Hello Kittens & Dawgs, I’d like to first invite you to vote in yesterday’s BoTB. Did you vote? Go ahead, I’ll wait for you!
Alrighty, now that you’re back I will resume. 🙂
Last week Tuesday Chatter hosted by Eugenia from BrewNSpew word challenge was ‘gloaming’. Poetry eludes me till words play out in my head and that’s what happened on Thursday, the word came together using my recent sketch I call Autumn Bliss.
©2018 Cathy Kennedy
In the gloaming…
the day’s humming ending
shifting to night’s beginning
sitting in my quiet
I contemplate my diet
over the riot
between naughty & delicious
and healthy & nutritious
how will I decide
Last month, you might remember we went back to DH’s boyhood home to collect some things that belonged to us and to get some items that were left to him in his parents’ will. I managed to score on getting some family photographs, not all of them but some. I’m currently working on scanning old pictures and documents to digital format to share with others. It makes looking at these sorts of things a lot easier if they are organized in computer files instead of in albums or boxes.
One of the old pictures I scanned was severely damaged. Years ago the same photo was in a family album which I scanned but the quality wasn’t the best so I did it again now that I have it. I used a high resolution for this scan, then I decided to play with it in Pixelmator to see what I can do with it. The results stunned even me and I was the one working with it.
I’ll never get the picture purrfect but it’s far improved with the adjustments made using Pixelmator. I’m rather happy with the way it turned out. What do you think?
You’re probably asking, who’s in the picture? The adult male is Charlie Mullins (DH’s maternal grandfather), the adult woman is Bertha Mullins Mullins. No, that’s not a typo. Mamaw was a Mullins before she married Paw. 🙂 The little girl to the far left (your right side) is my late mother-in-law, Dorothy with her sister, Edna next to her, the baby is her sister, Orpha, and the boy I’m not sure which brother it is. There are two other siblings not pictured. I sorta suspect they might have been in school at the time the photograph was made but I’m can’t swear to that. Hopefully, someone can tell me more about the photograph.
I shared a tribute shortly after Dorothy passed in this memory post, however it just occurred to me that I failed to do one for my FIL but I thought I did. I guess it just slipped my mind considering everything that’s on our plate this year. 🙁
I’m linking up taking a coffee break for some with Random Tuesday Thoughts with Stacy Uncorked and you’re invited to come with. Tomorrow, I hope you’ll join me for not-so Wordless Wednesday.
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In the poem, I’m needing naughty and delicious 🙂
And what an amazement with the photo changed! You did well my dear!
I love seeing old photo memories and love when they are kept for the next generation.
Colette,
Yeah, it’s hard to not go with naughty and delicious. 🙂
Oh and I forgot to add that I got a giggle out of those movie poster, especially the Hairy Pawter one! 😀 I think I’ll have to show my mom the Paws one, though, because Jaws is the scariest movie on the planet for her, she’s deathly afraid of sharks, so I think she’ll get a kick out of your version.
Melody,
Oh, I can relate to being scared of sharks. I saw Jaws in the theater when it came out and it terrified me to death! That summer I went to the beach with my uncle and his wife. Wouldn’t you know it, he came up from under the water to grab me. I nearly fainted dead! What a meanie, right? lol
So nice to know I’m not the only one with family who’d do stuff like that! LOL I don’t think I would’ve been able to go back into the water for the rest of the summer after that.
Melody,
I never liked deep water after a particular traumatic childhood experience in a friend’s swimming pool and after seeing Jaws I became more apprehensive about going into unfamiliar waters. Nowadays, just forget it! You won’t catch me sticking even a toe in a lake or ocean. Yes, lake! People are doing the craziest stuff like releasing alligators in lakes and such. It’s just not safe anymore. Perhaps paranoia will save my life someday. 😀
So many things to comment on…first, love your sketch! That fire sure looks real and blazing with the colors you used, so beautifully done! I especially like your personalized coffee mug – or maybe it’s hot cocoa? 😀 Second, I think I must have only heard a cover of this song before. I recognized it, but seems different from what I remember, maybe a little slower, so I think I heard someone else’s rendition of it, but great pick!
Lastly, I’m so impressed by how well you were able to fix your family photo. My dad, sister and I are family genealogists and have so many old family photos. I will have to keep this program in mind if we ever run across any in desperate need of fixing. It turned out really nice. I hope it prints out for you just as well!
Melody,
I’m glad you liked my sketch. When I drew the mug I had a hot cup of coffee in mind but hot chocolate works, too. Westlife, Nirvana, & Damon Albarn covered this song. Is it one of these artists you heard? I didn’t even know about these renditions until I did a little digging.
Pixelmator is an Apple app. I’m not sure if there’s a Windows based version but if not you can similar repairs with photo-editing programs. Just make sure they have a ‘healing’ feature. The icon is a bandaid. I haven’t tried to print this yet but hope to do so soon.
Must’ve been Nirvana, since that’s the only one I’m familiar with. Thanks for the information on the ‘healing’ feature, I’ve seen that bandaid icon before on Photoshop and Gimp, so that’s good to know! 🙂
Melody,
You’re welcome, my friend!
That photo did come out nice after editing. I like your drawing too.
Thanks, Ellen!
You did a fabulous job with that photo!
How will we decide, indeed? Too often taste trumps nutrition.
Mimi,
I agree, taste trumps nutrition every time.
