Scanning

My scanning of slides has slowed down a bit - and not just because of decorating. Firstly I realised that a lot of them had dust on them that was ending up on the scan. I now brush each one with a soft brush before scanning them. Secondly, I found lots of other things were getting behind. Like washing the dishes! There is only so you can leave the baked bean sauce on the plates to develop penicillin (and despite what Son thinks it is less than three weeks!) And thirdly, and most importantly, my labelling of the resulting photos was fairly haphazard. I wasn’t bothered about typing errors or putting in dates. In conversation (e-mail conversation, that is) with Younger Daughter, I realised the importance of labelling them a bit better. So I am doing that.

Still, I always knew it would be a long process and I am thoroughly enjoying it. After that, it will be back to scanning in our photo albums and the boxes of odd prints. Wow, what a task I have set myself. I’d better not be claiming on that life insurance just yet...


Some of the photos are ones I haven’t looked at for years. All in all the standard is pretty satisfying but many of them are little more than blurred mementoes. What has really delighted me has been the memories of things that I would have completely forgotten without the photo to jolt my memory - like Older Daughter helping in the garden in April 1980.


During the first few weeks of Helen’s life I stayed home, using my annual leave (no paternity leave in those days), so that I could look after eighteen month old Bryony. It was May 1980 and the shone almost every single day.


Older Daughter and I played out and gardened for much of the time. A safe and easy birth (I can say that; it wasn’t me that did it), a healthy baby and sunshine almost every day – great memories.


This photo is a classic sample of Helen being watched by Bryony as she did her wibbly wobbly crawling act. She would crawl great distances shaking her head from side to side in a manner designed to create automatic neck ache in any watching adult.


September 1982 and Younger Daughter demonstrated her ability to fall asleep anywhere in almost any position. In this case with one foot in a welly and one in a slipper – we’d been trying one her footwear when she fell asleep.


This was New Year’s Day 1983 – a rocking horse day for Younger Daughter.


Have a nice day!