The last of the 25 days of Christmas...

The last of the Christmas gatherings has been held and we are fast approaching New Year.
On Christmas Eve when we had family here, I was congratulating myself in remembering to put all the food out; nothing left in the fridge, no bread left in the oven or cupboard... all remembered and put out.
Next morning DH was chuckling and pointing at something in the dining room. This point of interest was the box of bonbons that he had made a special trip to buy early on Christmas Eve, and the box was unopened! All good though as DsD1 commented via Facebook that we could use some of them on Wednesday night when we were celebrating Christmas with her and Dan and 2 other family guests...and we did! So 6 bonbons were used.

So those Days of Christmas photos that took us up to Christmas Day...
Day 22

A collage of some of my Christmas angels; all gifts over the years.
The angel top left is my most recent; from Susan at this year's Sunday Stitchers Christmas Lunch.
The angel top right was a gift from a student teacher whose teaching prac I supervised in late November in his final year . That young man did an excellent prac and I knew he would do well in his chosen career. He is married now with 2 children...so a little while ago now!
The two bead angels on the right in the lower photo, were made as gifts for me by two brothers whom I taught a few years apart.
All treasured items for my tree each year. ( next year I might feature some of the other angels in my collection :-) )

Day 23

The tree and the hutch. Once upon a time, these two would be 'dressed' in their Christmas finery by December 1. This year I got this all done on the evening of December 21. My previous 'lateness record' was the afternoon of December 24 and it was only done then because the family were coming that night for Christmas dinner.

Day 24
On this day I posted a photo of a decorated tree that I took at Coffee Works in Mareeba FNQ on November 11...so that was early! The decorations were packets of the company's coffee, and a few packets of the tea they blend and sell.

Day 25
As usual I found I had lots more than 25 photos that I could have used for this project in 2016. I always expect to run out but it doesn't happen. This year were all 'first time used' photos, so none from the previous 3 years, although I did put an old favourite in the comments of one day's photo.
For Day 25 I made a collage of photos of Christmas 2016 catch ups that I attended in November and December. 

So now, ever onward until the New Year. Happy New Year Everyone!!

Old Photos; M Goodwin vs M Kondo!

In that previous post where I wrote about Marie Kondo's book, I mentioned that one of the categories used by the author for tidying/decluttering was 'Komono' which means miscellaneous. And part of a chapter is devoted to Photos. 

As expected, Kondo iterates that you must look at each one of the photos you have and '...you will be surprised at how clearly you can tell the difference between those that touch your heart and those that don't.' p119 And of course only keep the ones that 'spark joy'. 

According to Kondo, 'The meaning of a photo lies in the excitement and joy you feel when taking it'. She continued on to say that in many cases, the prints developed afterward have already outlived their purpose. Hmmm...she would be in a state of constant apoplexy if she met me!!!

You see I have not only my own photos but I also treasure photos that were in my dad's drawer. Dad kept them in an old plywood strawberry box/punnet. In most cases I didn't have a clue who was in the photos, but I've hung on to them all these years since he died in 1967. 

With the advent of Facebook, I've made albums of old family photos of both my parents which can then be accessed by not only my generation, but the next one down.

The first screen shot is part of the Facebook album of my mum's family...my Aussie cousins had never seen some of the photos of our Nanna that I had...they were rapt. My children and my nieces and nephew had never seen most of them either.

My dad's old photos...

Thanks to having these photos in FB albums (I have some in my Box account too), I now know the identity of some of the people in these photos. Despite the photos being several decades old, some of my Aussie/Italian cousins have recognised faces...it was so exciting. 

And another exciting thing was that my collection of old photos meant that some of my cousins saw a photo of their great grandfather for the first time! And the same cousins identified a photo of a baby as their much loved uncle.  What a thrill for them and a thrill for me as I knew him as an adult. And even my cousin in FNQ who hasn't a Facebook account could access the albums via a share link I could send her. This cousin can speak and read, not only Italian, but also the Sicilian dialect of the region where my dad came from, so she could read the scans of the writing on the backs of photos.

