Adjusting

I spent a big chunk of today dubbing hours of old home movies from VHS tape to DVD.  Dad had cine cameras from the early 60's when I was about four until the late 70's when I'd grown up and already started working for the BBC.  There were both chuckles and tears as I watched the grainy moving pictures of my schoolfriends, grandparents, aunts and uncles, cousins, sisters and of course Mum and Dad themselves.  We seemed to spend all our time on various beaches, digging holes in the sand and running into the sea, or riding bikes and chasing the poor dog around the garden at top speed.  And of course several trips to the zoo are included in the footage.  There's hardly a moment where we're sitting still!  Endless summer days playing badminton and snowy 60's winters sledging and having snowball fights ensured a wonderful childhood for me, my sisters and cousins.  Mum asked me to make the DVD copies so that we could watch them together.  She hopes that seeing Dad in happy times might help her to get past the traumatic memories of him being such a poor thing in his last few weeks of life.  Although we're able to get on with our daily lives and seem to be adjusting well, it's still hard deep down to get used to Dad not being with us.

The new camera is now charged up ready to go, and I've attached the strap to it and downloaded the manual ready to work through.  It's going to take some time to familiarise myself with everything, but it will be fun exploring.

The tiny flower in my blipfoto is an unusual pink African Violet.  The blooms come out in pretty clusters on trailing stalks.  My neighbour had an established plant which needed splitting, so she potted two crowns and gave this one to me.  It's wilted slightly with the shock of being re-potted, but hopefully it will adjust in time if I'm careful to water it correctly.