Thursday, May 7, 2009

My Father

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My Father

Dan of Mindful Heart suggested after reading yesterday's story of my father's garden that I post a picture of my father. Firstly I gathered together a few of the funky cards that I have made featuring my Dad.


As a child


A teenager


A young man


When I first began blogging I wrote a post based on Robert Herrick's 'Gather ye Rosebuds' and used the above picture of my father and his sister as the illustration.






After the war and his stint in the American Merchant Navy - he ran away to sea at sixteen years old - too young to join the New Zealand Armed forces - he spent time in the airforce, but any career there was halted by his colour blindness.




He meet my Mum at a dance at Sumner (remember Delwyn's Mistake and the confused hills recently posted about Sumner)



Every New Years we visited the carnival at Caroline Bay in Timaru where our grandparents lived. Here he is with the first of his three daughters. I am in his arms, looking a tad worried.




This is one of my favourite photos of my father. Just look at the size of his hands next to my first son. Then check out the 1970s decor - autumn sofa fabric and curtains and the ancient radiogram next to where he sits. It's all still there just the same.



My Dad enjoying a beer when out for lunch with his daughters.



This photo of my father hoeing his garden shows a quintessential 1950s suburban New Zealand scene- the red brick post war bungalow, the Hills rotary hoist washing line and the vegetable gardens...


Today I have been reflecting on the things that I learned from my father and there are many qualities, attributes and values that I have emulated in my life but the few that stand out are the importance of family, honesty, hard work, organisation and independence and the love of gardening and writing.


Thankyou Dad...


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35 comments:

  1. Love your post,love my father so I love your dad too.What a great dad you have,happy days to you! xxx Sandra

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  2. This is a wonderful post, it's very touching.

    I have a collage of my family photos on my kitchen wall and they also include tons of old pics of my parents. I love looking at it, it makes me feel the part of a bigger picture. But also it makes me realise how the time flies...

    Oh, and the quintessential NZ garden scene is very much a quintessential UK garden scene! People like the same things, wherever you go...

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  3. Lovely dad you have Delwyn..looks pretty healthy!..colour blind, what a terrible thing to have I almost can not imagine it.
    xxx Mona

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  4. Aleksandra,

    You say the loveliest of things, thank you.
    and Happy Days to you my friend too

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  5. Polly,
    I am enjoying your chatty contributions to these pages very much. Thanks for befriending me.
    I think that part of the reason that I get so homesick for my own home when I am visiting NZ is that creeping feeling of age breathing down my neck and I want to pretend it's not happening to me...
    Gather ye Rosebuds...

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  6. Mona -
    don't worry - it seems to be a boy thing... I think they still see variations in colour -the intensity of light but find it hard to distinguish between them...
    This photo was a couple of years ago and he appears more frail now.
    Happy days

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  7. Really great pop you have. Now I can see where you get all that positive optimism in you. I feel energised reading your blog cos you give out such good vibes.

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  8. We had the same fabric on one of our sofas (ugh) and those curtains! I don't see any gold flocked wallpaper though!!

    Lovely tribute to your dad.

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  9. Stiletto
    thank you for your lovely comments.
    I am happy to have you around.

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  10. Violet,
    the house is still the same as it was - over thirty years ago! We can't imaging living that way now can we...
    Happy Days

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  11. What a wonderful journey through your dad's life. Every picture is more wonderful than the one before it.

    You do look a tad worried in the pic of your family.

    How lucky you are to have such a great dad. Bravo!!

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  12. What lovely photos!
    I love the pictures from you dad's garden too!

    ...that beer your dad's got is mighty huge! :-)'

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  13. A lovely, lovely tribute --- to your dad, to the passage of time, to the transmission of values from one generation to the next.

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  14. Thanks for sharing your dad's pictures. You must be beaming with joy with all these beautiful memories.

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  15. Dear Delwyn , you have been so busy with your lovely posts and I am so behind with everything! That is the trouble with such a big place -- there is too much to do! Your Dad looks lovely, such a warm smile and twinkling eyes!I do so enjoy seeing old photos, then the uptodate ones. Gardening is so fruitful, but hard work keeping things going. Your dad looks like he knows what to do!

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  16. What a marvellous post this is! I absolutely adored it! Your father was (is) a handsome man indeed. And he is lucky to have a daughter like you. It brought back snapshots of my childhood with my dad, too. Many thanks for sharing these memories with us.

    Greetings from London.

