She thinks its creepy

I launched a new Instagram account yesterday.

It’s called @rubyandpeggy and it’s a tribute to my great grandmother – Ruby – and my grandmother – Peggy.

The youngest thinks its creepy because I’m pretending to be Ruby. The concept in my head is to run it like there was Instagram in the early 20th century when my great grandmother was a teenager.

The idea has been swirling around in my brain for a while after digging through a box of old photos when I was moving to the apartment.

I was tidying up the cupboards yesterday and found another stash of incredible vintage photos.

The scale of images is remarkably extensive. Despite living in quite modest surroundings in Cessnock and Kitchener in the early 20th century, my relatives were prolific photographers.

There are a handful of pics of my great grandmother and her family prior to my grandmother hitting her teens, then the photographic records go kaboom.

I find the snaps fascinating, all those glimpses into the past, back when horses and carts were still a mode of transport.

In fact one of my relatives was actually killed by the first car in Cessnock, which collided with his cart.

Plus the little details like how the babies faces are blurred in the photo at the top of this blog post because they didn’t stay still, whereas everyone else had to stay solemn and statue-like for the photographer.

During my childhood the photos were kept in a drawer in my grandmother’s lounge room at Hawks Nest. I was obsessed with trawling through them when I was there on school holidays.

There were also a stack of slides and we’d have the occasional slide nights together. Oh how I loved doing that!

My grandmother wrote brief captions on the back of most of the photos so we’d know who all the people were when she was gone.

Looking at old photos might not be your cup of tea, but if you fancy a visual glimpse into my family tree, follow the new account. I can’t promise how often I will remember to add stuff to it, but the aim is to create a digital record of the precious images.

It’s a bit nutty of me to have launched the Instagram page right now, as I have a possible book project on the boil and a new website that I’m building. (More details about those later.)

As if I don’t have enough on my plate already!

As for the rest of yesterday, I squeezed in a swim at “Kiddie Corner” at Palm Beach. The water is still so lovely and warm. It was bliss to be there for the last official day of life saver duty for the season.

As for today, it’s a pretty huge one. It’s a significant birthday for my mum (happy birthday!), the youngest is back at school in the countdown to the HSC, plus my friends Tracy and Megz are in Sydney for the oral closing submissions in the Kathleen Folbigg inquiry. The Counsel Assisting has agreed there is reasonable doubt. Watch this space … and your local news broadcasts …

Song of the day: The Beatles “In my life”