Self-Portrait Tuesday

(prelude to post - I went in to blogger this morning to post today's post and found that this hadn't published yesterday, so sorry, 2 posts 1 day)

Family history this has so many levels, Kath asked us to dig deep...yip yip yip

I scrubbed my ex out of this photo probably 10 years ago...so badly that he is still there! just shadows and trees. This photo was taken in my back garden in Rocky Bay Waiheke Island, 35 minutes from Auckland by ferry. This was the first house I bought, at 21, a house on a red dirt road at the top of a valley, overlooking the sea, we were surrounded by bush, it was idyllic.

This photo resonates for me, my partner was there, but not there, just like in the photo, and my Mum was, as ever, there for me and my girls. The photo was taken by a dear family friend, Father Jude from Zambia, he was in NZ as part of the Zambian Judo team management, and my Mum brought him, and the Zambian (Sports??) Minister Trywell (last name forgotten) to our island home, within a couple of years the Zambian judo team, and Trywell were dead from AIDS, so this picture brings so many more memories than those it captures.