A longing for Scotland; unobservant shoppers; Heddle Nash – sadly departed; Ivan and Jill; enchanting Cranbury; portly peers; an unbelievable letter; wild places – a necessary balm to the soul; the Crimson Speckled, and a grandson is entertained.
Book 94
Since her visit to Speyside, two years ago, Gran has written many times of an almost unbearable and romantic desire to return to Scotland. This is reawakened on August 4th 1961, when the mail arrives:
A card from John Gunningham, who is at Inchnadamph, in Sutherland, today told me that Dark-red Helleborine. Mountain Avens and Yellow Saxifrage are growing behind the hotel in which he is staying, and the whole area is “simply devastating”. Certainly the picture of Loch Assynt, on the card, is very beautiful and increases my longing to visit Scotland again.

[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 108)