

High Street Gallery

CLICK ON ANY IMAGE IN THE GROUP TO ACCESS GALLERY, INDIVIDUAL MEMBERS OF WHICH CAN BE VIEWED FULL SIZE BY SCROLLING DOWN AND CHECKING BOX AT BOTTOM RIGHT.

This afternoon Jackie drove Elizabeth and me to Lyndhurst so that my sister could replenish her cabinet at the Antiques Centre. This gave me the opportunity to perch on a bench alongside the high street where I was able to watch the world going by, and, of course photographing visitors galore. This selection of photographs is virtually random. Although each bears a title in the gallery

 

You will see in each shot what catches your own eye or imagination. I will just highlight the sequence where a couple of dog walkers approach Paws in the Forest from one direction, and pass a little girl, coming down the hill with her mother, and enjoying an ice cream , some of which drips onto her forearm.

This evening the three of us dined on Jackie’s splendid sausage casserole; swede mash; crunchy carrots, and firm cauliflower. Jackie drank Hoegaarden and Elizabeth and I drank Mendoza Parra Alta Malbec 2017

 

 

Shanklin

It was on 3rd November last year that I featured two large format photographic prints of a holiday to Shanklin in September 1968. Today, in my trawl through my colour slides for posterity, I reached the batch from which these were extracted, and scanned a dozen.Sun on wet sand 9.68Derrick's shadow 9.68Shirley's feet  9.68

Fun on the sun-kissed sand included me plying my camera; and Shirley substituting golden granules for flip-flops. I don’t remember whether anyone tickled her feet with the feather. Judging by the amount of sand scuffed up, it is of course possible. Incidentally, I just cannot get on with that style of sandal, expected to cling to one’s feet by means of a single post planted between the big toes and those next to them. I find them most uncomfortable. And I can’t keep them on.Jackie and Michael 9.68 001Jackie and Michael 9.68 003Michael 9.68 001Michael 9.68 002

The most delight of all was, of course, taken by Jackie and Michael, doing what has to be done with bucket and spade. The expression of my buried son doesn’t really indicate distress, given that the interment was at his request. He was hamming up a bit, because the following cheeky grin is far more reflective of his mood.Jackie and Michael 9.68 002

They also had a paddle in the sea, the other side of which possibly threw shingle up onto Hordle beach, which I have photographed on numerous occasions almost half a century on.Eyes 9.68

We visited other places on the island, such a Blackgang Chine, a scary tourist attraction featuring a ghost train running past enormous eyes that peered out of the darkness.Michael 9.68 003

I’m not sure where was the model village that Michael explored.

Who would have dreamed, in those far off days that Jackie and I would one day be living just a mile away from a clear view of the Isle of Wight which we had once explored?

This evening we dined on Jackie’s luscious sausage casserole; crisp carrots, brussels, and cauliflower; and creamy mashed potato. Dessert was cherry crumble and custard. I drankChateau Clos Renon Bordeaux Superieur 2012, and Jackie didn’t.