Just One Sketch: Part Twelve

The final part of Miss Smith's excellent Just One Sketch class was to take inspiration.  Look at the sketch and then see where your page takes you.

I love how this page looks completely different from all the others based on this sketch.  A timely reminder that a sketch need only be the jumping off point for a page.
I would highly recommend this class ~ it's brilliantly put together and costs a mere £5.  All the proceeds go to helping Miss Smith fund her trip to Armenia with the Girl Guides.  What are you waiting for?

Just One Sketch: Part Eleven

Same sketch, but no photo ...

I was fairly stumped for ideas, but then I saw what Karen had done here, and borrowed her idea.  Thanks, Karen.

Photo a Day: 6th March

~ Tonight's menu ~

Photo a Day: 5th March

My SiL has asked me to put together a picture board of my FiL's life to display at the gathering after his funeral.  At the moment, I have the board on the kitchen table and move things around as the mood takes me.  I'm lacking photos of my SiL and one of her sons, hence the cork still visible.  Actually, I'm lacking decades of photos, but that can't be helped.  Once they are stuck down, my plan is add text over the photos ~ My FiL's name, his nickname, Dad, Grandad, brother, you get the idea.  I also thought that I would leave pens and notelets near the board and invite people to share their stories and memories.
It's all about the stories, isn't it?

Photo a Day: 4th March

For those who don't know ~ The Boy Child using The Brainy One as a chair.

Storytelling Sunday

Exactly one month ago, my story for Storytelling Sunday was about making contact with the missing American branch of my family's tree.

This month, I thought I'd add some family stories about the great uncle who went to sea as a young man and settled in New York City.
1928: Great Uncle's 1st job was as a gardener's boy at Redcourt, a large house lived in by Miss X.  At some point he was off work ill and Miss X sent her chauffeur in the Daimler to deliver a goodwill parcel or some such.  The sight of a chauffeur driven car in XX Street, which was near the gas works, caused quite a stir. 

 

The Wartime Years: Great Uncle was on a ship which was involved in rescuing German sailors from the North Atlantic.  The crew gave them tea and cigarettes.  He later remarked that he may have behaved differently if he'd known about his brother X's death at that point.  X was killed in action in October 1943 in Italy.  At some point during the war {after the Americans had entered the war} Great Uncle managed to telephone via the pub on the corner of XX Street {The Borough} and said that he was in Norfolk, Virginia and coming in to Hull on a wing and a prayer.  The ship's cargo was TNT.  It appears that Great Uncle spent his war years crossing the Atlantic on the North Atlantic convoys, including the run up to Murmansk and Archangel in Russia.  

The Postwar Years: Great Uncle was extremely generous to his family back home.  He sent money to his mother.  He sent dresses for his nieces, my mum and Auntie.  He sent 78" records {Fats Waller} to his nephew.  He also sent his nephew a signet ring engraved with his initials for his 21st birthday.  He organised food parcels to come via Denmark ~ blocks of Kraft cheese, tins of ham and saltines; these were very welcome when most food items were still rationed.  He sent a black leather evening bag to his mother.  After her death it passed to her daughter, my Gran.  After Gran's death in 1999, it passed to my Auntie.

                                                   ~ My mum and Auntie in their American dresses ~

I added these stories, and others, to my tree on Ancestry, as I wanted our newly discovered relatives to know just how highly he was thought of by the family he left behind and that he is remembered still to this day as a loving, brave and courageous man. 

Pop on over to Sian's place for many stories worth discovering.

I'll be away from the PC for most of today, but I hope to visit all the other participants tonight or early next week.

Apologies if the formatting is off, Blogger is refusing to play ball.

Photo a Day: 3rd March

I had what can only be described as a funny turn when I got up this morning, and ended up going back to bed until lunch time.  I suspect it's the emotions of this last week catching up with me.

Photo a Day: 2nd March

Photo a Day: 1st March

"Through early morning fog I see.  Visions of the things to be."

Photo a Day: 29th February