Wit Over Ignorance

Anouk, the huntress

From our recent break in France, a few belated updates. Here's daughter number three learning how to slaughter small animals with the help of her cousin, Remy. Soon we'll be able to send her out into the forest to secure our supply of venison and coconuts.

A Tale of Two Families

I've had a lot of occasion to think about family of late. Our annual summer break in France was, as ever, heavily populated with cousins, uncles, great-nephews, wives-in-law and even one great-great-aunt. Then it was back to England (well, Wales, actually) for my mother's funeral, and the realities of a much smaller family group.

The first of these pictures shows merely a portion of the magnificent Deroche clan, which gathered at the home of my wife's parents to celebrate the 96th birthday of Tante Raymonde (the elegant silver-haired lady in grey, seated centre below, about whom more in an upcoming post). There were so many of us that my mother-in-law distributed name tags identifying not only the individual, but from which set of grandparents each of us descended (or in the case of interlopers by marriage, which spouse they belonged to). Suffice it to say that I had to borrow my daughter's wide-angle lens to fit everyone in (and no, I couldn't just take a few steps back - behind me were bushes and a pond).

In Wales it was a different story. My side of the family tree is puny in its girth and severely stunted in height. On my father's side, not a single known relative remains; my mother had two sisters, one of whom departed early on for Africa and now lives in Australia.

When Jean died earlier this month, two of my daughters were on their way back to America with me and the smaller two were in France. Having flown from Geneva to DC on the Tuesday, I flew back to Bristol on the Saturday to attend the funeral on the Monday (then flew back across the Atlantic on the Wednesday).

I think I now regret not flying in my daughters (four of them) and wives (three of them) for the funeral; not so much for the brief, simple service they missed (at Llanelli crematorium), but for the small yet happy family reunion that took place at my sister's house afterwards.

So here are the pictures of the two families: the first, too numerous to identify (although you can check out their name tags with a magnifying glass); the second, from left to right, as follows: John, my nephew-in-law, next to Katie, his wife and my niece; Alastair, my brother-in-law; Marjory, my aunt; Sharon, her daughter and my first cousin; Robert Redford; my sister, Trudie; Michael, my nephew; and Rosie, my niece.

I'm happy to be part of both families, and wish I was able to see more of them.

 

Man in funny hat

I have a camera full of images from our family holiday in France, but it may take me a while to get to them. Meanwhile, here's a reward for dropping by - a pic of me in full summer mode. I always dress like this when I'm not at work. I don't shave, either.....