Now back to Ms Kondo and her opinions. She claims that 'unexciting photos of scenery that you can't place belong in the garbage'. Well that could be true but may be she doesn't know about Facebook sites like Vintage Queensland and Old Brisbane Album where people post old photos of scenery. There seems to be always some reader who can pinpoint exactly where the photo was taken...the power of social media! And then those 'unexciting' photos of  scenery become very exciting! Well in my opinion anyway!!! Lol

Tomorrow I'm meeting up with a cousin I haven't seen since her wedding in 1963. With a bit of 'detective work' and googling I've found her again and we're going to talk family and look at photos. (Carmela kept all her parents photos too!) 

A few years ago DH bought me this little gadget and it's coming with me tomorrow...batteries have been changed so it's all systems go!

Some random photos that I took to use in the blog...

However, for whatever reason the photos weren't used. On our recent 1 night stay on the Gold Coast, DH and I went to Fingal in northern NSW, to have a look around. I had never been there before! We walked along a track which lead up a hill to a headland. And that is where Fingal lighthouse is. I noticed that it's quite small compared to other lighthouses that I've seen. Small it may be, but it has been  very effective. 

DH reading the plaque on the lighthouse

Looking out to sea from Fingal Head

Looking from Fingal towards Point Danger and Coolangatta beyond...

The other lot of photos are some that were taken by DH with his phone, whilst on his New Farm walk last Saturday...he found these interesting sculptures near Brisbane's Powerhouse complex. 

An early Australian ute (utility)

The grille on the front suggests that it is the FX model which came before the famous FJ. 

Here's a very fetching Mrs Sheep?

Today I've been working on a knitting project as well as a sewing one...more information in a future post :-).

Old negatives...

Another one of the tasks that I set myself when I retired, was to sort through the hundreds of photos that I have. So far I have made a PowerPoint presentation for my 60 th last year as well as an online album of my mother's family. The idea of this online album is that family members from all around Australia can access the photos, saving any that they wish.  I've also now got quite a few photos of my father and I will make a similar album with these photos. None of his 6 grandchildren ever knew him as he died in 1967 and of course my brother never knew his father either.

Now people of my vintage have a lot of photos in slide form and I'm no exception; I have lots of little red boxes of Agfa slides and a smaller number of yellow Kodak boxes of slides. A few years ago DD2 gave me Digital Image Copier and many of my slides have been scanned into files and stored on my computer. Now the copier is able to scan negatives but I've found that this is really only successfully done with 135 films. My mother's old camera was a 'Box Brownie' which had much larger negatives and my first camera also produced larger negatives. I made a number of enquiries about what I could do with a my collection of old negatives which seemed to have been parted from the printed images. There are a number of companies that do such scanning but their prices quoted were quite steep. My nephew's wife is a photographer by profession and she suggested I take the negatives to a Kodak or Fuji shop rather than the big laboratories.

Once such shops were in most big shopping centres...not so here these days. I did find a Kodak shop a few suburbs away and organised for 31 negatives to be scanned and put on a CD...the cost was just under $3 per neg. When I went back the next day, the assistant put the disc into one of their machines so I could look at the photos.

Probably about 2 here and walking along the Sandgate footpath

I was 'blown away' looking at old photos that I either had never seen or had seen them and forgotten about it. My parents would take photos of me on a semi regular basis to send to my Uncle in Sicily. Then there were the photos from my little first camera...such memories!

Top photo; 10 years old with my beloved cat and  then  as a 13 y/o with him

Same cat; probably 14 or 15

Don't remember this photo but it was my little first camera that took it; would have been 15

With my beloved godmother (Patrozza) and 2 of her daughters

Obviously a double exposure and it was never developed. But what glorious memories! I was 17 and wearing my much loved pants suit which was the height of fashion in 1968!!!

PS As I've been writing this post a nephew has sent me an email telling me about 'Drop box' which is apparently another way to store images and videos that can be accessed from any where. I must check that out and see how it compares to Picassa and Facebook.

An old photo...lots of memories...

In my Facebook account, I have lots of photo albums. One album has a lot of the photos that made up the slide show we played at my 60th celebrations. A former pupil (from about 1979) who is a FB friend, left a comment on this photo asking whether it was taken in the Brisbane suburb of Auchenflower. I answered that no, it was taken in the street where I grew up. Another FB friend who went to school with me commented, ' Lots of memories there Maria'. My first thought was to write a flippant response such as 'yeah makes me  remember a time when I was actually reasonably slim'...but the I looked more closely at the photo.

