Fishing for something

I've been fishing through photo albums for any photographs that I might have that could relate to the prompt this week, but without much success, which doesn't surprise me. I know my late father-in-law enjoyed fishing when staying at the simple beach house at Malua Bay on the NSW South Coast, which he built himself in the early 1960s, and which is still standing, now amongst a lot of much more recent and more permanent homes, but I don't have any photos of him fishing, and my own father was never a fisherman. Gardening was his recreational activity of choice, and the only fish we had were some goldfish in an ornamental rock pool in the back garden. I remember one unfortunate occasion when the pool had to be covered with netting after some large birds flew in and decimated the resident fish population.

This photograph in my mother's album was taken when Jean was about 10 and her aunts Flora and Bess had taken her to visit their sister Ruby and her family at Invercargill, down at the southern tip of the South Island of New Zealand.  A suited gentleman, who I think may have been Ruby's husband William Berry, appears to be using a line or rope, either to fish or to pull something out of the water, and the process is being keenly watched by half a dozen boys. No rod to be seen. The boy in the hat standing next to the gentleman looks like Will's son and Jean's cousin, Jack Berry.  This and the next two photographs appear on a page that Jean has captioned "Picnic at Invercargill".  In the background you can see what looks like a white tent, with possibly several more a little further away. Perhaps the boys were attending a camp or some similar event, especially as another boy is wearing what looks like a scout hat. My mother's older brother Ken might have been attending the camp, but but without the benefit of any further explanation from my late mother, I can really only guess at who is in the picture and what they were really doing. Taking the photograph from across the water enabled good reflections to be captured.

The next photograph shows Jean, Flora (behind), Bess and Jack relaxing on the grass after their picnic. Will might have been the photographer.  Son Jack's full name was John Waldwyn Berry, He was aged 23 when he was killed when serving in Italy with the NZ forces in 1943. He and his older brother Doug were two of my mother's favourite cousins and I've previously written a little more about him here. 

In this photo Jack is surveying the rural scene, with the river and the tents or huts in the distance.  Another photo which I haven't included shows him attending to a boiling billy, no doubt so that the picnickers could enjoy a nice hot cuppa. Perhaps they had a bacon and egg pie for their lunch, as that was always one of Jean's favourites.

I remember taking out a fishing licence one summer when we were spending time at Hawks Nest NSW with the children, but our overall lack of success at catching anything did not encourage me to renew it the following year. Here in Victoria holders of Seniors Cards do not require licences, but despite hearing enthusiastic reports of where the fish are biting on the bay and elsewhere, every Saturday morning on my favourite radio station at around 6 a.m., I'm still not tempted!

Here is a collage of photos taken last evening near Dendy Beach, Port Phillip Bay. A lone fisherman had a couple of rods in place, but we didn't see him hauling in any fish.  We sat on the step of one of those bathing boxes to watch the sun set. I saw someone catch a sizable fish last Sunday over on the other side of the bay but didn't think to snap off a photo.

To see photos posted by others who have better lucking at fishing or perhaps entertaining tales of the ones that got away, just cast your line in at  Sepia Saturday #253

Weddings, parties, anything ...

This week's prompt shows a number of men wearing name tags, busily serving themselves from a generous spread of food. It was a 50th anniversary dinner, which made me think immediately of the following photograph taken on the occasion of my great great grandparents Adam and Charlotte Cruickshank's golden anniversary on 19 January 1906. They celebrated the momentous achievement with a large gathering of family and friends at their property known as Oakdale, near the town of Gore on the South Island of New Zealand. You can see a painting of Oakdale by Adam and Charlotte's granddaughter Charlotte Petrie here.

Unfortunately for me, no one at the celebration was wearing name tags. No doubt they all knew each other.

Adam and Charlotte with their immediate family members. My great grandfather Charles Murray Cruickshank is second from right, with his wife Elin seated in front of him. Their son and my grandfather Oliver is lying down on the right, with his two sisters next to him. His two brothers are nearby in the second row.

I don't have any photographs of the tables that must have been groaning with food, but I do have copies of an invitation to the celebration, and of the banquet menu, which included roast goose, roast duck, roast fowl and roast beef, pickled ham and ox tongue, together with potatoes and vegetable salads. The desserts included cream kisses. The guests at their golden wedding celebration were treated to a sumptuous banquet laid out in the barn and 'catered for by Mr McFarlane in his characteristic complete style'.

