Reflection Through The Seasons: my birthday

Sunday, February 28, 2010

28 FEBRUARY AND
LOOKING BACK OVER THE YEARS...

Forgive me for this rather indulgent post, but its my birthday today and I’ve been looking back over the years.... please join me as I pull out a few pictures that reflect the changing times as the years have rolled by bringing me to where I am today.
I was told that it snowed the day I was born.

This is the first picture I have of me... unfortunately it is undated.... a bonny baby of a few months old.... I remember Mother referring to these pictures as Polly photographs.... can anyone else remember them? I'm pleased that the pictures were never split up into individual ones.... I now have them framed. My parents often talked of the days in that Spring when I would be wrapped up warm, put in my pram and pushed out to the orchard of apples trees they had..... I enjoyed hearing of how the apple blossom petals would fall on and around my pram.... always thought what a lovely scene this embraced. Babies aren't put out in their prams to enjoy fresh air these days are they!

You can click on any of the following pictures if you care to enlarge them for more detail.

My Mother made this little pink coat for me.... these were the war years when everything was rationed and very scarce... I guess it was made from some little piece of fabric available her.

After my Mother died.... my brother and I were going through her belongings.... we came across this little coat..... she had kept it neatly folded and wrapped in tissue paper all of those years.... we also discovered a small pair of corduroy pants she had made for my brother.... it was such an emotional time..... when we discovered them we both sat on the floor of her bedroom and cried. We had no idea she had kept these two precious little items of clothes.

Here I am in the early 1940’s.... obviously having fun playing in the garden by the look of my dirty leg sitting next to me our dog whose name was Prince ......and wearing my Daddy's straw hat.

Me, my Daddy and Prince.

A few months older maybe with my cousin Barbara...

We are still in the 1940s and here I am feeding the chickens in our garden

I'm ten years old now and a bridesmaid at my cousins wedding. I don't look very happy do I?.... I remember being very cold..... but I'm pleased they didn't make me wear the headdress the other bridesmaid has.... I did love my silver shoes though.

My early teens in the '50s

I'm 18 years old here with my brother Roger who is three years younger.... For a very short time we were the same height,
he was soon to overtake me though.

We skip now to the 70s.... in my car wearing a flowery blouse and mini skirt, I remember it well.

Into the 80s.... I'm now working in the travel business and I had my share of courier duties to do on tours.

1987 - at my desk, which had had a quick tidy up especially for the picture. I was Tours Manager for a travel company in Cheltenham, Glos. A great job which I loved for 18 years.... I did the hotel contracting for the company and wrote the holiday brochure... best part tho' was travelling around, checking out the hotels and visiting the many holiday destinations both in UK and Europe where we based our holidays.

5th December 1981 - The day John and I married...... It was a wonderful warm sunny day. Here I am with my good friend Angela and brother Roger.... you can see how tall he grew!
The winter forsythia was flowering well against a warm Cotswold stone wall.

1997 - By now we are well settled into the old Police Station here in Wales... Major renovations were taking place in the house and we had terraced off the considerable gradient of our garden.