Family Tree Frog

Don't these women look relaxed in this boat?  It's a long weekend this weekend in the land of Oz.  The Queen's Birthday weekend to be precise.  And I fully intend to relax.   When I searched for photos in our family collection of women in boats, I came across this one. I didn't think much about it to be honest.  I have no idea when it was taken or who that little girl is.  I am now wondering if it was my mother's cousin Joy.  I think it is certainly my mother's mother Kit sitting on the left with the hat.  This is one of my maternal grandfather's photos.  No writing on the back to help me.  So I'm going to guess sometime in the early 1930s before my mother was born in 1935.   The name of the boat certainly did help me.  As I blundered my way around Trove and Google, I have now come to the conclusion that this must be a speed boat.   My grandfather loved horse-racing so it is not too far a str...

Alan from Sepia Saturday says: As a general rule, if you take a daft photograph and then let it soak up eighty years of history it will become even dafter. This is certainly true of this 1930 photograph of the Swan Maiden's Carriage at the Grace Brothers Ball in Sydney, Australia. Grace Brothers were - believe it or not - a famous Department Store, and the strange scene depicted in this photograph (which comes to us by way of the Flickr stream of the Powerhouse Museum) is as strange as anything you might have seen in an episode of "Are You Being Served?". Possible themes for Sepia Saturday 256 include festivals, floats, feathers and fair maidens. Ah Grace Bros....now that brings back memories.  When I was a slip of a gel (hard g), we used to live in Glebe and then I moved to Chippendale to my first share house.  I would walk past Grace Bros just about every day and admire it's cupolas.  Here are some views ... and yesterday...well not yesterday...

Alan says: We have Wendy Mathias to thank for our Sepia prompt once again this week and she points us in the direction of domes, ceilings, arches, and significant buildings. The dome in question is that of the Reading Room of the Library of Congress in Washington. There is a rather pleasing pattern to the image - which dates from the very beginning of the twentieth century - so you might want to add patterns to the list of possible interpretations.  If you would like to participate, go here for more instructions. Customs House Brisbane 1889 courtesy of   State Library of  Queensland I always find it difficult to find a focus for these themes. I do tend to jump all over the place - hence my blog name - Family Tree Frog. Possibly the most famous dome in Brisbane where I live is the one belonging to Customs House.  I've been to a wedding there once -  or was it just the reception? Anyway - it's all very swish and hasn't changed much from t...