Invitees Mr and Mrs Gavin Dickson were the parents of Helen Warner Dickson, wife of Adam and Charlotte's son James Alfred Cruickshank. James and Helen had been married 3 years earlier.

Thiis scan of the menu is  cropped slightly, but is still legible.

 According to a detailed report that appeared in the Mataura Ensign the following day, the guests numbered over 100 and included shipmates of the Cruickshanks from when they arrived in Invercargill NZ in 1863, aboard the New Great Britain. They had been married in Monquhitter Aberdeenshire  on 19 January 1856 by the Rev. James Adam, with Mrs Cruickshank, whose maiden name was Charlotte Joss, having to ride 35 miles by stagecoach to be present on the morning of the ceremony.

  Naturally the numerous speeches were highly complimentary to the host couple. The chairman said he thought it was 'a peculiarly auspicious  occasion, and all their friends would rejoice to see, after fifty years of happily wedded life, Mr and Mrs Cruickshank looking so well and hearty. One could scarcely realise that they were more than fifty years of age.' He trusted they would all be spared to return in ten years' time for the celebration of their hosts' diamond wedding day. One reason he thought 'they looked so well and were so strong was that they had employed their youthful days wisely. A wasteful youth led to premature old age, but there was no evidence of weakness in either Mr or Mrs Cruickshank.' He trusted they would long preserve that activity. All wished them every happiness and days to come full of blessings from the Lord, and that 'in the end God would bless them with His grace and would finally take them into His peace for ever more'.

Another speaker remarked that while he had 'heard it said that "Happy the bride that the sun shines on", happier still was the bride upon whom fifty summers had shone and who had brought up such a family as Mrs Cruickshank had'. Yet another said that in his bachelor days he invariably made for Mrs Cruickshank's hospitable homestead on a Sunday, being sure of a good meal  The couple had raised one daughter, seven 'stalwart' sons, and 'a great array' of 30 grandchildren. After the speeches, the guests adjourned to the garden where photographs were taken, and then guests repaired again to the banqueting hall.

During the afternoon songs were given by several guests, and 'at a later hour young people to the number of over one hundred were entertained at the Cruickshank residence to join in further celebration of the notable event, The evening was devoted to dancing and singing ... Miss Dickson danced a  highland fling and Mr H. Milne a hornpipe.' Excellent music was provided by various guests on the piano, violin and bagpipes, and proceedings lasted until daylight. The Cruickshanks may have been dour Presbyterians, but they certainly knew how to celebrate!

Despite all those fervent good wishes for continued good health, Charlotte passed away two years later in 1908 and Adam followed on 11 October 1914, just over 100 hundred years ago now. He actually married again in 1911, but when he died he was residing at the home of his daughter Jessie Petrie and it is not known whether or not his second wife Janet was living there with him. Just a few days after Adam's death, his grandson Oliver embarked from Wellington with the NZ Machine Gun Corps, bound for Egypt.

The next photograph is of the 25th wedding anniversary celebration of  Doris and Frank Olds in Hull, England in 1949. Doris in particular has featured in  previous blogs, for example here on her 100th birthday, and also here. Frank and Doris's eldest daughter Mary left England for Australia as a war bride in late 1946, but she made and posted that cake back to England as an anniversary present for her parents, who are seated at the far end of the table. Ingredients would have been easier to come by in post-war Australia than in England with the rationing system still in force.

Another golden wedding anniversary -  Mona and Jack Morrison, parents of Jean Cruickshank nee Morrison, celebrated sedately in Christchurch NZ on 2 April 1969

Here are a couple of informal photos of another anniversary celebration from more recent times, namely my in-laws' fortieth wedding anniversary, which they celebrated near Canberra in January 1987.  The trolley table on which the cake stands was a gift from their children and has seen good service in back garden gatherings at the family home ever since.  It's very likely that Mary made that cake too, and perhaps Doris gave her a hand.

Some happy family members at the lunch, including the bride's mother Doris Olds from England, (standing behind one of the twins in their high chairs), who had not been able to attend her daughter Mary's wedding back in Geelong in 1947. Jean and Ian Cruickshank are standing on the far left and 3rd from left respectively. I am in blue, holding our then 3 year old. I can think of at least three others who must have been there but missed being in the photo.

