When I was very young, I used to read a lot. Some episodes impressed me so much that I replayed them in a real life. As we all know, life and fiction are not the same, so I used to get in trouble on many occasions.
In that particular book, two teenagers, a boy and a girl, had climbed onto the roof, and lying on their back, watching the passing clouds dreamed about the future. The scene looked so appealing that I immediately jumped to action.
Next to my Grandma’s cowshed there was a small annex used for storing a week supply of hay bales; adjacent to it, under the same roof was a chicken coop. My plan was to climb a stonewall, then get up on the annex roof and from there climb on the cowshed roof, high enough to set up the scene as desired.
And I got there, laid out a blanket I brought with me, and sat staring into the sky. My future did not send me any hints. The roof was hard and rough, but I lied down hoping it might help, as per book. Still, my mind was blank. The clouds just passed by, I had spotted a few animal-like shapes, but it was clear that there was no excitement in it, my back hurt and I was getting bored and annoyed. I think it was the day when I learned something about a good literature and a fake literature. On my way down, the roof caved in and I fell in the hay – lucky me. My Grandma was so happy that I didn’t kill myself that she baked a plate of biscuits for me, and we decided to keep the story in secret, for our mutual good.
Later, in my bed, I was dreaming about the future. In my dreams I was a famous artist, and all the children books were illustrated by me. One scene followed another, all in beautiful, rich colors; people and animals did look like people and animals; there were sun spells, fresh breeze, pouring rain and flowing water, and it was all real. I made it live; I was that magician.
Very often we learn the life’s lessons in a hard way. Very often we get slapped in the face, and our efforts don’t impress anybody. But there are the times when we feel like all the spotlights are turned on us, and all the praises and admiration in the world are expressed for us, and these are our moments of triumph even if no one else knows that.
Pictures of my Grandparents and me. In the last image (1914) my Grandma is the one who is standing. The baby is my Great Granddad’s daughter from his second marriage. I named my daughter after her.
Photography tip of the day: For Nikon users starting out 🙂
http://photographylife.com/which-nikon-prime-lens-to-buy-first
Have a great day!
Making memories 
Old photos are fun, and historical. Sometimes they’r hysterical as well. Thanks for all the likes, etc. I was a bit worried about you, not having seen/heard anything from you, hidden in the land of leprechauns and three leaf clovers.
Thank you Ron – heavy rainfalls here, the leprechauns all drowned, and fish ate the clover… I have a problem with this blog. If I open it with Chrome and click my “likes”, they never stay… Last night I opened it with Mozilla and “liked” everything again.
I am posting once a week now. Too busy…
Fish eating clover = green fish. Quite appropriate for Ireland. Sorry to hear about your WP problem. It’s always something with WP. I’m on a Mac now, and it doesn’t play nice with the WP platform. Glad you’re okay. I just took on an almost daily (probably daily) post for the fortune cookie report. Thankfully it doesn’t take a lot of time, just a bit of pondering. Take care. 🙂
Will check out these cookies. Good you have got a load of them, now you can post every day 🙂
Take care you too! 😉
Precious dream (a look forward) and photos (look back).
Xxxx
Diana
Diana – thank you so much for your comment! That is life, dreams go with the youth, pictures – with the old.
My best wishes to you!
Inese
Beautifully written. I can also feel these links with my family. I’ve also been scanning some images.
Thank you Marie! Scan your old pictures to preserve them and to share. 🙂
Ines, your words had me thinking back to my own times with your grandparents, as well as daydreaming while looking for the shapes in the clouds 🙂 I enjoyed the photos too of course!
Thank you ! I hope you didn’t climb the roof for that, Christy 🙂
Another totally entertaining blog! Always makes me stop and think!
Thank you so much for stopping by and for your kind comment! I like to revisit my childhood experiences and watch them from the distance 🙂
This is a very touching post. Thank you for sharing all these lovely old family photos.
I think that you have achieved your childhood vision. You may not be an illustrator (or have I missed the post telling that you are one?), but you are a very talented and creative photographer. In addition, you are a very fine story teller. I like reading your bits of memoirs. I am certain that you can use this writing skill to write your own children’s books. 🙂
Thank you Imelda, you are too kind:) It was my childhood dream, probably it had something to do with the beautifully illustrated books and Richard Doyle:)
As to writing for children – I think that only the best writers should write for children, because children believe in what they read 🙂
Fabulous old photos,
Thank you! 🙂