Saturday 9 January 2010

A Photographic Model

A Photographer's Model !


Today is my birthday. I am 67 years young and the photo depicts me at my first job, even though I wasn't aware of that at the time :-)


Being no expert at guessing the age of a baby, I can only estimate that perhaps the photo was taken when 7 months old ? You my readers or at least some of you will have a greater knowledge or experience of babies and be able to tell me whether my estimate is right or wrong ?


There is an earlier photo of me lying on a settee next to a large china doll, it is in a leather case up in the loft, a place that I am loathe to visit during the cold weather.

The temperature in these parts has not climbed above - 4C for over three weeks and today it snowed. We received about an inch or 2.5cm which is now sitting nicely on top of compacted ice and minor dustings of previous snow.


Today I will not be driving as I am now on my second glass of pear flavoured brandy and clutched between the fingers of my left paw is large Havana cigar, a gift from my widely travelled daughter when she recently visited Cuba.

We text each other occasionally you know as family do, we are a small family the consequence being is that we are somewhat independent.

So during Helen & Marks' (her better half!) visit to Havana I received a text saying

'We are lost'. I replied 'Give me a few minutes to think' and later said 'Take three turns to the left, cross over the main road & look to your right'. They did this and were back at the place they started from, however it was just a simple deduction on my part.

14 comments:

  1. Cheerful existence annual count...
    Joyous tallying....
    Grinny four seasons done again...
    Nah I remember...
    Happy birthday heron.....keep smiling
    xxxxxx

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  2. P.S. You look a bit lanky for 7 months!

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  3. Happy birthday Mel. You are just a hatchling.
    Enjoy your cigar, your brandy and what is left of your birthday. Next time Mrs Heron feels old age creeping up on her she can say "It's only Mel" All the best from T&G and all in Westport.

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  4. Happy Happy Birthday...to you
    May the weather warm up enough for you to go out and do some shopping!
    You look pretty spry for a PD and an OB..
    Blessings of the Natal Kind
    LN

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  5. Sounds like you were having a happy day there with the pear brandy and cigar... I think may be you were older than 7 months in the photo by the way. -4 and there abouts on the sea fringed edge of Exmoor too. Hope you had a lovely birthday cake aswell.

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  6. Happy birthday Mijneer! What a lovely mop of curls you had as a wee one. I too would guess you were older than 7 months. My caculation would be just over a year old. The cigar and the pear brandy sound like the right medicine for a cold day of blustery snow, but I wonder.....Does your daughter know about your deductive talents? Wonderful insight!

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  7. Happy Birthday Dad!! I love that photo of you ... it reminds me where my blonde hair comes from ... although i wish I'd inherited your curls too!!! VallyP - yes he has often sent earily correct texts or sent a text just as I'm thinking about him .... he's very intuitive like that ... but of course to me he's just my clever Daddy!! lol xx

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  8. Happy Birthday, dear Mr Heron's View! :))
    I trust you're having a joyous one.

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  9. I'd say about 11 months, 43 days! Cracking picture, have you changed much? Have a good year.

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  10. Happy Birthday, Heron!
    Love the photo!
    Hope you had a great day.

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  11. My gratitude to all of you for the birthday wishes and my thanks to those who have sufficient experience to correct me on what age that was I photographed. I had a quiet day indoors, due only to being virtually inaccessible because of snow at -10c, unless you had a tractor!

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  12. Belated birthday wishes my friend, I hope you had a grand day, great wee photo :)

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  13. Belated birthday wishes! What a great photo.

    xx
    AM

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  14. Ah, Mel the Holy Innocent, in a lovely portrait that many professional studio photographers with Hasselblads would find hard to emulate today , probably taken on a humble Brownie box camera ? As I always say, it's not the gun that counts, it's the man behind it :-)

    We will be babes again , Mel, entering the Other World, learning to crawl and walk and talk there all over again , and it will be the same for all of us regardless of our present creeds .

    That's what the Triple Spiral at the heart of Newgrange means to me, it's there for all the world, regardless of creed, colour or nationality , but we have bright summers in us yet if we mind ourselves !

    So I pondered as I photographed the first Catholic Church Confirmation of the year out in the lovely ' artists' colony of Thomastown, County Kilkenny, on Saturday last, for " The Irish Catholic " newspaper, no less !!! ( Hope CC doesn't read that ,but who cares GRIN ) .

    The new bishop here in Kilkenny, Seamus Freeman , is a fabulously spiritual man, born poorer than the poor themselves in a humble labourer's cottage, one of eight children to a casual farm labourer - and it shows in his humility . His biggest problem, here amongst the Cats, is that that old cabin of his childhood lies a mile over the Kilkenny - Tipperary border, in Tipperary, to his eternal mortification in the Land of our mortal enemies on the hurling field, the Tipperary Stonethrowers . But he can relax, as I assured the bishop, they'll never beat us in an All-Ireland Hurling Final, not as long as he's alive, anyway - he's 65 . He remarked to me that he was mightily relieved to hear that :-)

    Surely a man of power, Seamas brought out the lovely low Winter's Sun for his Confo, and the ancient Irish Druids produced a full moon of their own to end a perfect day . at Baile Mhic Andain .

    " Anois teacht an Earraig, ta an la dul chun sinnte,
    is tar-eis na Feile Bride ardoigh me mo shoil .....

    - Old blind Raisteiri the File always comes to mind to me at this time of the year .

    " Mise Raifteiri an File,
    lan dochais is gra,
    le suile gan solas,
    le ciunas gan cra,
    dul siar ar m'aistir
    le solas mo chroi,
    Fann agus tuirseach
    go deire mo shli -

    Feach anois me 'is mo cul le bh bhfalla,
    ag seinim ceoil do phocai folamh ! "

    Feel free to correct me if I'm not exactly right with the writing of it, but I'm remembering that famous poem of Raifteiri from school-days hard learnt, with plenty of physical punishment inflicted too to ensure it would be remembered for all time, back in 1959 .

    Happy Birthday , Mel, ah if you could only have stayed as in the photo, the womens' hearts are melting with love and desire looking at that bonny baby, but sure maybe they still are !

    Anyway, just drag out that photo, whenever required, to melt their hearts, keep it handy for the next election, har har har .

    Michael
    Drui Eireannach .

    ( Michael asked me to type and post this for him - Best Wishes for your birthday from me too, Katie ) .

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