Saturday 14 January 2012

The Allotment Love Letter!

A clever use of foods in this love letter!


When Expressing your Love was Complicated!

In Victorian and Edwardian times, the Language of Fruit allowed young lovers to expose their feelings without fear of exposure! Life must have been so complicated! Vegetables, too, played a part but that's another story . . .


Friday 13 January 2012

War Horse

Reading about the premiere of the heart-rending film, War Horse, I remembered reporting on a pilgrimage to the battlefields of the First World War. During an afternoon visit to the Cloth Hall in Ypres, I was shocked by one of the realistic exhibits. It featured a war horse and moves me still!



Sunday 8 January 2012

Midwives or Nurses?

Calling all medical historians. Are these midwives or nurses and what is the significance of the stripes on the arms of the uniforms worn by the two women on the left of the photograph? Whatever the answers, it's a nice photograph and may have been taken to mark graduation from training. And, what is the significance of the doll-like figure holding what seems to be a bouquet above the baby (front, right)?


Monday 2 January 2012

Pink Floyd in Concert

From 1969 to 1972, I lived in West Germany, in Munster.. There were a number of concert venues in the city - most notably the Halle Munsterland - at which some of the big names of rock played.I saw Pink Floyd play their greatest hits in 1970 but, in 1971, they returned with a large orchestra and choir to perform their concept album - Atom Heart Mother. Two great concerts and I was there. Fantastic!

I was reminded of the concerts when I found two badly printed photo rejects that I must have picked out of the bin in my darkroom. The first is a poster for an Amon Duul II concert and on the right of the advertising pillar is half of a poster advertising a performance of Atom Heart Mother by Pink Floyd. The other shows Nick Mason and Roger Waters during their 1970 concert. Occasionally, I would be lucky enough to fight my way through to the front of the stage to take photographs. Those were the Days, as Mary Hopkins used to sing!

Copyright Laurie Manton 2012

Pink Floyd - Roger Waters sings while Nick Mason plays the drums (Copyright Laurie Manton 2012)

In Memory of Captain Scott

An unusual certificate awarded to Miss Lily Mair for donating one shilling to the British Girls' Memorial Fund in memory of the Polar Explorer, Captain Robert Scott. Evelyn Noble devised a chain letter inviting girls to donate money. More than £200 was raised.



Sunday 1 January 2012

Trough of Bowland

Someone asked how far my home was from the beautiful Trough of Bowland. Close enough!

Here is the view from the supermarket car park


New Year

Happy New Year to everyone!

This time, last year, I wrote that I hoped to reach 200 followers (I did) and the magic (to me in any case) 10,000 visits. By yesterday, visits totalled 31,495 so my annual visit total more than doubled over the twelve months. That was despite my discovering a new audience on Facebook groups and pages in August and neglecting this blog for a while. I already have a large number of items piled up alongside my scanner ready to publish here. See you soon!

Laurie