Archive quality photo albums - Glasgow or Edinburgh?

[emanday]

Exactly !! My father was probably about the same generation as your grandfather and I got it from him. A work of art !

mallog

I taught my kids how to do it with their "MacDonalds" straws and explained how I was taught it, so the skill has been passed on.

[derekfrom france]

THE BIG QUESTION
what made the best sticks the sunday post,scotsman or the dundee courier. its really amazing a thread that started of about albums and finishes with fire sticks and to widen the discussion who can remember the smell of a steam train passing under a bridge and standing there taking in that unforgettable smell and putting pennies on the rails to flatten them THAT WAS LIVING

[CatrionaL]

Derek

A barbecue? I shivered at the thought. In my part of France, it is cold and wet, has been for days. 'Just like Scotland' my neighbours remark.

Pleated newspapers was what we used for our coal fires when we were young.

Best wishes

Catriona

[emanday]

Hi Derek,

I spent the first ten years of my life living in a prefab in Dennistoun right next to the railway embankment. Trains were passing all through the day and night, so much so that, when we moved the entire family could not get to sleep, or stay asleep, because it was so quiet.

We'd got so used to the sounds we really missed that them that much. I loved the sounds and the smells and was the worst affected by our move. After all, it was all I had ever known!

[SarahND]

No barbecues here in the dry south of France-- with the wind that's blowing now, you'd set the whole valley on fire (and with the grape harvest just starting, you would NOT be popular!)
Sarah

[mallog]

Hi Derek,

I spent the first ten years of my life living in a prefab in Dennistoun right next to the railway embankment. Trains were passing all through the day and night, so much so that, when we moved the entire family could not get to sleep, or stay asleep, because it was so quiet.

We'd got so used to the sounds we really missed that them that much. I loved the sounds and the smells and was the worst affected by our move. After all, it was all I had ever known!

If there is a low hum of conversation I nod off and I think it's something to do with the fact my mother said she used to sit the pram next to the radio !

Derek
Steam trains - you will have everyone waxing lyrical now

Mallog

[emanday]

If there is a low hum of conversation I nod off and I think it's something to do with the fact my mother said she used to sit the pram next to the radio !

When my daughter wouldn't go off to sleep as a baby I used to ask my neighbour's sons to start a practice session. The all played in a brass band, (trombones), and it always worked like a charm!

Have to add - they were very good!

[DavidWW]

THE BIG QUESTION
what made the best sticks the sunday post,scotsman or the dundee courier. its really amazing a thread that started of about albums and finishes with fire sticks .........

Definitely The Scottish Daily Express, followed by The Glasgow Herald and The Ayrshire Post.

Our spill method was simpler, - take a single page of a broadsheet or a double page from a tabloid, scrunch together to the size of a football, then twist tightly most of the spill, but leaving something like a fan at one end as this would be much easier to light with a match.

We then laid a number of sticks on top of the paper - remember the evening or Saturday delivery of the small bundles of firewood? - then some specially selected small lumps of coal, - light the end of the paper spills, ensure that the damper was fully open and nurture for the next 15 minutes.

Of course, this could only take place once the grate had been cleaned out, ash removed, and any small pieces of partially burnt coal left in place ....... And then there was taking the ash out to the bin, - never hot of course , and, if the wind was blowing making sure you were upwind when you tipped the fine ash into the bin (=waste bucket, "wheelie bins" were not yet invented. Why not hot ash when the bins were of metal?, - simply to avoid setting on fire the contents).

.....and to widen the discussion who can remember the smell of a steam train passing under a bridge and standing there taking in that unforgettable smell and putting pennies on the rails to flatten them THAT WAS LIVING

You were able to afford whole pennies

David

[mallog]

I solved this problem by getting into scrapbooking as all the materials for that are acid and lignin free, and I can write commentaries beside the photos.

I thought I would make a start and looked out some stuff I had previously stored in an old Webster's dictionary It had been put in there before my obsession with family history. It contained quite a bit of information about army records and employment. Thanks Margaret for giving me a prod.

[paddyscar]

Did a search on uk.yahoo.com and had many hits using the search 'scrapbooking supplies' including http://www.candocards.com/html/scrapboo ... plies.html

The current rage of scrapbooking makes selection of acid free supplies varied and readily available. While not exactly cheap, it is far less expensive than professional archive and photographic supply catalogues.

In Canada and the U.S., scrapbooking supplies (including papers and adhesives) are readily available in any large department stores or craft/hobby shops.

Frances