Friday 23 March 2012

Summer Days

An entry to Sepia Saturday.  "Using old images as prompts for new reflections".

I am taking this week's prompt and putting the word 'out' into out-of-doors, or should I say going outdoors. 

 
My Aunt Winnie (left) and my mother Sarah, usually called Sadie crossing the River Ribble near Settle in the Yorkshire Dales on a sunny Sunday in August 1955.  My Aunt lived in the village and as a child we often used to go there for a holiday and I wonder if this is one such occasion.  It is marvellous walking country and both families liked to walk.  I would love to know what colour the summer dresses are, my mother had a wonderful eye for colour.  The day looks breezy which I know for certain  
  
 
it would be here on one of the lake steamers on Windermere in the Lake District.  Looking at the date on the back I discovered it says the 10 August 1955 which was four days before the first photo so I will have to revise my first statement and think we must have had a week's runabout ticket on the railway, I always loved those type of holidays as a child, a different place everyday.  The additional note on the back says "On the steamer coming back from Ambleside. This was a warm day." (I'm still wearing a cardigan though).  We would have got the train to Lakeside and have boarded the steamer to go the length of the lake, I seem  to be still enjoying the journey although the boy behind looks as though he wants to have a go up here too.  You can still take a trip on a train to Lakeside and get an all in ticket for the boat on Windermere but now it is a heritage railway, no longer connected to the network.

From the summer dresses in the first photo here is an occasion where you can wear a lovely dress and a hat, an unknown man and women at the races
in the days when one also wore gloves. The date is 1st of January 1934, summer in the southern hemisphere at the Warwick Farm Racecourse.  She is cooling him door with a taste of ice-cream. The photographer is Tom Lennon who took pictures of the social activities of the Sydneysiders from 1927 to 1949. This picture is part of the Sydney Powerhouse Museum Tom Lennon collection. 

14 comments:

Tattered and Lost said...

I love the Lake District. A magical place. How wonderful it would be to spend a day out on a lake in a steamer.

Now who is the little pistol of a boy behind you?

Coloring Outside the Lines said...

I love that impish grin on your face- you seem to be totally enjoying yourself! Nice photos!

Colleen G. Brown Pasquale said...

Love the ladies on the bridge. Looks like they are enjoying their day!

Wendy said...

Those summer dresses look cool and breezy. They don't make 'em like that anymore.

Alan Burnett said...

Wonderful pictures. Settle I know well and the Lakes have always been one of my favourite places. The places we got to know as children seem to live with us all our lives.

Anonymous said...

These three photos all have a sense of fun about them. I love the one of Winnie and Sadie, and you look like you were having a ball. There's something quite touching about the beautifully dressed lady feeding the man ice cream :-) Jo

Little Nell said...

Some of my favourite places here. I used to live in the Lake District as a child and over the years we‘ve had great holidays in the Yorkshire Dales. These are fine photos too. The one of your mother and aunt is lovely and, like you, I wonder what the colours were of the fabric.

Bob Scotney said...

Thas nowt like Yorkshire lass.

Queen Bee said...

What lovely pictures. They all depict happy times and made me smile. My favorite is the one of you on the playground equipment - looks like you were having such fun.

Oregon Gifts of Comfort and Joy said...

Beautiful, super clear pictures of you and your family ... and of the one at the races.

Thank you for the wonderful post,

Kathy M.

Postcardy said...

I really love the bridge picture. I think I would be afraid to go on that bridge, especially on a windy day.

21 Wits said...

All these photos are so nice, and clear, and they all look to be having the best of times! But of course they were going out!

Sallie (FullTime-Life.com said...

Lovely memories -- and my favorite kind of going out is out(side)!

Christine H. said...

The quality of these photographs is so wonderful. If they had been color photos from the 70s, they wouldn't have fared so well.