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Friday 5 June 2015

Long ago



Yesterday we spent some time in the garden with Granddaughter. Kicking a ball around on the lawn, tipping and pouring water, making wet hand prints on the wall and generally enjoying the sunshine.

The garden was quiet as it usually is during the week. A few birds in the trees, brilliant sunshine, the dappled shade of the magnolia under a clear blue sky and that sense of timeless peace such days often bring.

Reminded of summer days long ago I was also struck with the notion that this day too would one day be long ago in Granddaughter’s memory. If indeed she ever recalls anything more than a hazy sensation of green grass, blue sky and those old people she once knew so well.

These are the moments when time seems to go off the boil, when it ceases to be that remorseless road into the unknown. When past, present and future are much the same, or could be if we only knew how.

5 comments:

Scrobs. said...

I'm seriously considering scanning everything we have from our daughter's - and our respective families' past, and keeping it all on a chip for the granddaughters to see when they're in their prime.

It would be a huge labour of love, but hey, that's what having a family is for isn't it?

Lucky you, doing all that on a summer's day!

Sackerson said...

Thank you for that reflection - head-expanding.

James Higham said...

It goes into hiding in other words.

Demetrius said...

Looking at a Youtube item a couple of days ago, Grandad turned up, in uniform in 1914. How did he get there? I remember happy summer afternoons strangling old chickens for the pot.

A K Haart said...

Michael - we ought to put more effort into our family history but I don't think we'll do as much as we could. As for the questions we should have asked the older generation...

Sackers - these things are so ephemeral but worth capturing.

James - until we get there.

Demetrius - we had no old chickens to strangle, although there are a couple next door...