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."

Thursday 9 July 2015

Cheer Up, It May Never Happen!



Many of you will recognise the cheerful cherub in this photo, as it’s the one I use for my blogger profile as Little Nell. Although wearing a sunbonnet, I’m obviously staring directly into the sun, and hence my screwed-up features. There are quite a few photos of me looking severely hacked-off as a youngster, and, if I’m honest, not all of them were the result of the sun-in-eyes syndrome. Here is a small selection. If you can bear it, click on each one individually to enlarge it.

Definitely the sun
But I love donkeys!























Probably wanted to build a sandcastle.
Not very happy at being perched on the castle wall.



Everyone else seems fairly happy.
Clearly the sunglasses didn’t help on this occasion.





In fairness to myself, there are far more photos of me looking happy. The sun-in-eyes thing is not too far from the truth; even to this day I wear sunglasses on bright days, not just sunny days, and if I don’t, my eyes sting and water copiously.


In the photo above I look as if the whole lollipop has come off its stick and I’m not sure whether to spit it out or swallow it.  Let’s end with a smile, just to show that I was a cheerful baby and went on to have a very happy childhood; it’s just that the camera caught me out sometimes.


This week’s prompt for Sepia Saturday, shows a group of down-in-the-mouth students, which gave us one of the possible themes for this week’s post. If you need cheering up, go and see what other contributors have come up with for their own blogs.

12 comments:

  1. My personal favorite is the pre-teener sunglasses attitude. Recognize it well. And it was good to end with a laughing baby shot, else we might not remember the fun and laughterin your poetry, blogs and photos.

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  2. You look like you are about to punch someone in the first photo.

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  3. I'm happy to see you were a happy baby! Those stinging watery eyes are enough reason to look glum through the years.

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  4. A delightful set of photographs - my favourite the one of you in your fancy sun bonnet and hands clinched, ready to hit out at anyone. Yes, like Joan, I can relate to the pre-teen pose with arms akimbo. I could not help but smile at them all.

    Family History Fun

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  5. A wonderful, slightly different take on this week's theme. All the pix were fun (that first one brought an immediate laugh!), but I really like the 'teenage' pose with the sunglasses! I need sunglasses on bright but not sunny days too - especially in a bright fog or else I see sparkles in the fog. Interestingly, my son needed to wear darkened glasses in class while trying to read or else he saw 'lightning' between the letters - especially when it was black printing on white paper. In 4th grade he had a very understanding teacher who allowed him to read & do his schoolwork seated on the floor UNDER his desk. I wish we'd all known then that bright light was the problem. He had been diagnosed with mild Dyslexia, but the real problem was the light & we didn't discover that until he was a senior in high school. Still, we did discover it which helped with his further studies.

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  6. Love the one of you on the wall...with those Mary Jane shoes (that's what we called them over here, anyway...). Those straps drove me nuts!

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  7. Glad you ended leaving me with an impression of you as a happy person. Such typical growing up photos. If I'd gone down that path we could have had a competition for the grumpiest photo. Actually I have a photo of myself dressed as Grumpy from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I wonder if my parents were making a statement ?

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  8. A super medley! I think many people have similar photos where they repeat their standard camera smile/frown. I've seen it in my own family photos.

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  9. I like the photo with the sunglasses the most. I wonder what the man said just before and after the photo was made. I couldn't help googling Yarmouth Castle, it doesn't look like much has changed.

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  10. I'm sure it was the incessant demand for a smile on cue that got to you.

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  11. I don't think my mother generally kept photos where people weren't smiling, at least there are not many at all in her albums. She probably wanted to remember us all as happy little dears. I love your last photo, that's definitely a keeper!

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  12. Really enjoyed seeing photos of you! Had to chuckle, especially at the castle wall one - exactly the sort of thing my Dad made me do!
    And a lovely photo to end on.

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