May 2013 Picture the Precious

With thanks to Sian over at High in the Sky there will be wonderful stories to share right here today.
What a great way to spend the UK Bank Holiday weekend; a cup of tea and a piece of cake? or maybe a cream tea? curled up with a few cosy stories. Much better than being stuck in the traffic or trying to get into my town…impossible on a Bank Holiday.

Here’s mine.

It is the first thing that I have called my precious. Other things have had memories attached to them, and it is the memory that is precious to me. My camera is a precious thing that would be around my neck if ‘the place caught fire’
I have always loved looking at photographs.
My father was an aerial photographer in the RAF; I grew up seeing the beautiful black & white portraits that he took of me as a very young child.
I don’t remember him holding a camera although he must have done as we have many pictures he will have taken. Actually, as I type I do remember the dreadful feeling of embarrassment at having my picture taken and of him being annoyed with me for ‘not smiling’ Oh this practice of writing sure brings back some memories, and at the strangest times.
Dad also loved to travel and everywhere he went he bought postcards that he put into an album… the first scrapbook I ever saw.
Strangely enough though I don’t remember a camera at home. My brothers don’t either so I have no old camera equipment but I do have a couple of those early scrapbooks.
My precious then is my Canon EOS 500D (digital) SLR.
I take it everywhere, it used to live on top of my handbag but with growing confidence I hang it around my neck. The soft and stretchy strap is comfortable on my skin.
I love the feel of the camera in my hands; it fits perfectly and feels solid and safe. I never feel as though I will drop it.
The sound of the shutter is so very satisfying, it almost clunks…which is strange as the camera is digital, which I think of as silent…
I have a few lenses now but my favourite is my 50mm, it lives on the camera because it is short, light and very portable.
My camera enables me to pursue a hobby that I love, recording what I see, where we go and what we do. The good times and the not so good times, which are harder to record.
It is here on my desk downloading the picture that I hope will be here…

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Whatever you do this weekend I hope it makes you happy.

…On Wednesday

Pictures of Precious ~ The Cat in the Drawer
4th February 2013

The Cat in the Drawer hangs on the wall in my bedroom.
It has been hanging there since the summer of 1988, June of that year actually. I could tell you the date but you would have to give me a moment to make quite sure.
The Cat in the Drawer is not something that I would have chosen for my self. Paul bought it for me. He saw it in a little boutique kind of shop in Oxford. He had gone out for a walk while I was sleeping, recovering in the clinic.
He was so pleased with me, with us, having got this far. Pleased in the way you feel relief, not jumping up and down pleased.
He will have been smiling to himself and worrying about me at the same time. What he had witnessed me go through was not easy for him.
He said he saw the little black and white cat first and it reminded him of our little cat. She was staying in the cattery because we were away for a few days.
Then he saw that the cat was sitting in a drawer and he thought of me carrying enough eggs in my body so that sufficient could be recovered to enable the embryologists to fertilise them for us.
That is what had happened this beautiful June day: my eggs had been recovered.
Paul thought the drawer was holding the cat, rather like me holding my precious eggs.
It was another step along the way in our IVF treatment.
When I look at The Cat in the Drawer I have so many memories of our love and hopes and dreams and that time in our lives.
When I dust The Cat in the Drawer I always smile because I remember and because it was so long ago.
A life time really.
Ben’s life time in fact.

The Cat in the Drawer, the story of My Precious for February was brought to you with thanks to Sian, she of the wonderful ideas at High in the Sky.

I am looking forward to reading all your stories here, tonight when I get in from work.

Pick your Precious

Thank you Sian for this sparkling new Story Telling Sunday project.
Sian, over at High in the Sky has once again come up with a brilliant new idea for Storing Telling Sunday, now in its third year.

Take a picture of something that is precious to you. It can be anything at all, precious for any reason or no reason and write a back story to go with it. Genius! as my darling boy often says whilst pressing his forehead with his index finger!

As I intend to make a book from these ‘precious photos and back stories’ I am starting my series with something that amuses me greatly.
And, as I haven’t done a layout of any description for ages here is the first from 2013. I keep writing/typing 2003, anyone else doing the same?

You should be able to click on the picture to make my journalling large enough to read.

I am sure, because Sian is hosting, there will be some wonderful back stories to some equally wonderful photo’s of Precious right here.