Almost a century ago ...

It's not quite a century, but who knows what might happen should I postpone blipping this photo until a more significant date ... So after all these family photos from the present, with the latest generation in full flight as it were, here's a mysterious, tiny print of a photo taken in July 1923. The original is so small - 9x6cm - and so crumpled that I had to scan it to have a decent look at it; I also mailed my cousin to see who he thought was in it. On the back is pencilled Row, 7/23; I found this fascinating insight from Google: Rhu (/ruː/; Scottish Gaelic: An Rubha [ən ˈrˠu. ə]) is a village and historic parish on the east shore of the Gare Loch in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. The traditional spelling of its name was Row, but it was changed in the 1920s so that outsiders would pronounce it correctly.


My mother's family spent every summer in Rhu, presumably going by train from Glasgow, so my cousin's suggestion that the girl on the right is his mother and the boy her wee brother - in other words, my Aunt Jean and my Uncle David - is probably correct. Neither of us has a clue who the old lady is; she could have been a grandmother. I'm amazed at how the little girl's modern-looking haircut contrasts with the black clothes of the old lady as they sit stiffly looking at the slightly squint camera. 

I'm blipping this mainly because it's been such a dreary day outside - the sun did appear, but only when I was about to put dinner on the table in the evening - and the only other photos I took today were yet more of the interior of our church, where our wonderful flower-arranger had produced the most wonderful tongues of Pentecost flame with red flowers. As for me, I was feeling predictably flat after the much-anticipated visit to Edinburgh, and interested to notice in a sort of detached fashion that the community in which I have taken such delight on the past couple of Sundays seemed somehow diminished by my experience. (It was actually diminished in size too, as several people seem to have gone off to see family, as we did, but didn't return for Sunday.) Himself and I were also absolutely exhausted - socialising and not taking any down-time during yesterday have their consequences.

In other news, we managed to get the penultimate copy of Scotland on Sunday in the supermarket today - and that before 10am. Interestingly, it carried a two-page spread on the fiasco that is the Rest and Be Thankful road and its many catastrophic landslides. 

And now I'm off to try to be in bed before midnight...