Through the Eyes of Sisters - Topic: Old

I chose the topic - this week, again, all these visions of a super-wrinkly person National Geographic like photo filled my mind, or, or, or - an age old tree!  Gasp, OLD SHOES!  Old buildings, old cars, old hands, old clothes, old farm tools - and listen, I live in a 300-400 year old city, I am surrounded by old!  Of course, all of these ideas actually required me to dedicate something very precious: time.  HA!  That was never going to happen!  My sister did a great job, she said: "The topic pushed me to look into our local history of Taranaki, and it was actually quite interesting. But like any other place the world over the prominent story is one of war and violence ... ! I went to St Mary's Cathedral which homes the graveyard for fallen hero's of Taranaki, so lots of memorial stones, there was even one honouring Taranaki's fallen troopers in the South African war (as it reads) but the one that sparks my curiosity the most is the one in the pic, in amongst all these gravestones outlining the plight of the individuals is this weathered old cross, no engravings, nothing. I can't help but wonder who it belongs to and if anyone knows and why doesn't he or she have their name mentioned. How sad it makes me feel."  Here is her pic . . .

We have quite a few really old graveyards in Boston and in the surrounding towns.  I used to spend my lunch break when I worked in Boston visiting some of them, I used to love reading the inscriptions - they gave me more of a sense of what life was like, how long people lived, how many kids they had (and whether they had a sense of humor) than anything else since I have arrived.  One guy is buried next to his mistress while his wife lies on the other side of the graveyard - another gentlemen paid for all his servants and their families to be buried in the same graveyard as the rest of his family - a graveyard of stature.  There are headstones for children who died of what are considered curable diseases today, and the average life expectancy seems to be around 40 years.  Graveyards tell stories, and sometimes they give you the opportunity to create your own.

I did pretty well I think, as usual, I was on the run this week and so I brought my camera with me and had to snap at whatever I could, no time to go searching for old hands or trees that's for sure, but I still achieved my target - here I got an old man and an old car at the same time!:

And here is an old building:

This is a three storey building in Boston, they dug out earth floor basements or cellars and lined the walls with stone and concrete, then built brick on top.  The actual building looks like it is only JUST standing, I will take a photo of the whole thing sometime, I just liked the red, brick, black, grey and green.  Then, I got a picture of an old road - this is especially for you South Africans who think you are the only ones with potholes and patches on the patches!  I counted eight different colors of tar . . . (yes I know, I am counting tar colors, I can't be normal!)

This is a road in Quincy that I have to bounce down, not drive down, to deliver a veggie basket, I have to go slooooowwwwwlllyyyyyyy lest I bruise my plums!  And finally, this one is for Ryan who loved the 'wall art' in the bottom left corner - and yes, it is on an old building so it qualifies . . .

After that, there is nothing left for me to say.  I bid ye farewell, goode tidings and goode night.  Tag Heids, you're it!  Theme for next week please . . .