On a grassy hillside, a young lady smiles at the camera. She is relaxed and enjoying the moment with whoever is this side of the camera. It is a good photograph and has been turned into a postcard with number 12103. Her hand in the cardigan pocket seems a typical pose given the way the pockets and cardigan has stretched.  Behind is a town and beyond that the countryside looks very English with trees and hedges and fields vanishing towards a distant haze.

I remember the thunderstorms and heavy rain and how Mid Street became like a mighty river rushing near our house.  The flood swept down the road and over the pavements and was very impressive to me at the age of eleven. We had recently moved from Leicester and if this was anything to go by then South Nutfield was going to be an exciting place to live.

This postcard features another young lad at the junction of Mid Street and the Avenue during the same flood. The bridge over Nutfield Brook is overflowing behind him. Wikipedia has more on The Great Flood. (All Rights reserved to Pamlin Prints)

This postcard was posted in 1922, and Published by The Oxford Times Co, Ltd., Oxford.

The view is of the seven cardinal Virtues painted in 1787 from designs by Sir Joshua Reynolds. It comprises one of the windows at New College Chapel.

This one is dated 26/2/05 and is addressed to Miss Gertrude Palmer… as are quite a number of my postcards – most from Dick. He writes …

Breathes there a man with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
“This is my own, my native land!”

Dr G.
The required verse with the correct punctuation, and also the requested pc.
Con amore “Dick”

This postcard of the Great Fire, St Georges, Leicester, October 5th 1911, was posted shortly after the Great Fire to Co Cork, Ireland.

On the back it says “Taken from top of Fire Station – 20 minutes exposure.“

I have cycled past, and run past, and walked past this old barn thousands of times. I didn’t know I still had the postcard until it turned up inside a book I have not looked at for some years – The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy – a book I never could finish.

Back to the postcard: something strange has happened to the barn at Ridge Green Farm, South Nutfield. It looks as though it is fading.

This postcard has a picture of a man who was a tourist attraction in the New Forest. His Gravestone tells more… Harry Mills better known as “BRUSHER MILLS” who for a long number of years Followed the occupation of Snake Catcher, in the New Forest. His pursuit and the primitive way in which he lived, caused him to be an object of interest to many. He died suddenly July 1st 1905, aged 65 years.

The Brusher Mills Webpage has a lot more research.

I do find it moving to be able to jump from an old postcard to a real person that has been researched and well documented on the internet. He was considered curious and old fashioned in 1905. But in 2011 he could be on the way to becoming an internet legend.

Sometimes I buy postcards on Ebay, sometimes from junk shops and antique shops. They just have to get my attention in some way. I paid about 99p + postage for this picture. The young lady does not look to be posing. She has not dressed specially for a photograph. It seems to be just a moment caught in time by a photographer as she fills in the ledger during an ordinary day in the office.We expect the extraordinary to be captured by a photographer. The ordinary is far more rare.

This postcard shows Horse Guards, Whitehall, London: a building guarded by members of the Household Cavalry.

The card was posted in 1916 to Dear Fanny…

It is written without punctuation and ends … “we are all quite alright but the weather and the rain are enought to drive anybody dotty with love from Kate.”