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  17. Beautiful beautiful post, Delwyn! Thank you so much for sharing these photos and the wonderful memories.

    Your father is very lucky to have a daughter like you!

    My father lives far away, and your loving tribute to your dad made sweet melancholy rise in my chest. I truly loved reading this.

    Grazie.

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  18. Lola,
    It is nice when a story like this generates memories and emotions in others.
    Thank you for your generous comments.
    Happy Days

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  19. Mr Cuban,
    I'm glad you enjoyed the post and remembered some of your boyhood adventures with your dad. These links are what connect us to values attitudes and aspirations.
    Happy Days

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  20. Delphine,
    Its nice to catch up.
    Yes My dad is a very proficient gardener - especially vegetables. He shares them around the neighbourhood.
    Happy Days

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  21. Rosaria,
    Before blogging I was passionate about making postcards and spent many many happy hours dredging through old photos and memories, and then creating something new from them.
    I will send my parents a copy of this post to enjoy.
    Happy Days

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  22. Thanks Meri,

    I love doing this excavation work - sort of an archeology of the family and memory. And you know it well!
    Happy days

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  23. Tulsa,
    Hi there, perhaps the beer became magnified - it does look big!!!
    Happy Beer days

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  24. Reya,
    thanks for your kind interest. And yes I am proud of my Dad but more so grateful for the strong values and ethics that he instilled in his girls.
    Happy Days

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  25. The old pictures are wonderfu, and reminds me how important photos are! Holding time in your hand, and for loved ones, it's priceless. I am not close to my dad, so it's nice to hear about others' love.

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  26. Jennifer,
    I am sorry you are not close to your Dad. My father was a very strict disciplinarian when we were young but has softened over the years.
    We have to remember our roots - how we are the same and how we are different...
    I find visiting the old home quite upsetting - like a time warp and I am the little girl again in their domain. I long to return to my real life when I am there. But I love to see them too. My Dad always said, "Getting old is a real bugger!" I now know what he means as I hear the tinnitus ring in my ears, and grope around for my computer glasses...

    But I am loving my life now in this the autumn stage, where I am free to choose...
    So Happy days my friend...

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  27. Thank you so much for posting about your dad. He looks remarkably like my dear beloved father in law, Pete Glade. I wasn't too surprised to see the resemblance because the photos of you in 1973 look so much like those of my wife taken in the same year.

    I have grown more and more fond of my parents and my wife's parents over the years, a process continues even as I visit their graves. Their countless gifts and measureless generosity emerges as my memory loses track of their foibles. It's very odd, somehow, that you can love so strongly people who've passed on.

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  28. Dan,
    I love your comments and it is true that the foibles they have which can seem so annoying fade over time as the bigger picture emerges ( and we collect our own irritating foibles!)

    I suppose that the manner in which love transcends time and lifespans is the way that we keep these people alive. And I have always felt that where ever they are at this time they can still feel that love we are expressing now.

    Happy days

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  29. Delwyn I just came from looking at your Dad's flowers and they are so beautiful.

    The pictures of your Dad and then your Mom and you kids was such a treat to see.

    Very handsome family you have.

    I know you cherish your Dad. Cherish him more and more. My Dad died in September last year and I miss him very much.

    p.s. He also met my Mom in a dancehall in Scotland during the war.

    Love Renee xoxo

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  30. simply beautiful...thank you for sharing this, Delwyn.

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  31. Renee,
    did you notice the matching sun dresses we have on, she must have made them all?
    Happy Days and memories

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  32. Hello little moonshin,
    how are things with you,
    time I paid you a visit...

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  33. Delwyn, you have done a great job of collecting & preserving family photos. One day I must get to the place where I keep mine. I loved my father but have few photos of him. He died when I was 18 and I sometimes wonder what my feelings toward him would have been like if he had lived into my adult years. I think he was wise and I hope that as an adult I would have continued to think he was the perfect dad.
    Oh, so much to ponder if I dare...

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  34. Hi Lizzy,
    I am sorry that you lost your dad so young. My feelings have certainly changed over the years with maturity and wisdom. I can now see that my father's discipline was born of love and protection and not intended to stifle our fun or break our spirits. In fact, I think that his strictness has shaped me to become a more mellow and accepting person, having had that sternness as a reference point.

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  35. Wow! A great post about your father.
    He is certainly a hero to you and your family.
    He has passed down his teaching to you and
    moulded you to become a great lady with many talents & good qualities in characters:)

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