We're all spreaded over the world, but where are we really from?

distance is relative.

I'm in the countryside in UK. (one of the blurry areas of Google -earth)

A few years back, one of my local farmer friends had an american visitor, some sort of farmer exchange thing. The guy from Texas was amazed at how intensive the agriculture was in the UK, how small the holdings, etc. He said that on his ranch, it took him two days just to drive around the boundary fences, my friend said he once had a car like that....

Old England might be small, but I travel 5 miles to work and it took me 1hr 15mins this morning in the car.... I could have walked quicker!

Unfortunately our roads are so gridlocked it feels like your travelling from state to state to go to the corner shop.

Ray, my area's blurry as well )

Small Is Beautiful

"This precious stone set in the silver sea,"
--William Shakespeare (King Richard II)

OK, It is believed that my great great grandfather whos name was Alberto Rossini was of Italian descent, I have the nose to prove this!. I am a Foster which comes in all likelyhood from France Desended from Forrestier. I was born in England, I have lived in Spain, France, and Belgium. My wife is Belgian and my Daughter is confused. (shes only 30 months old, but she will be confused)

Steve Foster said:

OK, It is believed that my great great grandfather whos name was Alberto Rossini was of Italian descent, ...

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So, if you looked, you might find that you are kin to the great Italian composer, Gioacchino Rossini.

I have the nose to prove this!

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So add your self-portrait into the "Another MIrror Image" thread, or start a new thread of your own in the Self-Portrait forum. We want to see that nose!

I am a Foster which comes in all likelyhood from France Desended from Forrestier. I was born in England, I have lived in Spain, France, and Belgium. My wife is Belgian and my Daughter is confused. (shes only 30 months old, but she will be confused)

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<very big smile> Just make sure to raise her on pictures and music, and she'll be fine!

Looking forward to seeing your nose in the Self-Portrait forum, Steve.

Mary

Well, the whole of Google Earth looks blurred to me. Or it could just be my eyes.........

I live in Wiltshire, although I was brought up in Cambridgeshire. My father's family were from Scotland, but I have very few photos of them as my Grandfather was killed in the Great War and my father, after a while in Barnado's childrens home, was adopted by a family from Cambridgeshire. He settled down there and became a farmer.

Stuart

Stuart,

I had an uncle who went into the Great War. Went is a funny word. I think it means a combination of patriotism, boyish fervor and a press-gang of the police if you didn't turn up!

Well, they didn't have enough real rifles. He was lucky, at least he could frighten the Germans. He was at least given a pretty genuine looking fake solid wood Enfield rifle. They even had to charge with the damn things over the barbed wire, the hill and to the next lot of trenches.

Well the Germans thought, "Well screw this for a lark!" and just filled up the valley with Nitrogen Mustard Gas.

He woke up in a massive burial pit with thousands of dead and lime.

He crawled out on pulling himself forward with his arms. His legs were paralysed.

He spent the rest of his life in a wheelchair with a medal for bravery!

Asher

Asher,

At least my grandfather was a professional soldier (RSM in the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders). If you look at the photo you'll see that he was provided with a stick and dead badger with which to fight the enemy.

What I find it almost impossible to comprehend is the situation in which my great uncle was placed. He was (among other less legal things) a wild-fowler in the Cambridgeshire fens. Gven the lack of transport in those days, it is unlikely that he ever visited the next village, let alone a town. But he suddenly found himself sitting in a muddy trench somewhere in a country he'd probably never heard of.

He was invalided back home, and spent the rest of his life picking shrapnel from his knee, sucking extra strong mints, smoking Players Weights and watching birds through the living room window.

Dear old Charlie, bless him! He wasn't the brightest egg in the basket, but he knew important things, like how to make an eel trap from willow twigs, and use a punt gun, and the best way to lay nets for game birds. But he never spoke of the war. Neither for that matter did anyone else I knew from that generation.

Stuart

Mary Bull said:

Ambiguous to me. <friendly smile>
Do you mean a lot of
1) Snickering from the sidelines at OPF?
2) Speaking their minds at OPF?
3) Both at OPF?

Unconfuse me, please.

Mary

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Mary, I believe the reference was to DPR--wich is a very large and ungainly photography gear forum (primarily). It is http://.www.dpreview.com. It has its good points---excellent reviews for the most part, ability to sometimes get a good answer that is totally gear related (and othertimes not) but has a propensity for threads that quickly become contentious and OT.

Diane

Thanks for clarifying the exchange for me, Diane.

I was really a little bit worried. The atmosphere here at OPF is so pleasant, that I felt totally confused about what was meant.

Sorry--to the original posters of the exchange--for misunderstanding you.

Mary