Sepia Saturday 284: 20th June 2015

Alan Burnett of Sepia Saturday says:

Our prompt this week couldn't be more self-explanatory if you were to type it out in capital letters. If you have any old pictures that relates to the theme image, just post your posts on or around Saturday 20th June 2015.

I cannot see a typewriter without thinking of my mother.  She adored her Olivetti which you see here on her desk.  Many of her letters were typed on this although she had beautiful writing as well.

I can't remember what happened to the Olivetti.  It certainly did a lot of work.  My mother was a prolific letter writer and she typed my father's thesis or theses over the years as well as her own University essays and assignments and I probably typed a few of mine on it as well.

I have had to doctor this photo I am afraid as it wasn't black and white originally but colour.  I have cropped the original and used the Holga effect in Picasa to make it more dramatic.

This is the photo before it was cropped.

And this is the original photo before the Holga effect.

I am so pleased to have found this photo this morning.  I couldn't really remember if anything like it existed.  I was hoping for maybe a photo of my mother's desk in the background of another shot.  But this is perfect.  I think my father must have taken it.  Hooray for him for capturing her as I remember her so well!  How old is the photo?  Hmmm...not sure - at least 20 years old so hopefully that fits the definition of sepia.

Thanks too to Aunty Denise for insisting that I ship my mother's desk up here and keep it after she died.  I do love this desk but probably not as much as my mother loved it.  She put a lot of work into it: stripping it back and re-staining it a lovely mucky ash coloured kind of stain.  It's got all sorts of interesting drawers and thingummy jigs that you can pull out in case you need an extra shelf or desk space.

Words - they can be troublesome things can't they?  I am a bit apprehensive about going to a foreign country in a couple of weeks...about not knowing the language...I'm trying to learn Indonesian in the car going to and from work and it is, as they say, a very easy language to learn.  It will be excruciating for me, I'm sure, as I haltingly try to ask for things.  As I try to understand and be understood.  In particular I don't want to offend or seem foolish.  But them's the breaks and it will be good for me to be outside my comfort zone.  We all get into a bit of rut at times don't we.  And after all - it's only words and words are all I have...to quote a famous song...

I'm not a great fun of the Bee Gees but this song sprang to mind with this week's theme...I hope it's not an ear worm for you...and speaking of the Bee Gees...did you know that we have a Bee Gees way at Redcliffe?  It's getting a bit of a makeover and will re-open on 11 September.  A great tourist attraction now apparently.  I really must go and check it out one day.

For more musing on words, letters and typewriters let your fingers do the walking over here.