One Year Old

A ninety year old baby bootie is a fitting image for this little blog's first birthday.

The well-worn soft leather bootie began life in a British factory sometime before 1925.  The inside of the bootie is stamped with the name, Wee Bairn Brand, the Wee Bairn part is in quotation marks.  The size 2 shoe is described as, "Perfect fitting. Guaranteed hygienic.  Made in England".  It should have been labeled, "indestructible".

From the English factory, the baby bootie traveled by sea, to an Eastern port in Canada, before being shipped by rail to a shop in Vancouver, British Columbia, and my Dad's baby feet.  His early home was just a pram ride away from Stanley Park, Coal Harbour, and English Bay.  That's real West End dirt on those booties!

There were many more shoes that he filled:  black and white high-top basketball shoes, likely from his student days at UBC;  industrial boots worn in mining camps from BC to Saudi Arabia;  and highly polished black shoes from his years as VP of BCIT.  I remember too, his barefooted walk from the darkened bedroom, to a waiting ambulance stretcher, just days before he died.  Mum kept his baby booties as a keepsake, tucked inside a box in her closet.  The left one is missing...a lost sole.

The time worn biscuit tin is a heartwarming reminder of what actually was a very happy childhood.  My Mum's weekly batches of oatmeal cookies were nestled inside.  She called them Dad's Cookies because he liked them.  He wasn't the only one. Once, while we were having our family dinner,  a tiny neighbour toddled up our back stairs, opened the door, walked into the kitchen, and headed straight for the cookie tin - toddling back out the door without so much a "hello", or "goodbye", just chewing on a handful of Mum's cookies.

As a child, I was afraid of big dogs, but not the watercolour Collie on the cookie tin.  He was beautiful. My own version of Lassie, a gentle and protective furry companion, lovingly painted by E.L. Beckles.  I Googled him, and discovered that he is a she.

Evelyn Lina Beckles, an English artist best known for her paintings of dogs, cats and farm horses, was born in 1888 in Middlesex.  In her late teens, she won a scholarship to study at Hubert Herkomer's (honestly!) Art School, where she met her future husband, William Evans Linton.  She moved to Cornwall, and then Bristol, painting and exhibiting her work under her maiden name, until 1918, when she married, and began signing her name as E.L. Linton.  Her works were used to illustrate books, cards, calendars, and - cookie tins!  She lived to be nearly 100 years old.

This little blog - Widow's Endorphins - is a year old today, and like most babies, growing so fast! The blog is now home to three on-line shops, where you may purchase original photographs, prints, laptop and phone skins, throw pillow covers, coffee mugs, leggings, shower curtains...and maybe one day, cookie tins!

At the time of publishing this post, the blog site has logged 5,647 visits from readers on every continent. Thank you, to each and every one of you!  Endorphins are natural pain and stress relievers.  Flowers and photography are my endorphins, and having creative work has been pure joy.  To know that others enjoy the photographs, is wonderfully encouraging.

Baby Steps.  That's the advice we widow's give to one another.  One foot in front of the other, one day at a time.  It's a journey, not a race.  Good advice for everyone!


Photographs Copyright of:  Ruth Adams, Widow's Endorphins Photographic Images Incorporated.