Sunday 1 December 2019






A Study in Concentration 2

I haven’t blogged for close to 18 months now, sad to say, and have definitely got out of the habit of contributing regularly, mainly because I found I was lacking inspiration and also running out of photos in my family collection that I hadn’t already included in previous contributions. I was also having a few problems with blogger.com.  I was texting with Marilyn B aka Little Nell today however and then just happened to check the SS page today and thought of a good match for the topic photo that I could add. Like  most of my photos, it has been shown before, but that was back in 2014, so I don’t imagine anyone would remember it. I have used the same heading for an earlier blog too, hence the 2, but at least it was not for the same photo.
 My father Ian Cruickshank would have been around 40 or 41 at the time it was taken. Dad had discovered and chemically identified the phytoalexin which he named Pisatin in 1962. It was his main claim to fame in the scientific world. Pisatin was important in relation to the study of plant diseases, which was his area of research for almost 40 years of his working life.  I remember he would be off to the lab at all hours of the night to check on his pea experiments. He passed away in 2000, and now his granddaughter/my eldest is turning 40 early next year. Hard to believe!
Dad now has 9 great grandchildren, and no doubt would be pleased to know that youngest of them is his namesake, little Michael Ian, who is just 8 weeks old.


Here's Ian with Michael Ian's mother in 1987.

Anyway, hello to my old Sepia Saturday friends, who unlike me have not stopped blogging. You can find their contributions to this week’s topic here at Sepia Saturday 498.