Tramping the blankets

 

 (Image by permission, Orkney Library and Archive. D156/003)

This was the first time I came across a Beatrice Garvie picture.

It was on my first visit to North Ronaldsay, many years ago now, with my Mum and Dad.

The woman in the photograph is Jenny 'South Ness'; Janet Thomson. 

Later Janet Sanderson, my Grandmother.

Here she is 'tramping the blankets’ at South Ness, on washday.

I was so delighted to find this image of my Gran as a young woman, the first natural picture I'd seen of her. 'Contentment' was a word she often used to describe her life.

I love the composition of this photograph, the way the blankets are spread in the foreground, the barrels leading your eye around the picture, and the relaxed position of a body happily at work.