When my dad died a few years ago and my brothers and I cleared out the family home in Edinburgh, I took custodianship of my parents' diaries. I knew that they both kept journals, but I had no idea how many there were. For some reason, my mum kept two each year, one slightly different from the other, while my dad was content with just the one, and continued with his until he died in 2002.

But what really amazed me was that my mum's journals go back to 1949 - she died in 1995, so I have about 80 of her diaries (there are a couple of years missing); my dad's date from the early '60s. In the picture above, the CSCA (Civil Service Clerical Association) diary is from 1949, with a 1950 diary at right; the others are from the 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s and 00s....over seven decades of memories!

I should add that the idea for this came from my son - he suggested a still life of the diaries with their dates showing, so thank you Finn!

Tuesday 13th's reaching-back-into-the-past entry to October's Challenge; for other 31-fixated Pbasers this month click here