Quick Catch Up

Hi again haven't been around for a while been busy with life. I have taken lots of pics and picked up a few more interests during this time away, so will hopefully start sharing them with you.  I had my son's wedding in April, and met up with my brothers and sisters who I haven't seen for years.  We had a brilliant time, although I will not be putting up pictures of the wedding it was in Leek Staffordshire and I have some wonderful pictures of the surrounding areas, not forgetting leek itself. 

 

I have started researching my family tree I have actually been doing it for sometime now, but since last year we have started to travel to key places, and visit cemeteries and buildings if they are still there. I have started contact with a few distant cousins who I didn't know existed so it  has been great fun.  This photograph is the family of my Great Grandfather born in Ireland in 1854.  His parents John Hill and Johanna Brennan where married in Cork in February 1854, it is virtually impossible to go further back.  However they moved to Oxford, and had 5 more children there.  Robert married Jane Sophia griffin and this is their family portrait. They ran a book shop for the Jesuit priests in Woodstock Road Oxford, the shop was partially in front of the Catholic Church St Aloysius.

Standing: Francis, Kathleen, my Grandfather Ernest William,
Sitting: Mary Ellen My Great Grandfather Robert,
 My Great Grandmother Jane Sophia Griffin, Celia Jane and
Agnes Winifred dated early 20th century.

Flickr is going well and I am now also on Ipernity  another photo sharing site.  While trawling around graveyards I decided to put some up on Flickr and was introduced to an American based web site called find a grave, the numbed  of graves and graveyards there have listed on there is amazing so I have joined that as well and I am putting up gravestones. We have several churches with graveyards and a large cemetery.  

Most graveyards seem to be ignoring the older and more interesting graves and keeping the newer graves tidy, which is fair enough, I suppose, but it is sad to see them turned into a nature reserve, or just ignored.  There are large expanses of green in between where the headstones have gone and over the years the grass has grown even, some stones are worn and damaged, but it is still interesting to read them, as you have to remember when they where laid to rest they where somebodies loved ones, and the headstone would have cost them a lot of money, to buy at the time.  

I am still hard at work, feeling old and achy, and being told that my retirement age is 66, it is a bitter pill to swallow.  I would actually like to spend sometime retired, but giving the hard work and emotional stress that care work can be, I will be surprised if I am in any fit state to enjoy it.  Never mind eh, I still go to the gym a couple of times a week to swim and do some Zumba fitness, I don't do much more than that as I fit it in around work, but it has made a huge difference to me, so I will definitely be keeping it up, and with all the walking I do as well I don't do so bad. Well that's enough for now, will post some more soon.

Me and my family out for a post wedding ramble.