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 13 November 2014

Stepping Stones


Why I am dressed all in black in this photograph,  on what is obviously a hot sunny day, is a mystery. This is Toadsmouth in Derbyshire, so called because there was a rock nearby which looked like a toad! My Mum is being very sensible, sitting on the rock, the better to cool her feet in the mini-waterfall, whilst I attempt to make a crossing over the rocks. The lady behind her is a friend and I know we were on one our Sunday picnics with other families to the Derbyshire countryside from our homes in urban Nottinghamshire.


Fast forward to August 1983 and my own daughter is practising the art of walking on stepping stones. This time we were in the English Lake District, returning to one of my childhood haunts, Tarn Hows. This is a man-made beauty spot; the beck was damned in Victorian times creating the ‘tarns’. The ‘hows’ are the surrounding wooded hills.

Our Sepia Saturday prompt this week is a gentleman assisting a lady who wishes to keep her feet dry when crossing a river.



My daughter’s feet are definitely below the water and I’m sure mine were at some point in my rock-stepping; however, it mattered not one bit as we had sensibly removed our shoes. The gentleman above is being very gallant and allowing his own shoes to get soggy in the process, but who was standing with a camera ready to record the event I wonder? Was it a regular occurrence or had the normal means of crossing been lost, destroyed or submerged? We will probably never know.

Why not take off your shoes and socks and wade into the stream of sepia stories that await you at Sepia Saturday?

16 comments:

  1. Toadsmouth seems like a lot of fun. Those rocks are huge, allowing for somewhat comfortable seating and cooling one's feet. I imagine kids and adults alike enjoyed creating various paths through the stream hopping from this rock to that.

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  2. Do tell it was enjoyable wading along your story. Your black outfit, surely at the time had a point, which I remind my daughter today when her own little girl makes some rather wild fashion statements. I pretty much let her have her own go at it. Knowing before too long every girl has to master this right?! Thanks for describing Tarn Hows, which I had to Google, what a lovely spot that is. I like this theme photo too, very spot on for any gracious gentleman.

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  3. Such happy photos. Your daughter looks lovely in her lemon-yellow dress. I don’t know Derbyshire at all, but it looks as though I’ve been missing out.

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  4. The colors are remarkably vivid in the top photo (it could have been made yesterday). I prefer walking on these rocks over last weeks (Lanzarote) rocks.

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  5. Your daughter must have had very tough feet, as well as a good sense of balance.

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  6. Everyone seems to be having so much fun in your first photo. And your daughter looks so sweet in the second. As to all-black clothing, for some reason most girls seem to go through such a phase. I know I did. And so did my daughters. I remember one Sunday morning, getting ready to go out to breakfast, my husband was sitting in his recliner with a view down the hallway toward the bedrooms when the girls came down the hall wearing their all-black ensembles of the times. He sighed & asked, "Can't they ever wear anything besides black?" I remember smiling & advising him not to sweat the small stuff - the same with the crazy hairdos, as well. And of course they grew past it all.

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  7. Using rocks as stepping stones is always a bit risky. Black is the clour of choice here in Melbourne. Someone told me she had 15 pairs of pants in her wardrobe - all black!

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  8. Your photographs remind me so much of myown family holidays where as children we enjoyed playing on stepping stones at Scorton in the Trough of Bowland, Lancashire, and then years later saw our daughter having similar fun in the river at Darnholm on the North Yorkshire Moors. As for those big rocks, I would be the one stuck on the top too lacking in adventure to make a move!

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  9. I didn't even think of pictures of hoping from rocks in streams...which I've called "rock hopping" ever since falling in love with the rhythm of stepping along in a streambed and staying mostly dry. It works very well going up our mountain streams, just taking slow and easy steps. Of course the crossing of a stream is more on topic for this week.

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  10. Oh it looks so refreshing. I have walked so many similar rocks in many places but have not a photo of them...well none that I recalled for this week. Now perhaps I will seek some.

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  11. For some of those ancient English streams and lakes there are no stones un-turned or un-stepped on. Your daughter's photo could be a classic water color or oil painting of the Lake District.

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  12. It's amazing how resilient nature is. As Mike says, the stones have been turned and stepped on for millennia and still they can look natural and unchanging. Toadsmouth looks like a beautiful spot.

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  13. I think we must try to get to Tarn Hows next year, It looks an ideal place to visit, stepping stones and all.

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  14. There is so much activity going on in the top photo with so many walking and sitting on the rocks. The rocks in the bottom one are more my speed.

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  15. You have brought back memories of being in Hawaii as a child and hiking to waterfalls. I have an old movie of myself using stepping stones to get closer to the waterfall, leaving my friend behind. There is no sound with the film, but she clearly get across the point, "Hey! What about me?" as I quickly turn around and extend my hand. She then gingerly crosses the stones.

    I quite agree with Mike that the one of your daughter would make a very nice painting.

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  16. There's nothing nicer than dabbling one's feet in water - provided it's not too cold. You all look like you're having a fine old time.

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