Dennis C Randall

Today some shots I took whilst going through some of my mom's things today... These are all to do with my step Dad, above a newspaper clipping of something found... in a pigsty apparently!

Above and below Dad restoring old paintings... wish I had leaned even a little of his trade...

Below when he had just one short stint as a model!

More newspapers clippings beneath...

Below copies of the photos the interviewer took...

Below in the days of Dads archaeology days on a dig...

TTFN
Marian

I talk all the time... yeah yeah... at work, with friends, about what you talk about comes to you, or be careful what you wish for, you might get it!!  I have a new Pinterest board... and have placed therein a hall coat/hat stand, it was unusual to say the least... and very strangely in Carmarthen Antique shop, at the top of the stairs on the landing was the exact same one!!

It happens a lot, in fact the more it does... well, the more it does... Just the universe giving us what we want after all it seems then...

Had a great last few days, Friday was an unintentional day off, therefore the trip to Carmarthen!
It was a constant mix of hailstorms and sunshine, luckily it was the sunshine when out in the streets!  Never been there before and will definitely go again soon no doubt, the town is bustling, lots of unusual shops to go along with the standard ones of course, some very old buildings, some of which, for absolutely no reason at all reminded both of us of Cartama in Spain!!!  Came across 'another' shop selling candles, but this one had a great very different idea... and its not even new, its over a hundred years old Lampe Berger... Definitely going back there to make a purchase soon!  You buy the beautiful lamps, add the oil, light the wick... leave and then blow out, then leave the essence to cleanse/fragrance the room!  Went in some antique shops, had a great time in those, made me remember the days when I was a kid and mom my step dad and I would go out 'antiquing' as dad called it!  The old Morris van, them up front, me rolling about in the back, would never be allowed now! Sometimes the dog would be with me there too! We would go to all these out of town, usually out of village... farms, sheds, collectors houses... and dad would be looking for items to restore, to buy and sell on, mom would chatting to the owners and me?  I would be running around and getting into places they couldn't... there was an old school house filled to the brim with antiques and bric-a-brac, I would get lost in there, loved it!  I must have grown up to quick, I didn't go with them when I was in my teens, wish I had now... got asked on Friday if I could restore Antiques, I know the principles involved, seen it growing up, maybe I should have taken more notice of that too eh!  That would have been a trade to have learnt more in.... You know it never occurred to me until right this very moment!  The furniture, and the paintings!

Yesterday a good day out and about around the stores and today a day of rest... the rest of Grimm, a great series, two so far, and I have caught up with twenty two episodes of each series so far and will be in withdrawal for series three, started already, but not on my TV!

Its been a beautiful sunny day today, the trees and plants and springing to life out in the garden, the forget-me-knots are showing their pretty faces to the sky... as are the dandelions! Spring is in the air and the promise of life...

TTFN
Marian

Before moving onto more holiday photos.... I must have taken more photos of Spain than any other person.... ever!!

Anyway, above and below, our big beautiful tree further up the garden, in the forest... it made the forest in our garden, the bluebells beneath would be blooming in April, they're greenness in sight in above pic near the bottom right hand corner... our tree was massacred, murdered, completely destroyed.... the other day, a neighbor took it unto himself to cut it down.  Its limbs stretching across two gardens to the right of us and two to the left...

Bluebells flattened, and nowhere to bloom into it... Unbelievable...

Have to move on....

Below, having tea in what is now my most favorite tea house! Looked up to see the hammock strung on the balcon above...  Still, looks comfy enough, could lay there awhile myself and watch the world of Malaga move beneath....

And above a shot from the Gibralfaro with beneath a much closer shot of Malaga from the Alcazaba!

TTFN
Marian

Better started posting some more of my photos from holibobs!  Me above!  On the roof terrace shaded from the sun reading me book!

These next few shots are all from the Gibralfaro on the top of the world... well, okay, just the highest point in Malaga! And it is seriously high up there!  Not a journey for the feint hearted, or weak of body! lol  If you want to check the history the castle is from the 10th century...

Hmmmm says there is a way through from the Alcazaba, but I think not at the moment, but please feel free to visit and let me know when that changes... would have saved some time, and not just a little bit of confusion all round!

It also says there are plans to build a funicular railway up the hill to the castle, I am guessing that would be like the wonderful one in Hastings... 

Can you see Malaga port in the pic above?  How small it looks from up here!! Impossibly small, having been in the port and looked back up to the castillo, and the Parador here...

And a panoramic view!  From my phone also, oh the wonders of technology, just think what I could have done if I had actually brought my camera with me!  Will do on our June trip! If I look like a tourist I just will not care a fig!

Oh yes, another flight of stairs, just one more level up to highest point of the highest point!

TTFN
Marian

This is for my mom, four years ago today in a couple of hours she passed...  Can't believe how fast the time has gone, in a way... how far away I am from then now too, so many changes.  Changes I still want to tell her about constantly, still wanting to phone her, to hear her voice...

The bowl above is hers, I have placed a set of lit dragonflies in amongst some dried flowers I bought today... Last week I visited the home where my mom went into for the last three weeks, the same home my step dad passed away in too... when I was in Berkhamsted I was on my way to visit one of my moms friends in Northchurch and was just drawn across the lights at Kings Road and found myself up the road where the care home is... I used to live up that road too! Who would have known eh!

