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Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 148)

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Christmas in Lancashire; news from the Masonic Hospital; a proud headmistress; some rare birds – but not for Gran; Gerald Summers and “The Lure of the Falcon”; Margot Fonteyn gives pleasure; catkins for Beverly; “I would not exchange my life…”, and the kindness of a lady bus driver.

On December 12th 1975 Gran receives a visit from a friend she has not mentioned for some time:

A most unexpected and pleasant surprise resulted from a knock at the door this morning.  It was Peg Eagle, whom I had not seen since she moved to Devon several years ago and I enjoyed a good natter with her.  I had just finished putting the marzipan on the Christmas cake when she came.

And later that day:

Anne Hockridge and her fiancé John called in this evening for the mattress that I had promised Jean for her upholstery.  They are nice youngsters and had coffee with me before they left.  Mary rang and I was very sorry indeed to hear that Frank had had a coronary and is in the General Hospital in Southampton, where Brother went.  I trust his recovery will be as complete as Brother’s.  They are such good friends.

Gran addresses a few Christmas cards at this time, but says, “I cannot send many this year with the impossible increase in postage rates.  Sad, I think, for the giving and receiving of cards and presents was such a joy at Christmas time”.  Nevertheless, the usual giving and receiving of gifts does take place, starting, on December 14th:

Enid came to see me this afternoon and brought me my Christmas present from her – a set of delightful table mats with flower pictures depicting those characteristic of Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter respectively. Truly beautiful and I was so glad when my gift to her of Rackham’s “Aesop’s Fables” brought her equal pleasure.  She also gave me some fruit and some more dried material for Winter arrangements.  She is a most kind and generous friend.

Grampa drives Gran into London on December 19th for a 10.15 appointment at the Masonic Hospital:

We arrived in good time and I found Mr Cullen, the Surgeon, very kind.  After X-rays had been taken I saw him again and he said he would give me a replacement for the hip but it would be in three or four month’s time.  Better than the two years’ wait down here, but another Spring and Summer spoilt for me.  Still, I am glad that the prospects are better and Mr Cullen told me that those who had kept active made the best patients.

“Ricky rang up to know if he and Beverly could come here for two or three nights so I have them now!” she writes on the evening of the 20th, having just said “goodbye” to Barry and Julian, who had stayed with her the night before, and two days later Barry is down again, with Geoffrey this time, to meet with Beverly and me (“Ricky”) on a quest to see a Red-breasted Goose amongst a large flock of Brent Geese on Hayling Island.

It’s always exciting to pick out a rare goose within a flock of commoner ones. This Red-breast has found itself with Barnacle Geese. Image by Tammisto via Flickr.

Later that day she writes, “Ricky and Beverly came to tea, jubilant because they had seen the Red-breasted Goose, numerous Brents and several Long-eared and one Short-eared, Owl”.  But it is also a day of some concern for Gran, because yet another friend has suffered a heart attack:

Post brought disturbing news from Vera in Australia telling me that Marjorie has now suffered a coronary and has been in hospital a month.  She seems to be recovering and was expected to go home on the 18th, but after poor Gilbert I dare not hope too much but pray that she may be spared a little longer.  It is a sad point about getting old; one tends to lose one’s friends.

December 23rd:

I rose at six o’clock this morning in order to make an early start for Longton and we were away soon after eight o’clock.  Fortunately the recent fog was quite absent today and the journey was straightforward and uneventful and largely undertaken on motorways, the M5 and M6.

She and Grampa appear to be spending Christmas together, at the Brenan’s:

It was good to see Jane, Stuart and the children again but I was sorry to find Jane not very well having had a short but violent attack of ‘flu.  However, the worst was over and we were soon all chattering and the children showing us their projects and Andrew his flute, which he played with Katherine’s accompaniment on the piano.  I am sleeping in Katherine’s room and readjustments in bed arrangements have been made for our benefit.

Christmas day, two days later:

… and what a day it has been, though I was sorry not to have started it by going to Church… Excitement started when the children went downstairs to get the grownups cups of tea and found the table-tennis table, which Stuart had spent hours making at School, all set up with net, bats and balls, as prepared by Stuart very late last night.

Jane and Stuart gave me a splendid Lake District green slate flower-container and a book on flower arranging by Violet Stevenson, both of which will give me hours of pleasure.  Andrew gave me a notebook and Biro, always so useful, and Katie, as she likes to be called, a little brooch which she had made herself. The Christmas tree looked beautiful…

The table-tennis table was set up in Katie’s bedroom which I am occupying and I could only just squeeze in to bed when we eventually retired – very late indeed.

Joan Adelaide Goater - her journal about Chandler's Ford.

The afternoon of Boxing Day is spent by the family on Southport Sands, “a huge expanse of shore where the tide rarely comes up”, says Gran, and the day after that, the they visit Stuart’s parents, Oswald and Muriel, at Natland, “… on the edge of the Lake District”, Gran tells us.

Southport Sands – “a huge expanse of shore”.  Image by Berit Watkin via Flickr.

The final day in Lancashire sees them at Martin Mere, Gran a bit frustrated by finding it difficult to distinguish wild from captive birds there, but very much enjoying the visit.  She says:

It is a branch of the Wildfowl Trust near Burscough, and is still in the process of construction… We walked to a hide overlooking the marsh and here we had a wonderful view of hundreds of Pink-footed Geese flying over in long skeins and later saw a few grazing on the wet grassland.

“.. flying over in long skeins… ” – Pink-footed Geese at Martin Mere. Image by naturalhistoryman via Flickr.

