MUM AND ME

This is a photo of my mum and me. It is an old one, I cant remember when it was taken, it was definitely a long time ago as I am a lot older than that now, Bigger too, hair also grey now. That is by the by. I put it here because it is my favourite photo of us, it was a rare occurrence, neither of us liked having our photo taken, I still don't.

It is taken in the back yard of my mum's house, to the right of me, as you look at the picture, is the 'wash house' inside it, there is the 'old copper' where mum heated up all the water for her washing, then had to lug the dripping washing up to the line, up the garden path - literally - first, she had to chop wood and shovel the special smokeless fuel into the little furnace beneath it, so as to heat the water. The coal and wood was kept the opposite side of the wash house in yet another outdoor shed. No mod cons for my mum! I have to say though, her whites were whiter than white, amazing, better than all these modern machines I kid you not.

If you scroll down this page, you will see some postcards I made for a swap - 'mums' it was for, and I did it in lilac, green and pink, with some pansies on and a little pinny, as mum loved those colours and flowers, and to prove the point, see, she has on her pinny in the photo.

Looking at this photo now, I find it weird how alike we were. How we stand, the arms akimbo, legs, chunky - mine are always known as 'Nellie legs' mum didn't mind that they were named after her. Oh I wish though that I had her hair. So white, I loved it. She always cut it herself, she couldn't bear anyone to touch her head, and it was kept back with a hairgrip by her pinching and pushing the front into a wave, then clipped.

Funny, the little silly things you remember.