Welcome to my blog, where I take pleasure in words and pictures, be they my own or those of others. I'm a creative individual, and the crafty side I explore on my 'other blog', Picking Up The Threads, which I hope you'll visit too. I'm sure you understand that I have sole copyright of my original work and any of my contributions, so please ask if you want to use them. A polite request is rarely refused. So, as they used to say on the BBC's 'Listen With Mother' radio programme, many years ago: "Are you sitting comfortably? Then we'll begin."

Saturday 18 May 2013

The View From Here





For this week's Sepia Saturday Alan invited us to submit pictures of children upside down, the wrong way up or 'all over the place'; this picture illustrates why I still have a fear of heights. It's a classic father and baby picture; "Up she goes!" my father seems to be saying.











The prompt picture has Madrid street kids making use of railings as impromptu gym equipment. I remember doing just that with my little friends at about the same age (once I'd got over being hoisted high in the air by my Dad).






Children are, by nature, innovative; give them an old tyre or two and they will climb in it, swing on it or  just sit in it! Here's my husband c1953 with some little pals demonstrating this art.











And here's our daughter making the point, with the same kind of equipment, but on a ready-made adventure park in about 1986.

And again, the same year, taking part in a gym display at her primary school in Coningsby, Lincolnshire. That's her; upside-down, mid-cartwheel. The badges on her leotard are BAGA awards (British Amateur Gymnastics).



















Alan points out that the Spanish children are doing what comes naturally and responding to any object which may act as a piece of acrobatic equipment. Here's my agile daughter again, making use of the washing line poles in our garden in RAF quarters in Germany.


Yes, that's my topsy-turvy daughter once more, enjoying a game of 'Twister' at her birthday party in 1986, and looking backwards at the world. In some ways this seemed the best way to view it. At that time her own daddy was in the Falkland Islands, thousand of miles away. She'd been in hospital for a tonsillectomy and was trying to keep cheerful for Mummy. When things seem tough just look at them in a different way; and what's wrong with sticking your head between your legs, letting the blood rush to your brain and saying; "That's better, now it all makes perfect sense!"?

To make sense of the world today, why not view it through the eyes of Sepia Saturday this week? Join us to see what other contributors have made of the prompt picture, add your own, or take a look at our Facebook page, where we view it from all angles (only for die hard Sepians).

19 comments:

  1. I think her position on the Twister mat was just to see the view from the Southern Hemisphere in sympathy with me!

    The photo from my nursery school actually features a Welshman, a Scotsman and an Englishman in their early years.

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  2. I quite like being upside down - but then all library assistants have a little bit of Batgirl in them.

    Oh, but gosh, I was always desperate to play Twister - but I never had it and never got invited to those' sort of parties! 8-(

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  3. Delightful pictures, Marilyn. The simple equipment is often the best fun.

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  4. Such adorable family memories, you are blessed many times over. Now, please don't laugh but for Easter this year, the very talented Easter Bunny also left a brand new Twister game for this new generation of climbers and thinkers!

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  5. What a fun series of pictures of your daughter, Marilyn. I like how you described how it might be better to look back sometimes when thing seem so crazy in the present. Maybe that is one reason why we all enjoy Sepia Saturday so much.

    Kathy M.

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  6. Great photos, and great memories of things like throwing babies in the air...my goodness, parents always seem to do that! and Twister, which I think I did a few times, maybe with my kids, or maybe before them. Now I get dizzy just bending over to the ground!

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  7. What is it with fathers, anyway? Mine used to hold me up by my shins/ankles and lift me above his head! I loved it....but, now, am not fond of heights! And I haven't thought of Twister in years -- what a fun game that is!

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  8. These are great family photos and memories - brought back many to me. Now I'm wanting to dig around and find some photos of my kids upside down. I think I have a few of twister and gymnastics around here somewhere.

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  9. I am getting the feeling that I must have been one of the few children who couldn't or wouldn't do gymnastics or hang upside down.

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  10. Wonderful photos to evoke memories. Growing up in the country, I was never short of trees and other "impromptu gym equipment" but I don't seem to have any photos of myself doing any of these things, just the memories.

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  11. A swell twist on this weekend's theme.

    When my son was three months old or so, I made the mistake of demonstrating to my grandmother how I could hold him upside down by his ankles. She did not think it was funny at all and I got deservedly dressed down like I was 8 years old.

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  12. I'm all for looking at the world from different angles. The grandchildren play Twister, and seem to enjoy tying themselves in knots!

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  13. What a sweet photo of Dad and daughter. Falkland Islands remind me of Margaret Thatcher.

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  14. What a fun series of pictures of children at play. We had 2 little girls as house guests this weekend, and I swear I was looking at panties in the air most of the time. They apparently enjoyed being upside down and never tired of being lifted by their ankles. If we didn't have a ceiling fan, they would have begged to be thrown in the air, I'm sure of it.

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  15. Children take any opportunity to climb, play or look at the world upside down. Lovely memories.

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  16. This was fun and I didn't even get dizzy!!
    :D~
    HUGZ

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  17. Great pictures Marilyn. I can still remember rolling down a hill whilst tucked inside an old lorry tyre at the age of about four : one of the most frightening experiences of my life and one which sparked my well-documented dislike of exercise.

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  18. I can vaguely remember life from those angles, too! A delight to read, indeed!

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  19. I used to actually like being upside down as a child. I wonder why, now, I really do :)

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