I thought I had better make my way over here before I completely lose track of my time today (it’s still Tuesday, right?) I honestly don’t know anymore…
I do like my crappuccino. Favorite flavors being English Toffee and Mocha Mint. These two seem to satisfy my need for caffeine and sweets – kind of like a two-fer special.
It’s been forever since I had heard Seasons In the Sun. I remember being in elementary school in the early 70s (around the time the song was popular) and our music teacher had us learn the words and song. Fun memory.
Thanks for playing along today!
~Mary
Mary,
Anytime I have a flavored latte then that satisfies both of my cravings, too. Yeah, I remember when ‘Seasons in the Sun’ came out. It always made me so sad to listen to, too.
Glad you were able to improve the photo. Makes a difference.
Jan,
Yep, it sure did! 🙂
I love your sketch and am glad to see more of your sketching. I wish I could be sitting back and reading a book right now:) Your poem is very good and I enjoyed it. You did an amazing job fixing that old photo. There were so many cuts across etc… that, now, it looks like a professional fixed the photo. I went back to see your post about your mom in law. She was a real looker! I agree with Shady, she could be a Jane Russell or Jeanne Crain.
Birgit,
I’m happy you liked my sketch. It was fun to do. The photo fixes sure did improve the looks of the image. I’d like to print it off to see how it does. That’ll be the real test. 🙂 My mother-in-law was a gorgeous young woman in her day. I never thought of her looking like Jan Russell before the mention but I see that now. I’m had to look Jeanne Crain up and even after I did, I don’t know her. But, WOW, she was beautiful! I did a quick run of her films. We saw an older Cheaper By the Dozen movie but I don’t think it was the one she was in, though. I’m gonna have to figure which one we saw now. Anyhow, thanks for popping over!
You did a great job making that old photograph look better. There was a time that folks wrote the names of everyone on the back of those old photographs. Sure helped with knowing who was who.
It’s always amazing to see your ancestors so young.
Have a fabulous day, Cathy. Love you. ♥
Sandee,
My father-in-law was good about writing on his old pictures but this photo had been glued to the page so if there was writing on the back then I can’t easily get to it without possibly destroying the image. I don’t want to chance it. It’s really cool to see family members so young.
It is amazing what photo repair tools can do. I’ve done similar with Photoshop. It grabs nearby pixels, assuming they’d be the same for the damaged portion. Maybe. I like the results you got.
Jacqui,
Yep, that’s the way photo-editing programs generally work. It’s truly amazing what you can do with the aid of the right technology. 🙂
If you will take that scanned photo and convert it to black & white, you just may be stunned again. Family photos are just the best. Our parents and grand parents likely had very little access to cameras, film and the like, so photos of them are rare treasures. Glad you have managed to save some of the memories. Have a blessed week.
Driller,
The old photo had a sepia finish. I thought about scanning it as a B&W but I didn’t like the look of it. I wonder how it would turn out if I take the repair and convert it to B&W. It would be interesting to find out who took the picture. They were very poor people so I’m not sure how they came to have their picture made. I wished I had asked my MIL when I had the chance. 🙁 Thanks for the suggestion.
The other option is to photograph the photo and convert that to B&W. I’ve done that before, with some measure of success.
Driller,
DH mentioned photographing the photo but it’s so difficult to get the right lighting on it inside the house and taking it outside wouldn’t work for fear a puff of wind would carry it away. Maybe, I can figure out a way to do that whenever I have more time to kill. Thanks for the added tip.
My Dad loves his coffee but hair spray would be a total waste of time MOL!
Brian,
I love my coffee, too. I never use hair spray. However, I do use style mouse. No, that’s not the little squeaky critter hiding in your walls. 🙂
Hi, Cathy!
I am here to chat with you over coffee, dear friend! Once again I found myself “drawn” to your sketch, the one used to illustrate your poem In the Gloaming. I find the scene so relaxing, so delightful, that I saved it as my desktop background. The poem is equally good – creative and imaginative word play. The three cat movie posters made me smile. That little mouse should not have gone swimming alone. 🙂
I love to look at old family photos and I thank you for posting this one of DH’s side of the family. I am amazed how you were able to clean up that damaged picture using your Pixelmator. What a handy tool for this purpose! I returned to your post published July 1, 2014, (before you and I became bloggy friends). It is a wonderful tribute to your MIL Dorothy. I agree she was beautiful as a Hollywood movie star. She reminds me of Jane Russell:
https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/actress-jane-russell-continued-perform-162555
It is fascinating that your older daughter is a near carbon copy of her mamaw at the same age, early teens.
“We had joy, we had fun, we had seasons in the sun” is one of my favorite oldies and well suited to reminiscing about our early years.
Thank you, dear friend Cathy, and enjoy the rest of your week!
Tom,
Ah, you’re so sweet! I’m delighted you liked my sketch. 🙂
Thanks for sharing the link with Jane Russell’s photo. I do see the resemblance a little. Women from yesteryear were gorgeous, real knock outs. You just don’t see that kind of beauty these days. Oh sure there are some pretty ladies around but not glamorous like starlets from the past. Oh yeah, DD#1 looked so very much like her mamaw when she was a young girl and still bears a strong resemblance. 🙂
It’s always such a joy to have you stop in for a cup of coffee. I’m sorry for just now getting around to responding but it’s been a wild several days. Have a pAwesome week, my friend!