The first house on the left belonged to Mr and Mrs Springer. He was an accountant and they were fairly well off. Apparently I reminded Mrs Springer of her niece who had died in childhood from rhuematic fever. Mrs Springer asked my mother if it was alright to buy me some things. Mum obviously agreed and I was given the most beautiful dress and hat which I wore to Sunday School and birthday parties. She continued to buy me the occasional beautiful dress until well into my teens. By the time this photo was taken, she was widowed and often bedridden. Her house inside was amazing...it was like an English gentry house at the turn of the century (19th into 20th)...it was cluttered and filled with antiques and other valuables. They had a dining room, a kitchen with a table in it and a 'breakfast' room on the eastern side of the house...all those places to eat. We had a kitchen table and a dining table, both cluttered with my mum's 'stuff'! lol

The other house in the photo belonged to a school teacher called Miss McCarthy. She used to give me gifts that the children in her class had given her but that she didn't need! lol I used to run errands for both ladies; posting letters or buying things for them from the corner shop. Children don't do that nowadays...too risky!
My house was across the street from Miss McCarthy's and out of view.

Now more memories coming back...the year is 1969 and the car belongs to the nephew of our neighbours. He has driven to Brisbane from his home, a cane farm, near Cairns. Charlie and I were mates having met when I was still in high school. Showing off his new car to me that day I suspect and I have a vague recollection that we had been out for a drive before that photo was taken. Years later Charlie's aunt told me that her BIL (Charlie's dad) considered that I 'wasn't good enough for his son' as they were wealthy landowners who owned large tracts of sugarcane farms and my father had been a shop assistant (and an immigrant)...so I'm remembering that uncomfortable time in my life when I came face to face with bigotry and discrimation and I guess the concept of 'class'. Talking of class...

The dress I'm wearing, I made to wear to 'classy' 21st birthday. The birthday boy was a mate of a friend of mine who asked me to partner him to the occasion. It was totally a  'private school educated' guest list...except for me! My shoes and bag were those I'd used to attend a ball a few month earlier, and my dress was a remnant of a silky crepe from a lovely little shop in the city called 'Boston's Silks'. If you could sew (or had a mum who sewed), a poor student could dress well just by using Eric Boston's remnants. I wore that dress for years! That lovely shop is long gone like another favourite shop, 'Mimi's'.

In 1969 I was in my first year at Teachers' College and each day I would walk down my street and up the next hill to the main road where I would catch a bus to college. Lectures were from 9-4, Monday to Friday. These days if you talk to students, they go at all odd times, somedays not at all.

The street that I grew up in was basically working class with a few wealthier people in the mix. There were backyard chookyards (hens) and dogs wandered freely around the streets. People had vegie patches and fruit trees, especially citrus, mango and mulberry. Some of the houses were built in the early 1900s (like my place), others like Miss McCarthy's were 1920-30s vintage. Then some houses were built in the 1960s and then after a little old cottage was demolished, 2 houses were built in the early 70s.

Now the area has become so gentrified that DH and I, even if we cashed in our super, sold our house and used all our savings...we couldn't buy back in that street. That's alright...it's good to look back occasionally but far better to be 'looking towards the future'....Still I wouldn't mind being a size 12 again! lol

Photos, photos and more photos....

Regular readers would know that DH and I went to the US earlier this year. I uploaded photos most nights on the trip using the laptop which we took with us. I still have to put some of those photos on to the portable hard drive to clear up space on the laptop. Some photos are also on a USB that travelled with us as well as it had knitting patterns on it!
DH waited until we were home before he uploaded from his camera. After deleting a number of photos he ended up with 1486. He wondered whether he would have them printed...I guffawed at that idea I'm afraid. Nonetheless he tried organising printing online using Big W's ( a large store similar to Target) offer. Maybe it was the sheer size of the order but the ordering process just wouldn't complete. Then a local electrical retailer had a digital picture printing special offer of 9cents per print, so armed with the  pen drive full of photos down he went and organised the printing.
A day or so later he picked them up. My goodness, you should have seen how many photo folders were in the two bags!! DH bought some large albums in which to put the photos; 400 prints per album. He thought that each package/folder of prints would be all the one date and it would be easy to arrange the photos in chronological order. But no!... they're not! We have 1486 photos which are quite jumbled up...good job we're retired!!!! lol