What did you do in the Apiary today?

[The Poot]

Yes, nothing lasts forever. A day and a half and my parents house is cleared and empty and the history of my youth is gone.

It’s very distressing and a sudden break with the past.
On returning to the South after my Dads funeral (inSuffolk), we found our house broken into and burgled.

Now, the thing I find most poignant is using tools that were my Dads, but I’m so very pleased I have them.

 

[Macbear]

It’s very distressing and a sudden break with the past.
On returning to the South after my Dads funeral (inSuffolk), we found our house broken into and burgled.

Now, the thing I find most poignant is using tools that were my Dads, but I’m so very pleased I have them.

Very sad about the burglary.
It is so good to have tools that carry memories. Today, I was digging using a spade belonging to my late father-in-law. When I paint for my model railway I use my late mother-in-law's palette, and she gave me my carving tools. Many of my woodworking tools were my grandad's. Handling these things stirs reflection that those people took care of the work they did with those tools and believed that "if you look after your tools they will look after you."
Yes, certain aspects of our past are lost. Good ones can be etched into memory. Bad memories are best learned from and then binned to be replaced by new ones.
A brief spell looking at my hives today. Maybe 4 bees per minute going through the entrance isn't much, but they remind me of happy times in the season and offer hope that my colonies will overwinter.

 

[roche]

So many of the tools and books I use were given to me by people whose memory springs to life again whenever I use the tool, or read the book.

 

[drex]

My dad was a moulder, constantly shoveling sand. When he retired he brought his shovel home. It had a mirror finish on it. Now the blade is rusty , to my shame, but I love using it.

 

[Penninetrader]

Memories are in the mind and if you should ever lose that then photographs would be as looking at strangers.
My mother, as keeper of the family photos and those school reports, in her latter years liked to tidy out things no longer needed, those things ended up at the local hospice shop or dumped in the bin. Unfortunately carers usually helped in the disposal and one of those disposals seems to have included all those precious documents she had been sorting through. The "minds eye" recalls some of those photos and their circumstances. In times past photos were few and far between for most folks

 

[Penninetrader]

My dad was a moulder, constantly shoveling sand. When he retired he brought his shovel home. It had a mirror finish on it. Now the blade is rusty , to my shame, but I love using it.

A good polishing up and some beeswax is in order

 

[Penninetrader]

So many of the tools and books I use were given to me by people whose memory springs to life again whenever I use the tool, or read the book.

I have many of those and I feel entirely comfortable when making use of them. My beek pal left me quite a lot of equipment, some unused, aside from his home made random sized frames for which I curse him, whenever I make use of them I always say thank you Trevor.

 

[JamezF]

Memories are in the mind and if you should ever lose that then photographs would be as looking at strangers.
My mother, as keeper of the family photos and those school reports, in her latter years liked to tidy out things no longer needed, those things ended up at the local hospice shop or dumped in the bin. Unfortunately carers usually helped in the disposal and one of those disposals seems to have included all those precious documents she had been sorting through. The "minds eye" recalls some of those photos and their circumstances. In times past photos were few and far between for most folks

I think the only school report I still have says something along the lines of me being able to achieve much more if I could be bothered to put the necessary work in Not quite sure why I still have that one.

Everything else was subject to regular clear-outs thanks to my parents moving house on a fairly regular basis. I think by the time I completely left home at twenty-one we'd lived in six different homes. In one eighteen month period I attended five different schools (and wasn't kicked out of any of them).

James

 

[Penninetrader]

I think the only school report I still have says something along the lines of me being able to achieve much more if I could be bothered to put the necessary work in Not quite sure why I still have that one.

Everything else was subject to regular clear-outs thanks to my parents moving house on a fairly regular basis. I think by the time I completely left home at twenty-one we'd lived in six different homes. In one eighteen month period I attended five different schools (and wasn't kicked out of any of them).

James

You are clearly adaptable, 5 different schools that was a tough one. My reports generally referred to my being a pleasant polite boy and much the same as yourself in that I was more capable than my efforts. I think we learn and place effort into things of our own choosing. Bees are the real challenge, they test our ability to master and understand which keeps myself and I suppose others engaged. I personally love to learn. I want to learn you have sorted that door lock and I am confident you will

 

[JamezF]

I think the only school report I still have says something along the lines of me being able to achieve much more if I could be bothered to put the necessary work in

I just found said report. It contains such gems as:

"I feel he could produce an excellent result if he pushed himself harder rather than merely coasting along"

"He is a clever and interesting boy, sometimes using his ability to cover up for a touch of laziness"

"He is too often inconsistent in his effort to have made any real progress"

The second was from my house master. In retrospect he appears to have been remarkably perceptive

James

 

[Penninetrader]

I just found said report. It contains such gems as:

"I feel he could produce an excellent result if he pushed himself harder rather than merely coasting along"

"He is a clever and interesting boy, sometimes using his ability to cover up for a touch of laziness"

"He is too often inconsistent in his effort to have made any real progress"

The second was from my house master. In retrospect he appears to have been remarkably perceptive

James

I recognise all of that. You clearly would not enter their boxes, truly frustrates them. And here we are :}

 

[Erichalfbee]

And here we are :}

I went to Grammar School. My headmaster adhered to the notion that the boys went to university, the girls to teacher training college and `I was wasting my time as the only girl in my A level physics class trying to get to vet school...yet here I am.

 

[Garry R]

I think the only school report I still have says something along the lines of me being able to achieve much more if I could be bothered to put the necessary work in Not quite sure why I still have that one.

Everything else was subject to regular clear-outs thanks to my parents moving house on a fairly regular basis. I think by the time I completely left home at twenty-one we'd lived in six different homes. In one eighteen month period I attended five different schools (and wasn't kicked out of any of them).

James

One of my abiding memories was of my careers adviser telling me that I should go into something to do with banking or economics based on my excellent maths and English O level results. I wanted to do science and although my results were mediocre in physics, chemistry and biology I was able to proceed down that route. A Phd in Biochemistry 8 years later proved I was right but I am sure I would have made more money as a miserable banker!! Definition of an actuary - someone who found accountancy a bit too exciting!

 

[The Poot]

Preparing for sixth form at grammar, I was advised thus (in a report)
Physics: “I think he should concentrate on chemistry”
Chemistry: “I think he should concentrate on physics”

So I did neither…..

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

the only school report I still have says something along the lines of me being able to achieve much more if I could be bothered to put the necessary work in

I think I have one of those somewhere!
I had a box full of old photographs, some going back to the 1800's, but when I moved down the road to Brynmair they were somehow misplaced and I didn't realise until a few years later, that still plays on my mind.
One of the photographs was on a postcard as many were in those days and showed a cottage on a T junction called Carreg Issac, I didn't realise at the time but it was where my grandfather Arthur Jenkins was born in 1905 on the same farmland as Brynmair (both owned by cousins of my great grandfather) just a few hundred yards way from here but demolished in 1970 to widen the road for opencast traffic)
My mother is the custodian of hundreds of photographs from her side, and my stepfather's (as both families were close well before they married in their fifties they are relevant to us as well) and they are all packaged and labelled for me to rescue when she finally turns her toes - I've already had all the instructions, including the hymns she wants at the funeral.
I spoke to a cousin of mine not long ago - daughter of my father's first cousin whgo had absolutely loads of photographs from that side of the family as both her grandparents were from neighbouring farms going back to the mid early 1800's. When aunty Linda moved into a smaller place as she got older, she thought the photographs would be of no interest to anyone so burnt them all in the back garden

 

[Parsonage Bees]

I scanned and uploaded all the significant family photos to Flickr a few years ago and let the family know where they could browse and download them.
Unfortunately Flickr decided to stop giving this free space and they disappeared. Still have the originals and the scans. If anyone knows of a similar photo library please let me know. Flickr allowed you to search the photo description so if you wanted all the photos of Uncle Bert you could find them.
I had to search through heaps of photos as my Dad in his later confusion I think sorted them by "people who are smiling" or "photos including a dog".

 

[Macbear]

Preparing for sixth form at grammar, I was advised thus (in a report)
Physics: “I think he should concentrate on chemistry”
Chemistry: “I think he should concentrate on physics”

So I did neither…..

Having done some teaching I can say that report writing was a chore. Then there was the move to computerised report forms where there were banks of statements to "click and drop" - the obligation was to pick, say the 3 least irrelevant/untrue. My own school reports - my infant school didn't do them, just parents meetings [far more use]. The others did reports which were more of a reflection on the quality of the school/teaching - a tin-pot grammar school gave me some damning comments, probably because some staff were ex-military whose method was "I'll say this once and if you don't grasp it you will be in trouble.." [I accumulated some 43 detentions in 5 years and lined my underpants with carpet underlay to reduce the impact of various wooden artifacts applied to my posterior]. My post-school record would have startled all but my teachers in the infant and sixth form. Those were the happiest memories as the staff believed in me.
Photographs: I'm no photographer! However, I am the keeper of the family archive which has labelled images dating back to the faded sepia poses in the photographer's studio. Although many of those antecedents died long before I came along, it is curious to discover how physical characteristics persist. They also seemed to have some similarities in interests and values. I feel for jenkinsbrynmair as such items are irreplaceable.

 

[Penninetrader]

One of my abiding memories was of my careers adviser telling me that I should go into something to do with banking or economics based on my excellent maths and English O level results. I wanted to do science and although my results were mediocre in physics, chemistry and biology I was able to proceed down that route. A Phd in Biochemistry 8 years later proved I was right but I am sure I would have made more money as a miserable banker!! Definition of an actuary - someone who found accountancy a bit too exciting!

I know 2 actuaries and they in their real lives are quite interesting chaps. Accountants deal with what is and has been whereas actuaries deal with what will and could be, one requires analysis and imagination the other neither. As an aside, the younger of the 2 does quite well on the gee gees and always takes the week off to attend Cheltenham