Neither my father-in-law Bob Featherston nor my own father Ian Cruickshank made it to their respective fiftieth wedding anniversaries. Bob died in 1992, and Ian in February 2000. Like her parents pictured 2 photos previously, Jean had been greatly looking forward to celebrating that landmark on 22 April 2000 but sadly it was not to be.

Now here are a couple of name tag photographs. Surprisingly the photos themselves aren't labelled in my mother's album, but were taken in the late 1960s and show my father Ian Cruickshank attending some sort of scientific conference or gathering, In the first photograph everyone is looking intently at the experiment on display in a lab, while in the second shot they are relaxing and enjoying social drinks in a marquee afterwards. Ian in his checkered blazer typically has his camera slung over one shoulder, although clearly these are not his own photos. If only I could read the name tags I might have more clues as to what the event was.

And finally, a small but colourful 'smorgasbord' selection of party tables from the eighties and nineties, at events that included a first, a fourth and a seventieth birthday, plus a couple of children's Christmas functions. Not a lot of healthy food to be seen here!

When Adam's four year old 3x great granddaughter (seen in pink in the previous collage) celebrated her 22nd birthday in Sydney in 2002, we lashed out on a home caterer for once, because it meant that  we were able to relax and enjoy the party ourselves, at least after the house had been cleaned, set up cafe style and decorated appropriately. I think everyone enjoyed the night. It was effectively a very belated 21st, because Claire had been studying overseas at the relevant date the previous year.

If this whets your appetite and you want to see what other Sepians have laid out for us this week, just click here, and don't forget your name tag.

Family letters for happy occasions

I don't really have copies of any soldiers' letters written home, so instead I thought I would share a few letters with you that were written about happy family events. My grandmother Mona Morrison's first cousin was Nellie Ferguson, a daughter of  Charles James Young, who was a brother of Mona's mother Jane Isabella Young. In this first letter she provides Mona with a comprehensive 'eye witness account' of Mona's daughter Jean's wedding, an event that had been held a few days earlier on 22 April 1950. 

P. 1

I won't include all the pages,, because being on thin paper with another letter on the back, they are a bit hard to read, but here is a transcription of Nellie's 6 page letter for you. [I've added in a few explanatory nores in square brackets].

"Ashburton April 26/50
Dear Mona,
You have all been in my thoughts very much lately & now things may be quiet after the excitement I thought you might like a few lines, an eye witness account, to let you know how Banks and I enjoyed the whole function on Sat. The church grounds made a picturesque setting for guests & the bridal party on their arrival. Derek was a good church warden, handing out the hymnsheets as if he was used to it, but then he is used to handing out bank notes. [I think Derek worked as a bank teller at that point] A nice idea with bridal hymns specially printed. Saves time and confusion for those like myself whose eyes are dim & difficult to sort out the numbers in book.
There were time to notice the artistic bowls of flowers in the church &, to see the bride's mother and aunties sitting in state. My sympathy was with you for no doubt your heart was beating faster than usual. Mine was!
The bridegroom and his officials looked brave and calm as they stood by to await the arrival of the bride & maids.

We listened intently to the strains of the organ & for when he would change the tune. It was eyes right for us when that moment came, in fact it was all eyes on when the smiling bride arrived escorted by her father. It must be a terrible moment for a father to give his daughter away especially when she is so charming. Nevertheless John did not look at all concerned re the ordeal. The right man in the right place.

There was a lot to feast our eyes on as the two of them walked slowly & stately up the aisle. Jean looked a picture in her beautiful wedding gown and veil. My thoughts flashed to Pat & how she would have loved to have seen Jean in all her glory.
There are few brides, if any, fortunate enough to have a sister to shop in Switzerland. One might read of it in a book.
The beautiful all over lace was exclusive and altogether lovely & the frock being made by an exclusive dressmaker left nothing to be desired especially when worn by Jean.  I know of a pudding Bess used to make & Dick named it "Bess's Masterpiece". Definitely that wedding gown could be named thus, only the pudding was made in a minute, not so the gown. Wasn't  it thought that the final finishes might have had to be done as the bride walked down the aisle!!  [Dick was the younger brother of Bess, who was a professional dressmaker].
The bridesmaids made a pretty pair & their moss green frocks, together with the red roses enhanced their beauty & fair hair.
Those frocks also put another feather in Bess's hat. The lace mittens Pat sent were very nice too.
We knew the officiating minister was the Rev.D. McKenzie by his scotch accent, having heard him [?]. He did his job well in assisting the bridal pair to tie the knot. The knot that is tied with the tongue but cannot be untied with the teeth.
How clearly Jean and Ian made their vows. We could hear every word very distinctly. Naturally in Jean's profession [of speech therapist] she would know how to articulate her words correctly. Usually one only hears a muttering sound by the said parties.

