This morning I scanned another large batch of colour slides from 1970.
In April, six year old Michael was introducing a quizzical Matthew into the legends of The Old West.
That same month we awaited the birth of Becky who was to be born on 19th August. Jackie was surprised to see her cigarette, for she did not normally smoke during her pregnancies. On the wall behind her to our right of her fag, hangs her excellent oil portrait of Michael. Pasted to the door beside her are an asymmetric cluster of my favoured photographic magazine photographs, which I have already mentioned was how I decorated the room in those days.
Here is a selection of portraits of the mother to be:
Becky duly arrived in the midst of a late night thunderstorm. As we know, healthy mothers and babies were kept in hospital in those days rather longer than they are today, so the following photographs, from 23rd, were taken in The Nelson Hospital.
Already our witty and humorous daughter appeared to be thinking:
‘This will be fun’.
We are told that such a smile is simply caused by an excess of wind. With Becky, don’t you believe it.
On this sunny afternoon I dragged my dodgy leg around the garden as far as the back drive where the incinerator wheelbarrow blended well with Aaron’s sawdust. I was. of course, attached to the limb. I then sat on the Nottingham Castle bench and watched the timid tits, of the blue and long-tailed varieties, making their way to and from the bird feeders.
This evening we dined on Jackie’s piquant cauliflower cheese (recipe), carrots, mashed potatoes, and haddock fish cakes. Jackie’s liquid refreshment was sparkling water, and I finished the Lussac Saint-Emilion.