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With cousin Fairlie in Kent; alley cricket in Mill Hill; amazing character studies at the W.I.; kissed by Joey; the Old Curiosity Shop and the wonders of Scotland.

Gran, at Fairlie’s house in Kent on May 27th 1959, walks the local countryside collecting flower specimens after “ Fairlie left for Chelsea Flower Show and while Norah had gone to her usual work in the Church”.  Gran witnesses for the first time, a bird “anting”:

…a practise said to be undertaken for cleaning purposes.  A Great Tit was moving rapidly round the rim of the well and assiduously picking up ants which he put beneath his wings, shook himself vigorously and then sprawled with spread wings, sunning himself.

The gathered flowers are needed for a talk on her usual subject, which Gran has been asked to give locally that evening.  “The flower talk seemed to be found interesting”, she says, “and I was asked to judge the arrangements of wild flowers. Not an impressive array, I must confess, and the containers not really suitable”. [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 97)

First Day Covers; a cheeky mouse; Mottisfont marvels; fascinating creatures; Dame Sybil Thorndike – still beautiful at 80; Early Spiders – unbelievable but true!; the beauty of a village community; whist drive prizes, and a Kentish cottage described.

Book 78

Home again from Kingston on April 13th 1959, Gran receives a letter from Australia, which:

…brought me, posted on the day of issue, the first of the new series of stamps depicting native flowers.  This one was the attractive Flannel Flower.  Gilbert Whitley, of the Australian Museum, sent it, of course, and told me that his recently published book on Sea-horses is on its way to me. What a pal he has been, and it is forty years since he went to Australia.  I have seen him only once since – when Jane was three years old – twenty-one years ago.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 96)

Roadworks dismay; farewell to Miss Cope; glad tidings from Jane; renewed acquaintances; remarkable carvings; another little wood destroyed; litter; two impressive sopranos; two active boys, Coronation Walk, and a wedding produces a dramatic moment.

January 21st 1959 is an unpleasantly wet day, but Gran is loth to miss her weekly visit to best friends in Merdon Avenue:

This afternoon I went to see my Harding family.  Mary was surprised to see me in such weather but I regard my “dates” with this dear family as one of my most valued privileges.

On the following day:

This afternoon we noticed that a Yew tree down the road had fallen right across one of the new gardens.  It seems to me that, in excavating for the service road for the shops being built opposite here, the men must have undermined the roots, for it does not seem to me that today’s gale was of sufficient force to bring down a Yew tree that has stood for centuries.  And I noted that there were no spreading roots – it seems they had been severed during the process of excavation.  I am sorry for the owners of the garden, for they have worked hard, and a terrace and the fence must have suffered great damage.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 95)

An unexpected meeting; a new use for the old pram; the new Rector; the Adamson bookplate; the most fabulous order; hints of happiness, but no hope for the New Year; a pleasant surprise; Barry knocked off his bike; Jane kicked by a horse, and great hopes for Speyside next Summer.

I am surprised to discover that Gran even entertained the idea of using a weed-killer in the garden of The Ridge, but on October 23rd 1958, we read:

I squeezed in a little gardening this morning, raking up leaves from the front grass and then putting down a second dose of Fison’s weed-killer and grass fertilizer, which has already much improved the front lawn. Early this afternoon I cycled along to the end of Hiltingbury Road to get some beech leaves to preserve for Winter.  I found that the coloured ones were already very prone to fall, but there were still plenty of green ones, and all go golden brown when preserved in glycerine. Linnets were flying about where the old Polish Camp is being demolished.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 94)

A new racquet; promise of a green belt; a personal triumph; Jill has a baby; a tree from Canada; Mr Burdett retires; “These Americans!”; irritating evangelists; a hedgehog is saved, a visit to Scotland – perhaps, and ravaging beauty, nearly, if not quite, divine.

“This afternoon, I was just finishing painting the Lesser Dodder”, writes Gran on September 2nd 1958, “when Jane arrived home from Scotland.  She had had a wonderful holiday and had a great deal to tell”. Not only had she brought her mother some flower samples from the north, but:

She also brought me a superb new tennis racquet, the best on the market, which I could hardly wait to try.  I did, however, wait till after tea and then Jane and I went up for a game.  The racquet was wonderful and we had some splendid games.  Although I actually won the first set we were very closely matched in spite of the score of 6 – 0, but in the second one the first game took twenty minutes with an uncountable number of deuces, and we were forty minutes playing three games. Jane eventually won the set at 8 – 6 and we had been playing an hour and a half.

Gran cannot wait to use her new racquet again and she bemoans the fact that she has a “full week ahead and I go to Kingston next Monday!”

A couple of days later:

We had good news this evening!  The two remaining yew trees opposite here, my favourites, are to stay and a green belt to be right opposite this house, with shops further up and behind the yews but hidden from our view.  It could have been so much worse, and, whilst I shall never cease to regret our lovely “opposite wood”, I am consoled by the preservation of, at least, two of our much-loved yews.

Well, in hindsight, it seems that Gran’s feelings of consolation were premature:  just a single yew remains and there are shops opposite The Ridge, unscreened and in full view.  No doubt we shall read her views on this in a future journal!

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 93)