Posted by Lou. The time is 3.41pm here in London UK.
A picture of you and your family
Can you believe that I actually don't have a photo on file of me and my family?!
The closest I can do is this one of me and my niece (throwing a strop) sitting in the fireplace of what was my mother's childhood home. My niece is the first of what will be the 5th generation to have a connection to this little Southland sheep farm.
This chimney is all that is left of the home built by my mum's dad's dad after he and his parents and siblings emigrated to New Zealand from Galway in 1886.
Though my mum is the oldest of her generation, it was my uncle - the eldest of the boys - who took over the family farm, and has a house just behind the hedge.
In the late-90s we moved Grandma and Grandad off the farm into a smaller home in Winton. Both passed away in the ensuing years, and the house was demolished. The core wood was used to make us each a furniture item. (I got a coffee tray - though have been promised a chest if I move back to New Zealand...)
My uncle then sold off half the farm a few years ago and leased out his land as a form of semi-retirement, then realised that he is a Farmer through-and-through and took the remaining half back over.
I think we're all hoping that his daughter will return to her roots and take it over once he is ready for real retirement, keeping the farm in family hands for another century.
PS: I think this is one of the very last photos of me with brown hair!
Gosh, I always forget that you come from a farming family! I guess there are not too many clues in your present life ;) Did your parents ever expect any of you guys to, ahh, turn to greener pastures??
Errr no - no-one in my immediate family is a farmer (we're the "city" [ha! Invercargill!] branch of the family), and I think people would literally die of shock if I ever expressed any tendency towards that avenue...