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Buckler’s Hard – disappointingly changed; “I am to be a Great Grandmother”; painting for others; The Queen on Burmese; impressive eyesight at seventy-five; some entertaining Blackbirds; a death at Wimbledon; a 10,000m at Crystal Palace, and Robin comes of his bike.

Gran’s albums of newspaper and magazine cuttings about her twenty-six year old grandson Julian’s athletics career are getting thicker and thicker.  She writes with considerable pride that he has quite a following amongst her aquaintances in Chandler’s Ford. On May 9th 1979, she says:

I scurried round this morning to get the new stamps for the election to the European Parliament and to take my “Julian” albums for Mr Biddle to see before Sheila came for me at half past ten.  We went to Buckler’s Hard, via Ibsley, where we saw a Brimstone and the first foal of the season.

Buckler’s Hard, alas, is almost completely spoiled, being completely commercialized and only the little main street just about its old self.  To begin with we had to pay 40p each to leave the car in the car park.  There is a new, modern restaurant with concrete forecourt and iron tables and chairs and a new, large museum, and one cannot walk down the old street from the top but has to go between these new buildings and enter the street halfway down, thus losing the old, familiar, breathtaking views from the top.  The waterside has become a marina, full of yachts and after passing my “dream cottage” one cannot follow the track by the river because a huge boatyard has been built.

A rare bird at Pagham; Katie on the telly; frozen neighbours; The King’s Head, Hursley; news – good and bad – about Pennington Marshes; “a very fine man indeed”; a lovely experience at the Junior School, and a historic election.

A bird new to the British List has been at Pagham Harbour during December 1978 and Barry and Geoff, who have already seen it, are keen for Gran to enjoy it too.  She writes on Christmas Eve:

Barry, Geoff and I rose at six-thirty and set out optimistically for Pagham to see the very rare avian visitor, which the two had seen earlier… we went straight to the area which our special bird had been frequenting and Barry soon located the Greater Sand Plover which, even now, in winter plumage is a beautiful bird.  It is larger than a Ringed Plover, which we also saw, sandy-buff above, white below, with black ear-coverts and band across the forehead.  It is an Asian bird and is accidental in Greece, Sweden and Germany.  Barry got it focused in his scope and told me to look, and I was so excited that I lay flat in a puddle to reach the telescope.

Good neighbourliness; problems with the post; the Cambridge boat sinks; quality birding and botanising; Gran holds a baby; a race track is opened; a fortnight in Kent; some interesting art; cuckoos and orioles; a rare falcon, and “well-mannered and delightful young men”.

March 18th 1978 gives us a perfect example of the neighbourly thoughtfulness and trust that characterises the lives of Gran and the Kingstons next door, and the Hockridge family, before them:

I did a little posy of spring flowers for Ruth and left it on her breakfast room table in the sun, without calling her.  I wanted to cheer her on this lovely day, as she is mentally weary at present, looking after her mother who is not well and resents being cared for.  Ruth was soon over the fence expressing her pleasure, bless her.

The mail, always so important to Gran, who sends and receives letters almost daily to and from all corners of the World, gives her cause to write this on March 21st: [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 156)

A win in Belgrade; “I cleaned my bedroom!”; Stuart – marooned; gales bring down trees; a Vulture in Wales; a preposterous suggestion; disappointment; “greedy strikers”; Jane gets whooping cough; Andy plays flute; Wallcreeper envy; a fabulous day, and “How lucky I am!”

Book 171

Entries in Gran’s 171st book cover many of Julian’s running exploits during the Autumn of 1977.  For example, he runs in Yugoslavia on October 19th and on the following day, Gran records that, “The Echo contained the news that Julian had won the road race in Belgrade, eight seconds ahead of his nearest rival”, and on the 22nd:  that “Julian rang this evening.  He won a gold medallion with a portrait of Marshal Tito on it and valued at £100!”

She continues to miss her brother Norris’s company, and outings with him profoundly, but friends and other members of the family take his place to some degree.  Lifelong friends Tommy and Bob Fowler drive her to the New Forest and Keyhaven, and to visit their daughter Jill’s family, the Brewsters, in Sussex; Sheila Moody, a more local acquaintance, takes her to Farley Mount; the Brenan family visits from Longton in Lancashire, and Julian and Sue, now ensconced at R.A.F. Odiham, entertain her there. [Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 155)

Another family wedding; two new ducks; Gran – “extraordinarliy fit”; a Yorkshire Dales holiday; the car and caravan are sold; “God bless the Queen”; Serpentine in Cornwall;  Julian runs a 10,000m ‘PB’; a morsel of family history, and missing Brother.

April 10th 1977:  After Barry and family depart Chandler’s Ford for their home in Bushey, Gran:

… had just settled to a lonely afternoon and evening when Beverly and Ricky appeared, a delightful surprise.  I gave Ricky Brother’s microscope and he was so pleased to have something which had belonged to Norris.  They suggested that they would take me to the Caravan to get papers etc. that I had forgotten before, and I let Ricky take the South Moth Books and brought the Readers’ Digest Bird book for Geoffrey who always asks to see mine when he is here.  Ricky then asked if I would like a ride round the Forest and I led the way to Ladycross of happy memories of my last outing with Brother.  We saw a Stonechat on the way and, passing Hatchet Pond, I showed Ricky where the Bog Orchids grow as he has never seen them.  We stopped at “our gate” at Ladycross and went for a walk, so that I could show Ricky and Beverly the Lungwort, also new to them.