Day 19.054: Throwback Thursday: 18 years ago

This adorable photo from exactly 18 years ago popped up in Google Photos today. 

Day 17.315: Throwback Thursday except on a Wednesday

Happy birthday to the guy playing my guitar in this photo from me (seen playing his guitar in this photo). 

Day 17.044: Flashback Friday: hat?

Not much to report at this end of the work-week, so here are some photos from 15 years ago today of E5N1 with some novel headwear. 

Day 17.029: Throwback Thursday - early art skills

15 years ago today - Exile #3 and some sidewalk chalk art. 

Day 14.046: Throwback Thursday - tiny people at the library

I know I did a throwback post yesterday, but it's Thursday now, so I can get away with another one. Here is a picture from Day 46 (February 25th) in the first year of the Exile:

I'll leave it to you to decide whether there are two, three or four tiny people in this photo.

Day 14.045: Rather warm for the time of year

At around 8 o'clock this morning I glanced at the weather app on my phone to find it was 45°F (7°C). Bizarrely warm even for middle of the day at this time of year. It wasn't enough to melt all the snow on the ground, but there were some pretty big puddles around this evening. I don't think they're going to freeze even overnight.

By contrast, this came up in my memories from 6 years and a day ago (I guess it was a bit below average temperatures that morning):

Day 14.012: The end of a week

It's been quite a week - busy at work, momentous in the country and ongoing-exhausting in the world.

I realized I'd never posted this here - a picture I took around Thanksgiving to send to a few people in lieu of school photos this year:

E5N1 is probably another inch taller by now.

Day 13.237: Happy Anniversary to us!

We've been married for 26 years today. Here is a non-wedding photo of us from around that time (a couple of months after the wedding). It's been a journey that neither of these youngsters could have predicted, but a pretty wonderful one so far!

Day 13.236: Squash: a load on the back of a truck

Back in the Exiles in New York days, I used to drive around (and at time work overlooking) various stretches of highway around Albany NY and I regularly posted pictures of curious traffic, this is just one (strange) example.

Today is - I think - the first such post since we moved to New England, and appropriately enough, it's a truck full of pumpkins (and other assorted squash):

Day 13.202: Another wonderful selection...

...from the auto-generated Google Photos "Then & Now" files:

"E5N1 and questionable water" perhaps?

Day 13.025: A tiny surprise

I was surprised - for a number of reasons - to get an email from Shutterfly with a reminder from "this week thirteen years ago". For one thing - I still have a Shutterfly account? For another - I've had it for thirteen years?

The strangeness did make me look at the photos it was reminding me of - a visit to Grafton Lakes State Park for their Winterfest a few weeks after we arrived in the US. Favorite discovery of the set was this gem that I had forgotten all about - a tiny Exile #4:

Day 12.210: How I met their mother

Sometime in late 1991 or early 1992, following the breakup of the band I had been playing in around the pubs and colleges of Oxford for the last couple of years, I was persuaded to join a church worship band - a very alternative one (for the time at least) as the lead guitarist. Exile #2 was a singer in this band.

At Easter in 1992, we recorded some songs at a church hall in Lincoln. It was still many months before I would have anything resembling a conversation with Exile #2 despite all this.

Our friend who was the band leader (although we didn't know each other terribly well at the time) has recently been posting some of the songs and most of them - including this one from that first recording - have held up pretty well considering they are more than 27 years old.

Day 12.184: Ten days ago...

Sometimes there are days like today - when the girls went to work, and we got some chores done around the house and no photos were taken and there are no stories to be told. Fortunately, sometimes I look back and find a day when too much happened to write about it all, so here is some old-news from a trip that four of us made to the beach before the fireworks on July 3rd.

I spent some time trying to catch the terns diving with limited success.

E5N1 got wet - fortunately he had dressed appropriately on this occasion!

We all crossed Goosefare Brook into Old Orchard Beach - some of us like this:

and one of us like this:

and just before we left we spotted this seagull picking this large and rather cartoon-like fish carcass clean:

Day 12.036: Passport photo time

The two youngest members of the family need new passports soon, so passport photos are on the list for this weekend. Hopefully this one will be better at keeping a straight face than he was in this previous session:

Day 11.258: Behind the scenes: passport photos

Ever since we moved to the US, we've had the issue of getting UK-sized passport photos done here. Eventually, I just took some myself and - since it seemed to work out - I started doing all our passport photos - US and UK ones. I tried various methods of getting flat lighting, a white or off-white background - including (apparently) a sheet in the back yard.

This flashback provided by the random nature of the Google uploader's progress through our photo archive!

First you have to keep your eyes open:

Don't smile, but don't look miserable either:

Eventually, they always managed to get it:

and I've never had a photo rejected on either continent.

Day 11.015: Throwback Thursday - Chinese goose

Another wonderful photo from the archives. Described by my father (who took it) as "Family and Chinese Goose". He chose not to mention the flamingos or the striking red clothes. I alone seem to have avoided the red, but I'm not sure I could carry off my outfit from that day any more either (even if I could find it in my size).

Day 10.310: Throwback Thursday: Karate test

While I was recapping our Mount Desert Island adventures I seem to have missed mentioning Exile #4's karate test back in October. Here are some frankly terrifying kicks and a happily promoted smile:

(photos courtesy of the dojo).

Day 10.296: Throwback Thursday: Auto-generated

Google Photos generated this and it has so many good moments, I thought you should see it too!

Day 10.268: Throwback Thursday: too cute!

Here's another one from the Google Photos archives - from nine years ago yesterday:

Day 10.240: Throwback Thursday: E5N1 and the tarts

One day a couple of weeks ago E5N1 told Exile #2 that he wanted to do some baking. This is what happened: