Thursday, September 13, 2012

Photos.

After careful weeding, we now have 5 albums and 3 baskets of photos left. That's a good half gone.

I've been debating whether to scan the ones that are left, save them on the computer and chuck the real things. It would certainly save a lot of space. 
I was a baby when we had this dog whose name I do not know.

But there's nothing like photos you can actually hold in your hands, that get crumpled if you're not careful, and that turn brown with age. In fact, if you ask me, the spottiness just makes them more attractive.

Here is my very 1st dog, Cookie. I always thought I had a picture of him looking at me, his bum to camera. I haven't seen that anywhere, which is worrying and I'd forgotten all about this one.
Cookie wasn't a big dog. He just looks that way here because I was smaller then, somewhere around 9 or 10 years old at a guess. 

*

As Cookie grew older, and because I nagged and begged him, my father got another dog to add to the family. Her name was Shandy. She was a boxer, not too big, and was fawn coloured with a white star on her forehead. She was possibly the most gentle dog we had. 

A few months after we got Shandy, and for reasons unknown, my father decided to get a little dachshund. He was black and tan and arrived in a box labelled PLEASE TAKE GOOD CARE OF ME. He'd travelled on a train from another town. He was tiny and was predictably named Mickey.

The thing I most remember about Shandy is how maternal she was, even though she must have been less than a year old then. Being so small, Mickey was kept in a pen in the shed for safety. He wasn't too happy about that and howled away. Shandy insisted on keeping him company and would sleep with him every night. 

She was a lovely dog. I wish I knew her better. She died prematurely from cancer.

The thing I most remember about Mickey is hauling him up to my tree house in a basket while Cookie and Shandy went berserk below. He obviously didn't have vertigo issues. Mickey was an excellent ratter and once caught a very pregnant one. As I stood by admiring his handiwork, a baby rat got squeezed out of mama rat in his jaws. I guess I wasn't a squeamish child. Mickey had jaundice later in life and also died prematurely.

I'm still finding it hard to believe I have NO pictures of Shandy and Mickey to show you. Not a single one.

*

I don't think I've ever told you about Pepper. 
"Is it dinner time yet?"

We got him when I was about 16. He was 1 of a litter of labrador pups born just down the road from where we lived. 

Pepper loved water and would stand in front of the garden hose every time we watered the plants. He had a pretty good vocabulary and could pick out objects like stick, newspaper, bowl and different toys. Every morning, he would fetch the newspaper from the gate for my father. He was excellent at finding things and people, and hide and seek was his favourite game. 

I left for uni when Pepper was about 4. I think he must have been quite lonely. My parents and nanny were old and wouldn't have played with him as much as I did. 

Pepper's downfall was food. We weren't good at controlling his diet, he got fat and his legs started to give way. Although my parents then put him on a diet, I guess it was too late.
"Are you sure it isn't dinner time yet?"

I'd already started working [in another city] when I heard that Pepper's paws had started to rot from the effort of supporting his weight. [I wonder if that's true, as it sounds quite odd to me now.] It got to a point where he had to be carried about. It was just too much for the old folk to handle, so Pepper was put to sleep.

He must have been about 8 or 9. Young still.

This little one is Caliph. 
He was the 1st dog Cushion and I had as a couple, and the 1st and last dog we'll ever get from a breeder. He had a piece of paper, champion parents, and a fancy long name but I no longer remember what it was.

Though he looks like a sweetie here, Caliph was aggressive and would try to bite us if we approached him at feeding time. It was a bit shocking to see a snarling, snapping 3 month old puppy. But we loved him and did the best we could to make him happy.
Caliph died when he was only 8 months old from parvovirus, despite being up to date with his shots. I remember his last 24 hours very well because I was with him as he purged from both ends and had blood transfusions with blood from the vet's own dog. I'll never forget the smell. 

I was supposed to go for my driving test that day and never made it. I still don't have a driver's licence. [I'm sure Cushion will say that's no excuse.]

Of course, you've met Farouk and Jehan.

And Jordan and Rufus.

Despite having thousands of photos of Georgia, we don't have a single one we can hold in our hands.

*

Here are a few other favourite photos I'd like to share which have nothing to do with dogs.

I'll be keeping these too.


Malaysia.
These were taken in Chinatown in Kuala Lumpur.
I love chestnuts and look forward to them every winter. I roast mine in the oven. I wish they tasted like the roasted chestnuts in the picture below! 
I'm not sure what the man is roasting them in but I think it may be coffee beans. That's what it smells like. The chestnuts have that flavour in them and are divine.

India.
These were taken in Rajasthan.
I love this sign! I think it's for a dentist.

This man was cycling to pump petrol for his van. How cool is that?

I like taking photos of people when I travel, much more than landmarks. Although I don't know any of the people who were photographed here, I wonder where they are now and if their lives have changed.


Nepal.
These were taken in Kathmandu and Pakora.


I like photographing animals too. 

Even dead ones.

Looking through my photos over the last week has made me realise what a lucky girl I am.
In a small plane over the Himalayas.

*

Once again, thank you for keeping me company this week! My question for today -

What are some of the photos that would describe your life? If you have a blog, maybe you could post and share them. I'd love, love, LOVE to see them :) X







30 comments:

Anonymous said...



Don't throw out the vintage ones - please!

A shoe box full of images is worth more that stuff on a USB stick..

Chapeuzinho said...

I love all your photos. So many dogs.

I think I love the Himalaya shot the best, the mountains look like waves in a stormy sea.

georgia little pea said...

I won't, Grrl! Promise!

Oi, Chappers. There were more between The Dog Whose Name I Don't Know and Cookie. I just don't have the pics. Missing you X

koko said...

Thanks for sharing photos of the dogs in your life. Such sweet memories. Yes, over here in M'sia, chestnuts are roasted over a big wok with coffee beans and sugar... and it's my favorite snacks too. I have posted about it here.

Licks, hero

georgia little pea said...

Thanks Hero! I just went to read your post. Sugar was the missing ingredient! I tried it once here but it tasted NOTHING like the real thing :)

What Remains Now said...

Boy, I'm right in the thick of this myself. I will be posting about it, proving that I am totally crazy. I loved looking at your photos and that's what I'm try to keep in mind...unless your photos serve you, they are a burden. I want to get away from the place where I think of my photos as burdens. I'm going to post about my continuing journey today, but it's going to have to wait until after I get home from work. Long day today.

georgia little pea said...

Lori, I look forward to that. Bet those photos will be as interesting as your heirlooms.

booahboo said...

Actually you DON't throw photos away... esp old ones.. just take them with you... if you can. I think we have photos of my mom and dad when they were in their teens.. *LOL* stuffed in some drawers and they are still in good conditions :)

love the photos of you and your dogs... such great memories. You are so lucky to have grown up with so many dogs in your life.

(i'm gonna stuff the whole comment in 1 comment)

i forgots what i wanted to say... oh... chestnuts.. i don't like to eat them... but i do love the smell of those fellas when i am at Petaling Street.. when did you come? how come you didn't come look for meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee... (ok ok.. that probably was from a very long time ago and mebbe.. *ahem* i was not born yet) *LOL*

i love to take pics of people too... sometimes stealing your smiles... if only i have a telephoto lens again.. those fellas are expensive.

i wanna go to Nepal next year... hopefully (pls don't tell my dad) i wanna go alone and hopefully still come back. Its kinda been my dream to go there.

think this comment is long enough.. before you keel me off :p

H and Flo said...

I love those travel pics (and the others too)... the stories written on people's faces are so interesting. :)

All my photos that may invoke nostalgia are (thankfully) many thousands of km away. I'm not ready for a big bout of childhood memories at the moment.

I do laugh at friends who take photos with their iphones and use an app. to make them look like photos from my youth! Retro they call them. Bah. When did my youth become 'retro'??

Jean said...

I am just about to start the process of weeding out old print (and digital!) photos. I was searching through big containers of them the other day (I never did get around to putting most in albums), looking for a picture of a particular dog and for family pictures (for two projects). Overwhelming task, full of overwhelming memories. I don't have a scanner, but someday a future post may show the dogs of my life and/or my ancestors and childhood. Just have to narrow down a kazillion photos into a couple of dozen to have scanned somewhere.

You have some great shots. I love the one of the two women (mother and child?) and of the woman smoking, in Kathmandu and Pakora.

Kirsten (peacefuldog) said...

Have you considered doing this for a living? Your photos are so incredible.

Some of my most treasured photos are also from before everything was digital; there are whole intervals from which I only have a couple of photos because I didn't have a camera. Now, I can't imagine that--I document everything! That's what blogging'll do to ya.

Jan said...

Please don't throw the photos away. I'm sure you will be sorry five minutes after it's too late.

Loved your history of dogs. I got my only childhood dog when I was three and she died when I was 18. She was a Chihuahua and refused to accept another dog or cat in the house. All my memories of childhood involve her.

Sherri / 2Rescues said...

Thank you for sharing so much of your life. The story of Caliph touched me. I guess because he was so young.

Like so many other people, I've swtiched to digital photography. I miss the old pictures. We don't look at them like we used to because they are all buried on a computer. And there are SO many. I got for more quality pictures prior to digital....I copied my backup hard drive to a new computer, and, I kid you not, it transferred 10,000 images. Guess I'm trying to say don't throw out the old ones that mean something to you...scan for safe keeping, but don't toss them!

georgia little pea said...

Anny, I won't be throwing away any old family or dog pictures. Still thinking about the newer ones though. And BTW, I am old but not geriatric, OKAY? ;) The KL pics were from the late 90s.

"When did my youth become retro?" ..... BWAH haha! Classic, Fab! I actually installed Instagram on my iPhone and found it interesting for 2 minutes.

Hey Blue Ribbon photography winner! :) Apart from those 5 ancient albums, all our photos are also loose and in plastic bags and baskets. I don't know what despairs me more... the space guzzling hard copies or the thousands of useless fuzzy images of Georgia on the computer (which I am also slowly deleting). I look forward to your photo post because I know already that it's going to be AWESOME! Please include lots of piggy photos :)

Kirsten, thank you. Of course, for every 1 nice photo, I probably took 100 snaps LOL. Blogging has made me super snappy too. Sometimes I feel like we're our own paparazzis. One thing I don't like about carrying a camera around (or in my case, the iPhone) is that I'm so busy looking through the lens, I forget to experience the place/people/moment. Do you know what I mean?

Dear Jan, your chi certainly lived a lot longer than my childhood dogs! Writing about them makes me wonder why they all seem to have died relatively young. They ate well and were looked after as well as the time and circumstances allowed. Bit of a mystery and no one left now that I can ask.

Sherri, I definitely got more quality photos in the old days. I guess because we had to develop those rolls of film which could add up to quite a lot of money, I was much more careful about what and how I was shooting! Did you ever come home from a holiday or special event only to discover, after having your rolls developed, that your photos were crap? OMG! ;)









houndstooth said...

You have some fantastic photographs! What beautiful and interesting places you've seen on your travels! I envy you.

Hmm...photos that would describe my life...I'd have to ponder that for a while. THere's one I love from a few years ago of my husband and I with my sister. There's one of me with my favorite childhood dog, and a few of me with the horses I had growing up. I suppose the pictures I've taken as an adult might say more about me than the pictures that I'm in as a child.

georgia little pea said...

Bunny's mama, would you post those photos one day? I'd love to see them. And a photo of that silo with the tree, please :) I haven't forgotten that!

Pamela said...

I've loved all your nostalgia posts. I didn't go into comment world because I knew I'd never come out.

I'm going through a similar process but it's a little different than yours. I look at objects and ask myself if they're going with me on a boat. Most of the time the answer is no. So I think of the person who will have it in the future and the enjoyment they'll get from it.

I don't find the past a very happy place so I don't really get nostalgic.

However, your 1970s stickers made me want to give you a gift. Here's one of my favorite songs by one of my favorite singers: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdbG6WkUsQ0. It's very evocative of its time. Thought you might enjoy it.

georgia little pea said...

And you've been sorely missed, Pamela :) I totally understand though. Trips down memory lane aren't for everyone. I think I'm done with it myself. I'm sure your situation is even more dire than mine. If I had to fit everything into a boat, it'd have to be the size of one of the Packer yachts.

I will go listen to the song now. Will I need a hanky (not tissue)? I found a few yesterday, taped into a photo album pocket. Bizarre.

Rose ~ from Oz said...

I love this typist, all those cultures and places you have visited - wow! Aw, and all those dogs!!
I did the photo thing a few years ago and cut it down to one suitcase full. I was everso pleased. ONE suitcase. A large one of course.
I love seeing your pictures and "stuff". It's evoking great memories for others as well. So these are very interactive posts Typist!
My printer/copier/scanner is kaput, and I don't know when I'll be replacing it so I can't scan any of my old stuff at the moment - maybe one day hey?
xx

georgia little pea said...

Bless your heart for saying that, Rose. I see it as a week of self-indulgence myself LOL.

Did I fail to mention NO SCANNING? All the pics in this post were shot on the table with my trusty iPhone. So you know they're real photos :) I had to zoom in and enlarge a couple of the old doggy ones because the dogs would have been too tiny otherwise.

One large suitcase eh? ;)

booahboo said...

the 90s? hey... i could have been there too... having porridge by the stalls.. i used to be at that part of the town a lot...

geriatric? no? hehhehehehee

Peggy Frezon said...

Thanks for the fun sharing your life today. Sad to lose a pet, no matter when or how young or old. But you have had many wonderful connections with dogs all your life, I can tell. I have a bazillion photo albums and it would take a bazillion years to scan all the photos...or even the best of. So for now it's a project that probably won't happen. But I have scanned a few photos of my dogs, and if I get a chance I'll put them in a blog sometimes. My childhood dog was a stray beagle-lab mix I named Happy, and he was just one of those special dogs. I've written about him quite a bit.

sonia a. mascaro said...

Wow! What a great serie of photos. Yes, you are really a luck girl. So many dogs to delight your life...

You are such a very talented photographer. Great pictures from Malaysia, India, Nepal...

What are some of the photos that would describe my life? Well... I just thinking... but for now I don't know...

Please, don't throw out any photos.
Hope you all have a good weekend.
Kisses to you and to Georgia too.

georgia little pea said...

Peggy, I look forward to seeing some of your old doggies and hearing their stories one day. I'm so glad I was able to give all my old dogs another 15 minutes here. Now I won't be the only one who remembers them :)

Oi Sonia! There are already so many interesting and amazing photos from your life in your blog. I loved meeting your ancestors too! Did you have childhood dogs? Tenha um grande fim de semana! X

Karen Friesecke said...

I'm with you on holding a *real* picture in my hands. I've got tons of photos of Dexter and I haven't printed a single one.

Thank-you for sharing your pictures. And you have inspired me to make a post about the dogs in my life.

georgia little pea said...

Karen, that would be great! I can't wait to clean out Georgia's pictures. Even if they take up no physcical space, it's still too much rubbish.

chandra said...

You have a wonderful eye, typist! Going through your shots of your past travels must be inspiring your for future journeys.

I'm going the opposite direction with photos from recent years. I've been having all the digital ones printed to put in albums and I'll still hang on to the digitals. I only started using a digital camera in 2006 but it's still going to take me forever to have them printed.

-c at ddy.

melf said...

Wow. Now I am really glad I can go back and read all of your posts and enjoy all our pictures. Just wow.

Two things struck me as I read and took in all your wonderful stories and photos - you have probably have more knowledge of the various breeds of dogs than anyone I know (because you have had so many different kinds) and you are really good at taking pictures of people and animals in every day life. I hope you keep those. They are magical.

I was sad to think I couldn't se a picture of Shandy (she sounds like a wonderful dog) and equally sad to read about Pepper. Labs will gorge themselves incessantly if they can. I have seen waayyy to many fat Labs to count. It's one of the things I have tried to manage with Daisy. She looks really good for an 8 1/2, almost 9, year old. I know that will be important as old age and arthritis comes.

Thank you so much for sharing your journey. I am loving this.

georgia little pea said...

Chandra - Reading your comment makes me realise (yet again) how young you are LOL! I was just thinking I wish I'd photographed the edges of some old old pictures to include in this post. The ones with serrated edges. You don't remember them? Baby! :)

Melf - thank you for going back and reading all the nostalgia posts. I'm so happy that you enjoyed them and thanks for sharing your own memories!

Re: my knowledge of dogs. The only thing I know for sure is that our understanding of dogs and how to train, feed and look after them has changed a lot in the last 50 years! It's certainly a lot more complicated now. Also, whenever I see a fat lab (which is sadly too often), I feel sad and just hope it doesn't end up like Pepper.

Tootsie said...

Ms. Georgia.

I've been thinking about your -- um, the Typist's -- journey down memory lane. I don't think it is indulgent. I think it is the stuff of life. Thank you for sharing so much with us.

You make me wag,
Love,
Tootsie