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The woods “pitiably thinned”; nine years of this “labour of love”; Gran disappears into a trench; Hugh Boyd – goose guru; “pink makes the boys wink”; a proud moment; a traditional Christmas and Julian smokes during the National Anthem!

On November 21st 1955, Gran is surprisingly sanguine about the unwelcome developments on her doorstep:

This afternoon I finished the Poppy calendar and decided this is the one for Mary. Somehow it looks like hers.  The sun was still shining, burnishing the tips of the trees opposite here, whereon a few last golden leaves are clinging, and giving a beautiful sheen to the velvet-dark Yew trees, which, thank God, are still standing.  But the opposite wood is pitiably thinned and a little township is springing up where once I gathered blackberries and vetch, and listened to the warblers, watched the Siskins and saw the first Brimstones in Spring.  Soon I shall have to roam far afield for the glories that have been on my doorstep for over twenty-seven years.   But I am very grateful for the years in which I have known them.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 75)

Forty-eight paintings on show; Brother is a “good scout”; a pet spider; Princess Margaret and Peter Townsend; another spider –  with bananas; Nuthatch behaviour; Dr Barnardo’s Homes; the reason for the velvet gown, and Gran dances the last waltz.

On October 21st 1955, Gran tells us that tomorrow will be a full day:

…for I leave home …for London where later I visit the British Empire Naturalists’ Association Jubilee Exhibition at Kensington Museum, in which my flower paintings and Jane’s collection of birds’ feathers will be on view.  I shall stay at Kingston for the night and go on to the London B.E.N.A. field outing on Sunday…

The journey by train early the following morning frustrates her; to start with, the train is six minutes late, and, she adds:

…throughout the journey, steamy windows within the carriage, smoke from the train without on one side, and the fact that I could not get a corner seat, all contrived to restrict my observations to the very minimum.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 74)