mum

Whom do you count as family? 

Myself, I have never been one to embrace the extended brood.
Don't get me wrong I love my cousins and aunts and uncles,
but have always kinda kept my distance. My family, to
me, amounts to senor handsome, my Mum and Dad, my
childless by choice brother and his wife and my only son: a
small family indeed. Sadly, for now, my brother and I no longer
see eye to eye and communication is on hold.

Christmas is a time to reflect and reflect I did. I remember
happy yuletide's spent with cousins, aunt and uncle and on a
recent trip to visit the parents I rifled through the photo box
and found the above polaroid gem. Mum at christmas in 1971.

Apart from the old school polaroid cool vibe of this image and the 
in your eye retro wallpaper I love this photograph quite simply 
because it is my mum 'aving a larf out loud' in uncle's specs
without self conscious regard for how she looks. 

She was mightily amused in that moment and today:
it amuses me still...

x ...   ***