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."

Friday 9 May 2014

Table Talk


This week’s Sepia Saturday prompt has two little girls seated outside at a table with some kind of recreational activity. The above image comes once more from the album of my late sister-in-law, Gillian. It shows her daughters, our great-nieces, c1967 at their home in Buckinghamshire. The older of the two told me that they were probably making pastry and that, "We were always allowed to make a mess! I remember us all painting the box that the washing machine came in and Mummy made it into a little house for us. Lovely memories. 



The two sisters in the prompt image look quite inhibited, unlike our nieces, as they play with Young Englands Floral Alphabet. They would probably love to be have been allowed to make a mess, but were prevented from doing so for fear of spoiling their clothes.




And heres another young lady whose mother didnt mind her making a mess; well she was eating her porridge after all!  This was my daughter, aged approximately 20 months (just before her younger brother arrived on the scene), enjoying an alfresco breakfast in 1979. In the background is the beloved push-along, Bruno.

Join other junior members of the Sepia Saturday crowd and see who else is seated at the table.

18 comments:

  1. Hello,
    Oh to be allowed to make as much mess as one wishes without any consequences! That sounds hugely appealing to us today, never mind small children of yesteryear.

    How well we remember having our own toy tea sets and garage (respectively) with which we would play for hours with imaginary guests. Never allowed a thing out of place, though,and all to be tidied away afterwards into the toy cupboard.

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  2. What fun the children must have had outdoors! Great stories!

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  3. I remember my mom, on rainy days, letting us rearrange the furniture - like using the dining room chairs in the living room to pretend we were riding in a bus or on a train, or laying out toothpicks all around the living & dining rooms to outline a river for our boats - made out of folded game boards & blocks - to sail up & down. But that was about the extent of making messes in the main part of the house & of course we always had to pick up & put away anything we had moved out of place immediately after we were through. That went for doing stuff in the kitchen too - a habit which I still cling to. When cooking or baking I absolutely have to wash things up as I go along - which isn't altogether a bad idea as I'm not left with a bunch of dirty bowls & pans when I'm through. But I'm a little sorry I didn't let my own children make a little bit more of a mess than I was allowed to make. I'm not a fussy housekeeper, (Far from it, actually. If something looks dusty I blow on it & it's good for another couple of days), but I don't like big messes. Oh well. I don't think they suffered too much from lack of being allowed to be messy.

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  4. Looking at the hair on the two sisters it reminds me of my sister and me.

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  5. I wonder if they eat the pastry (probably fed it to the dolls).

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  6. Children absolutely should be allowed to make a mess :)
    But the girls in your lovely photos don't look very messy to me - they're just having a fun time.

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  7. Never knew I was a "push-along"...
    ;)

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  8. We certainly get the impression from old photos that life for both children and adults was much more rigid and less fun, but perhaps when they weren't posing they were allowed to 'let their hair down'.

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  9. I love the way the two girls included their dolls in their activity.

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  10. People probably didn't take photos when things were really a mess, if there was one. My house has always been open to various messy projects both now and then. I do like stuff picked up afterwards though and the paint put away and the clay put in a container. If I ever get my studio back, it will be great to leave things out and in progress.

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  11. That first photo is just precious. I love the detail in the knitted cardigan on the left.

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  12. Making pastry outdoors!
    and your daughter having her breakfast al fresco is precious.

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  13. Ah, I remember making a house out of a number of large cardboard boxes when I was about 10...painting it inside and out - painting furniture and pictures on the walls!

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  14. Ah, that looks like the perfect way to take breakfast!

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  15. Perfect images but I have to think a photo around the garden tea table is not typical for boys.

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  16. One of the great things about Australia is the weather is suited to sitting and playing outdoors for so much of the year - easy to make a mess and not get told off!

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  17. Such lovely photographs of happy children. Making little messes is how a child learns how thing work. Fine post. Made me think.

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  18. It was so much fun to make a mess, wasn't it? It's not the same as an adult and that's a shame. I think we should all occasionally remember to make a few mud pies. When I got a nice pair of Wellingtons a few years ago I was so thrilled when the sidewalk flooded so I could go out and stomp around in it. I do love my Wellies though I usually just call them my mucking boots.

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