It's a hazy, hot day at the farmette already. We finally got the rain we needed - nearly two inches over Friday and yesterday and unfortunately, for our neighbours in Chatsworth, that came with a tornado. Yikes. At least there were no deaths, and people got into their basements for safety.
Last week, I did my annual cleaning of the rogue's gallery - dusting off the frames and wiping off the faces of all the photos that grace the wall on the way to the second floor.
That obviously triggered some memories, so I thought I'd share some of them with you today.
This is a great photo of Rob's mum Margaret Wilson nee McLeod.
Doesn't she look like Alice in Wonderland? She was a feisty, lovely woman who, with husband David, raised four kids through the perils of the Second World War and after. David served in the Royal Navy. When I met Margaret, the first thing I recall was her kind eyes and soft Scottish burr. She dedicated her life to educating children who had a hard time learning, and she was extremely good at it.
We lost her - fittingly on Hog Manay - Scottish New Year - at the age of 93. She would have been 110 this year.
This is a picture of Rob when he was a wee boy in Ruthvenfield, Scotland just before the family emigrated to Canada. He's the handsome dude in the bottom left corner. The school choir - which involved everyone - performed the Raggle Taggle Gypsies, and Margaret was the teacher. Cute, eh?
This is my grandpa and grandma Harris. Basil was a lovely, quiet man - not very tall, and in his later years, his girth almost equaled his height. He farmed and worked on the railroad.
I never got to know May - she died long before I was born of a brain tumour, and Evelyn, my step-grandma was the only one I knew.
I wish I did know them in their earlier years. Here they are with the women's baseball team that Basil coached.
He's in the middle, dwarfed by the athletic ladies who played their hearts out in Elgin County in the summers of the early 20th century. Basil was a millennial baby - born in 1900.
On a slightly more contemporary note, this is my favourite photo of sister Sandy and her two girls Rachel and Erin. This was in our back yard in Guelph. Per usual, Erin had to be the performer. That's one of our enormous snails on her nose. Can't believe the girls are now all grown up and in their 20s.
Anyhow, hope you enjoyed this little trip down memory lane. I bet everyone has cool stories of the folks who inhabit the past. It's important to keep those - and the memories - alive.
Here's a bonus photo for no particular reason other than Hobbes and Fred are so perfectly aligned.
Until next week.