Ian's sister sang very sweetly & the song so appropriate for the occasion.
I like the idea of the minister acting as a forerunner for the bridal procession. Surely that will help to stem the tide of confetti.
When you'd all proceeded to the Takehe we had a reunion of relations and friends. Met Dick & Margaret & Co when we arrived at 5.30. Margaret and I both admitted we'd have met and not known each other, but Dick couldn't say that. The children were all bright and smiling. The wedding would mean a big event for them. They were armed with cartons of confetti.
It was good to see Flo. and Bess & glad they came with us for the ride to Takehe, gave us more time to hear things,. It was a pleasant surprise to meet Ivy Power. I may not have seen her before but there is no mistaking she's an Andrews. It was nice to have a chat with her. Jack and Dorrie too. I've the same complaint as Jack! Old age creeping on & no use denying it.[I'm not sure what that complaint was, but when Nellie was writing this she was only 57, and Mona was 53]. Jack reminds me of Ed. It's a long while since I've seen Leslie and Jack Davies. They have not altered much. Jim Tourance ? hailed me with "Hello, Nellie or Jennie, which are you?" [Jennie was Nellie's sister]. I couldn't help calling his wife Beulah, the name is so familiar. Had a chat with the Littles. [neighbours of Mona and John].  [?] couldn't think who I was but soon recognised my tongue.
What a grand place the Takehe is, quite unique.  Wonderful for a wedding reception & John and you looked quite at home. That was my first chance to see you and you looked your best and very smart. I could see you during the breakfast and you'd such a lovely colour & the pretty spray toned in beautifully.
There was a wonderful spread on the tables & I can assure you we did justice to all the good things.
Mr Jennings made a first rate toast master & carried off proceedings most satisfactorily. We enjoyed all the speeches & should have moved for John's time to be extended. The bridegroom did well also. I liked the Shuttle Service between you & Littles & the very natural  account of the first time Mr L met Jean. I could picture it all. The cake was "Mona's Masterpiece". Pat on the back for the good job you made of it. It was delicious.
It was nice to be in the thick of the party at the house. Another chance to have a close up look at the dear bride & maids in all their lovely finery & another chat with kith and kin. We were glad of the opportunity to see all the presents.
You had a big task in serving all the guests. No wonder we didn't see each other till the bride was leaving. Jean looked smart in her travelling rig out & Ian and her quite enjoyed the sendoff amid the showers and deluges of confetti.
What time did you get to bed that night & have you picked up every piece of confetti yet? Let me whisper, I saw your new carpet in sitting room. It's lovely and really caught my eye.
Now dear Mona, John and you are to be congratulated on the way you both rose to the occasion & carried everything off in such good style. Banks and I thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and I know it was a case of  "So say all of us"! We will ever remember Jean and Ian's wedding with great pleasure.
We hope to be in Ch[rist]ch[urch] during holidays & will give you a ring. Beulah's taking Graeme's book back.
I would say it's time to stop Mona, you'll be getting tired reading this.
Trusting you and John & family are well,
Much Love,
Nellie."

6th and final page of Nellie's letter to Mona

I hope you enjoyed my transcription of Nellie's letter and didn't get tired reading it. The sign of the Takehe is an impressive reception centre in the Cashmere Hills, built in the style of an English manor house. It was severely damaged by the Christchurch earthquakes and is still closed while reconstruction and reinforcement takes place. By the way, the Morrisons were strict Presbyterians and there was no alcohol served at the wedding, so all the toasts would have been made in fruit punch made up by a local hotel 'or lemonade for the more hesitant', as my mother said in one of two aerogrammes written on the morning of her wedding, after she was woken up by the 'milkman's clattering'. The wedding wasn't until 5 pm, so she had plenty of time to  describe in detail all the arrangements, the  flowers and her mother, aunts and future mother-in- law 's intended outfits to her absent sister Pat.  She told Pat she had bought  her Aunty Bess 'a string of white pearls as an extra for all the hard work she has done for me  - she's been sewing day and night'. 

 I imagine Mona would have shown Nellie's letter to Jean when she and Ian returned from their honeymoon, and she then wrote her own account of the proceedings on the reverse side of each page (you can see her writing showing through the thin paper) and sent the whole thing over to her other daughter Pat, who was working in Switzerland at the time. Luckily for me the pages are all well numbered.  I haven't transcribed Mona's letter, but there are some amusing things in it. She starts off by saying it will not be a long letter as she just posted one on Monday, but then has no trouble filling up all six pages, with lots of chatty gossip about what had been happening with various friends and relatives, including a story about how Jean had gone out with them to visit her in-laws and was worried that Ian wouldn't be able to get in when he came home from work, but when he did so he found she had left the front door undone. Mona mentions they were experiencing power black outs at the time, and how this caused problems when people were out late and had to find their way home with no street lights. 

Mona writes very naturally, just as if she were speaking to Pat, describing everything around her, for  example The five male members of the family are all around the fire, Derek, Graeme and Peter are playing draughts & Dad looking on while Puss is slumbering on the mat and enjoying the fire'. The other male family member absent was Mona and John's oldest son Ken, who had been killed in WW2 about 7 years earlier, and his loss would still have been keenly felt by his whole family.  Mona and John wrote to Pat every week over the many years that Pat lived and worked abroad, and Pat methodically kept all their correspondence.  Many of the letters have since been read and discarded by my mother, but I convinced her to keep a few. There's also one from Mona 'scribbled under the drier' at the hairdresser's the day before the wedding, in which she goes into great detail about the new carpet mentioned by Nellie that was purchased specially for the big occasion. It has 'bright autumn colours in it, greens browns rust fawn & a little mauve' and she's made new curtains to go with it. Mona says she'll have to start calling the front room the lounge now, which looks very much bigger with the wall-to-wall carpet. In a postscript added after the wedding she mentions Derek handing out the hymnsheets 'much to my surprise', and tells Pat how 'John stood on Jean's train and a groomsman knocked over a vase of flowers as he came in but that was all the slips in church'. In other extracts, she comments that Ian's sister 'sang a beautiful solo, went back to her seat and cried and cried, I don't know why'. After the reception 'Dad invited the the crowd home to see the presents and have a cup of tea and I'm sure the whole 80 came. I don't know how we fed them but we did. I said after I would have had a pink fit had I  known so many would come'.  The new carpet must have survived the onslaught of visitors, because I'm sure Mona would have told Pat if it hadn't!  John Morrison had also just bought himself a new car, and the song Nella sang at the service was "All joy to Thine".

 An earlier letter dated 17 March 1949 was written in much excitement when when Mona discovered that Pat's book about the history of Christchurch entitled The Evolution of a City was on display in the bookshop window for 12/6 d. 'It is quite a decent sized book, nearly an inch thick, not a paper covered one as you thought.' Lots of details about how they had found out it was available, and that they would send Pat a copy as soon as they could get one. 'Dad is going to see Mr Batchelor & thinks he might get a free copy'. 'It was a great thrill to see it, and I'll be dying to get my hands on it.'

Here's another letter written by Nellie, this time to Jean while she was in St Helen's Hospital Christchurch, lying in after giving birth to her first child ( yours truly), and hence it's filed in my baby book

This very pretty envelope was hand painted by Nellie's talented daughter Beulah, who often won prizes for her artwork. It contained the following letter.

"Dear Jean,

It was wonderful to see your name shining on the front page in "Press" today. We are delighted to know you and Ian have a wee daughter & that you and baby are both well. There is so much to be thankful for in the life given and the life spared.

We all extend to you & Ian our heartiest congratulations & feel sure you both will have every reason to be proud of your little girl.

After we'd learned the news Beulah and I were so thrilled we didn't want to do any work. 

We wanted to see you and baby! There will be great joy at 2 Aylmer St with Granddad, Grandma Aunty and Uncles, especially Peter when his niece arrived on his birthday. 

Well Jean,you will enjoy your little holiday, every day will be full of interest & I trust that you and baby are progressing & growing stronger each day. 

Also that you are receiving all the attention that is your due, for I've not the slightest doubt that you will be a pet patient. 