There were road works and the road was closed so I had to park and walk the rest of the way, was just like four years ago as I struggled up the steep hill, I was just gong to look at the house, maybe just as far as the drive way, but again, I found myself walking straight up to the building and the receptionist waved her arm at me and buzzed the door open.... and in I went, she remembered me, not my name, but just me, came around the desk and gave me a hug... got me a cup of tea and they had just baked some cookies... so there I sat chatting, like I did before, cup of tea, biscuit... and after a while I left.  They had said there to come back anytime, and I must admit I had often thought of it, but then time went on, now I might go back again... next year...

Portrait above is on my step dad, trying to remember when he had it done... maybe in the 1980's sometime...

And in the picture above....some of his war medals and some other random medals, I think from his footballing days...

Got an idea yesterday, so having a go!  Have stuck some random pages from a book onto card and going to stencil, will buy the stencil cards tomorrow and think of what to put on them, and then frame up! [did check that although it is a very old book, its not a first edition!  Hope it wasn't a rare 3rd eh!]

TTFN
Marian

My step dads palette above and below with his brushes, there is such an enormous amount of paint on the palette not sure if there is even a palette beneath it now!!

On the table too some of his oil pastels, he used these after his stroke, he couldn't use his right arm/hand anymore, and it took a lot of persuasion by us and his occupational therapist, but at last we got him to draw again, and he did, and he could, just goes to show that whatever our talents they can and will continue because they are one with us...

This morning everything, so far, has been assimilated into the house, looking a little crowded in places, and a little like just moved in all over again type of feeling about it all, will take a bit of time, some things will go, some will stay... I have left out all the photos and letters and papers, and will go through them all over again soon, lots of photos to scan, safest place for them, I guess and easier to publish, like the invitation for Wednesday 9th July 1851 on the occasion of Her Majesty Queen Victoria honouring the corporation with her presence at a ball, given to celebrate the opening of the Great Exhibition...

Wonderful drawings by my mom... oh dear, the hoarder next door just previewed on TV, I better watch myself, keep getting rid of things, the more I get rid of the more comes back to me... that law of attraction eh, give and receive!

And there are still another nine boxes still to collect from my sons...  I think they could be the boxes full of miniatures and books, and of course have a case full of Tony's things to take back to him that I bought by mistake!! lol only me eh!

TTFN
Marian

Been a funny week all round... unexpectedly free for two and half days, I traveled up? Across? Well definitely over [the bridge], to England for the purpose of catching up with friends and collecting my mom... and nine boxes of her... of her life, god how awful, is that what it comes down to when we are gone?  That we are numbered by how many boxes we have, or haven't?

Above one of my step dads paintings, its of the George and Dragon in Northchurch, Herts, how it used to look, some time ago by far!

I took it into the pub on my way back home on Wednesday mid day, the land lord has said he is putting it to auction and bidding himself in the hope of keeping it in the pub... I will be checking to see if it remained in the pub, I do hope so, it was my intention, my step dad was a very local artist to the pub, both he and my mom had their wakes there, I had my first alcoholic drink there, without my parents being present!!  The pub sits opposite St Mary's church, where my great granddad William Randall and my great great granddad James Randall were sextons; my step dad restored a painting which still hangs there and, where I as a small child helped my gran Rosetta to clean the pews and tidy the flowers, lots of family connections going on there...

Between Tony's and the pub, was a drive down memory lane... Dagnal, Ashridge Forest, Northchurch common... I passed by our old home with my step dad, and then our home when we first came to England, the school of course, we mom, me, and my boys went to!  After leaving the pub I wanted to get some cash, [for the bridge], but couldn't part so had to do a drive around to get back onto the main road, only choice was the road my mom and step dad moved to after his stroke, not been around there a while...  Even the Tesco in Aylesbury, just before I started the long journey, I remember once when I was surprising mom and told her my Spanish house phone wasn't working, and I would call her the following day from my mobile, I did, from outside Tesco!  Bless her, Tony picked her up for dinner that night and suddenly I was there too! Surprise surprise!!

Popped into Milton Keynes for a coffee, well it had to be done, not been there for sometime, no big changes, in fact felt like only yesterday, a bit like meeting up with my friends, a day a year four years, all as one between real friends isn't it...

And today, emptied out the nine boxes! Was only going to do a couple as before long, a couple of minutes I became not just a little melancholy, how come I can spell that now without the spell check! lol, not good sign maybe...  The dining table now is covered with mom!  If you remember it was hard to choose between this n that, keep this or lose that... time was short and my moms life long collection had to be dealt with, I wanted to keep moms favorite things, her soap in the shape of dog, from where she was a child, he is cracked and only still in one piece due to the plastic wrap!!

And the photos, and letters... have made tonnes of notes to go through on my Ancestry pages, letters from my great grand parents to each other, letter from my gran to my mom and back, letters from me to my mom... I wish more had been written on the back of most of the photos... using a magnifying glass I peered at their faces and clothes, clothes from Mr Selfridge and Downton Abbey! A huge family connected to Bar Harbor... a family, photos of my mom and her parents, the family they stayed with, letters from them to my mom, even books and a tankard... I know who they were, but not the whys and wherefores... time to get cracking and search search search away now.... a pile of stick notes to get through, the past is waiting for me and I need to sink into it, got a bit upset, of course, going through everything...

TTFN
Marian

 View from the gardens at Mijas... this 'tree' is less than two feet high, its just the way I took it! Looks huge doesn't it...

Great shot of this tree... Looks like a couple of things, depending on your view point of course, maybe a huge foot with a giant abscess! Or a dog... or a bear!!

I love the gardens at Mijas, so many beautiful memories... I am always full of emotion there, to over spilling!

In side the little restaurant where we had breakfast this particular morning on our holibobs!  I have eaten here on many many an occasion since 1989...

View from our terrace on the morning of leaving, again....

TTFN
Marian