The Photo Gallery: Week 145

Inspirational Women

I have a few inspirational women in my family. Not least my mum, who was left with three children under four and one of them severely disabled. I do not know if I could have coped with that. My mum did an absolutely amazing job of bringing us all up. She did us proud. Especially as I was a particularly difficult child, until I left home at sixteen. Another inspiration to me, although not in my family, mainly because she is fictional, is Elle Woods. She is my inspiration for being at university! I still haven't ruled out the hope of me going to Harvard (although I appreciate it is a complete pipe dream. My sisters also inspire me. Overcoming adversity and proving their worth to others. However, my inspirational woman for this post is my Grandma. I adore my Grandma. I think she is amazing.

At the age of 83 she is running a Bed & Breakfast in the Yorkshire Dales. She runs a huge house and garden, feeds strangers breakfast and makes everything last far longer than it should. She is the ultimate thrifty queen and has taught me all I know. I look to her for advice and information. Her house has solar panels on it, both water and electricity, a heat-pump and energy-saving gadgets all over the place. She reuses everything. Even bread bags, which she uses over her shoes instead of wellies, tied on with an elastic band left by the postman. She makes her own bread and cooks amazing food on the AGA. Her kitchen garden provides her, and us, with more vegetables than we could even begin to imagine and she enters two horticulture shows every year, generally winning at least one cup. You get the picture, she is amazing! We are so lucky that we live under ten miles away from her. We can visit whenever we like and our children see far more of her than they do their Grandmas and Grandpas.
This is a picture of my Grandma which is from the local newspaper, taken a couple of months ago. I love it. She had just won the most points in show and received a huge cup for her efforts!

I don't know if you are aware, but very soon, Elizabeth Fry is going to be removed from the £5 note and be replaced with Winston Churchill. Once this has happened, there will be no more women (other than the Queen) on UK bank notes. This is pretty shocking. There are so many inspirational women in the UK, my Grandma included. I think it is incredibly important that there is a woman other than the Queen visible on our currency. There is a petition here which you can sign if you want this to change.

If you want to see what others have come up with for this week's Gallery theme, click on the image below.