Much love from us all, & hoping to see you and baby soon.

Nellie"

In some ways it's rather sad that my parents decided to leave New Zealand and move Australia only a few years later, because as a result we missed out on getting to know cousin Nellie and the many other members of our parents' extended families.  I've never met Beulah, although I expect she met me as a baby, but these days I am in touch with her by email.

 I only have a couple of photos of Nellie Mackellar Ferguson nee Young. The first one shows Nellie with her widowed mother, grandmother and siblings and was taken in 1909 when she was about 16. 

Celebrating 125 years since the arrival of the Young family in NZ. Top row, left to right:Muriel Wilson (nee Young, d/o Uncle Ted), Jack Young (brother of Muriel), Maisie Hearfield (Young), Norman Young (brother of Muriel), Jean Ambrose (Young), Jack Davies (son of Aunty Pheme). Front Row, Dorothy Coughlan, Mona Morrison, Nellie Ferguson, Ivy Dawber, Margaret Young (Uncle Fred's daughter).

This second photo taken in 1971 shows Nellie and Mona in their later years. Nellie is in the centre front row sitting next to Mona in floral dress, when they were attending a gathering held to commemorate the 120th anniversary of the arrival in 1851 of their Scottish grandparents/great grandparents Charles and Jane Young in Christchurch NZ. Two others in the picture, Jack Davies and Ivy Dawber, previously Power, are mentioned in Nellie's wedding report. Mona passed away the following year and Nellie followed in 1974.

Finally, here are a few pictures of the wedding that was reported upon by Nellie, showing Jean with bridesmaid Jocelyn;  St David's Church where the marriage ceremony took place, which sadly no longer exists; with her parents John and Mona Morrison; Jean and Ian at the Takehe; and cutting the cake. The dresses do look beautiful, and Jean's lovely wedding dress now hangs in my wardrobe.

Jean and Ian cutting "Mona's masterpiece"

  Two of my Morrison  uncles, 20 year old Graeme and 15 year old Peter, getting to know their new niece. For a previous blog about the life and work of their sister/my Aunty Patricia Morrison, click here.

For many more letters written by many more correspondents on many different occasions, just take a look at  Sepia Saturday #241

The years of living dangerously

There are lots of photographs to be found online of  workers in dangerous positions, particularly in the construction industry in the days before health and safety precautions were given any consideration, for example that iconic shot of the men working on the Rockefeller Center in 1932, which may have been staged but was still a real photograph, or one of painters on the Sydney Harbour Bridge working without safety harnesses in 1949, but as I haven't come across anyone in my own family albums looking precarious while peering down from great heights, I thought I would just offer a few photographs from the point of view of living dangerously, which can be the case even when you aren't aware that you are doing so.

This photograph shows my grandmother Mona Morrison seated on a horse in 1957 near Blenheim NZ. Both Mona and the horse look reasonably calm and happy, but appearances can be deceptive and Mona then aged 60 was no horse rider. In fact I think this may well have been both her first and last time, because the caption below the photograph reads: "Just before the horse bucked!". As a result poor Mona fell and landed painfully, suffering a back injury that would unfortunately plague her for the rest of her life. Horse riding is definitely an inherently dangerous activity, even for those who are experienced, and no doubt Mona regretted ever having agreed to try it!

My mother's family albums include numerous snaps of us children living dangerously in Canberra in the 1950s and 60s, by playing on the kind of metallic swings, slippery dips, see saws and other standard playground equipment located on hard ground, which these days are just not deemed safe for modern kids.  Here are some examples:

Hang onto your hat, little brother!

                                       

That's right, hang on!

                                     

And make sure you get out at the same time, or that see-saw will topple over on the one left behind

                                       

My sister aged about 2 or 3, no doubt itching to get onto that climbing  frame seen in the background

The local playground to which  we were allowed to head off and play unsupervised

If you fell off and hurt yourself, you just made your own way home

Somehow we survived childhood with no broken bones and only the odd bruise or scrape!

That's it from me for a few weeks, as we are shortly off to England to make the acquaintance of our new granddaughter, but time permitting I might try to prepare a blog on the upcoming gardening prompt before I go and then post it later, as I have a few good photographs to share on that subject.

Now, take a wild ride over to Sepia Saturday 222 . Best to strap on your safety harness and helmet first though, in case there's no soft landing awaiting you!