Home again on the last day of the year Gran sums up the main events of her life in 1975, particularly that “July brought the sad and unexpected death of my oldest friend Gilbert, following the cancellation of his trip to England, and this has left a great void in my life”.  She continues on a more positive note before recording the events of the day:

I am now hoping that 1976 will bring me a new hip and the chance to be more active again, but the main thing is for my dear children and grandchildren to keep well and happy and for peace to return to this troubled world.

1976

January 10th:

I met Miss Wise whilst shopping and she told me that she had seen a splendid review of Barry’s book in “The Field”, which described him as a leading authority on Entomology.  Miss Wise feels very proud because she taught him to read and write at Sherborne House School.

On the same day Gran receives a letter from Barry, who has been camping in the snow at Golspie, in Sutherland, with me and members of the Haberdashers’ Ornithological Society.  She recounts his news that they:

… saw a fantastic number of exciting birds.  Ricky found a Pine Bunting, the first Winter record for Britain, and many ornithologists were hurrying north today in the hope of seeing it.

And:

I rang up to know how Frank Harding is progressing and was pleased to hear him answer the phone himself and he is feeling fine.

“Ricky found a Pine Bunting” – Image by Imran Shah via Flickr.

The news is good at this time too, of Marjorie Frewer, in Sydney, who is also home and recovering well from her recent coronary.

“I have made an interesting discovery!” says Gran on January 19th:

The book, “The Lure of the Falcon”, which Fin gave me for Christmas, is by Gerald Summers and, seeing Cressida, the Kestrel mentioned, I was reminded of a quite remarkable coincidence.  In 1945 I saw two accounts in separate newspapers, of the return from a German prison camp, of Lieutenant Gerald Summers and his remarkable Kestrel, Cressida, whom he picked up at Dungeness, injured, during training, and took everywhere, even to North Africa, where they were both wounded and taken prisoner.  Somehow Gerald Summers was allowed to keep Cressida and he eventually returned with her to England.

The Lure of the Falcon – A present to Gran from Irish friend, Fin Murphy.

After reading this extraordinary story, I wrote to Lieutenant Summers, a small appreciation of all he, and many like him, went through that we at home might have a chance to go on living and enjoying natural history.  I received a charming letter back from him and I still have it.  “The Lure of the Falcon” is an autobiography of this same Gerald Summers, written in 1971 and first published in 1972!

Gran writes him another letter, c/o his Glasgow publishers, she says, and on January 28th receives a reply:

… saying he was delighted to hear from me again and well remembered my first one, written in 1944, and also that Barry had written offering him some Pine Hawk caterpillars, which he unfortunately could not accept as he was expecting to be sent to the Far East.  He has written a sequel to “The Lure of the Falcon” – “Where Eagles Fly”, recounting more of Cressida’s adventures.  He has asked if I will lend him my press cuttings of 1944, of him and Cressida, so that he can get them photographed, as all his cuttings, photographs and all his other possessions, were destroyed by the Mau Mau when he was in Kenya.  Altogether an extremely nice letter.  I shall send him the cuttings to replace those he lost.

So a short and very friendly correspondence develops between them both.

Following one of her regular days out with Norris, on February 11th, brother and sister watch television that evening, and are much impressed as they witness “Britain’s John Curry win the gold Medal in the Ice Skating Championships in the Winter Olympics at Innsbruck.  He gave a faultless, scintillating display of artistic beauty”, writes Gran.

Many times Gran has written gratefully of the wonderful generosity and close friendship of her many acquaintances, and this is the case also on February 16th:

… Enid arrived.  Not only her usual generous self with fruit and plants for the garden, but, of all things, a signed copy of Margot Fonteyn’s autobiography for Katherine!  She had been to the Gaumont Theatre to see about booking seats for the forthcoming Operas and found the book for sale there.  She immediately thought of Katherine and without hesitation, bought one for her.

Katherine, on the phone that evening, is apparently “quite overwhelmed” by the news. And there is more.  Gran adds:

When I was with Enid the week before last, and Margot Fonteyn was dancing at the Gaumont, I wrote to her, c/o the Theatre and asked her if she would sign the slip of paper which I enclosed in a stamped, addressed envelope to Katherine.  Jane told me that not only had Dame Margot signed it but had made it beautifully personal by writing, “To Katherine.  With best wishes, Margot Fonteyn”.  What a week for Katherine, who also heard that she had passed her first Senior Ballet Exam with credit!

Book 162

Gran is painting a bouquet of catkins in a picture for Beverly’s birthday, which is on May 7th.  She starts it in late February, on a day of some frustration for her, having heard news of an exciting birding trip by Barry and Geoff; the kind of outing that she cannot do at the moment, saying:

I spent three hours on Beverly’s picture, adding Aspen catkins, though still having some detail to put in these and the Hazel.  This calmed my feelings a great deal… Tomorrow I hope to add Alder to the picture and to finish it before I go into hospital, which, at this rate, should not be difficult.

Catkins for Beverly’s 21st – Aspen, Hazel and Alder.

March 2nd is a beautiful early Spring day, and she writes that in spite of the great sadnesses and occasional despair she has felt in her days, because of the pleasure of, “… the birdsong and chatter and the little flowers so full of promise…I would not exchange my Life for that of anyone else in all the world”.  “It is Jamie’s birthday”, she adds, “… and Ruth brought him in to thank me for the chocolate squirrels I gave him.  A dear little three-year old and I wish him great happiness, bless him”.

Lucky Jamie!  Image by rykerstribe via Flickr.

And even later in the day, she is on her way, still on crutches of course, to a whist drive:

The old roadman, whom I see most days when I go along lower Kingsway, today asked me how I was and what was wrong.  When I told him he said a relative of his had had the hip operation several years ago and it was very successful.  One meets kindness in unexpected places.

A little more kindness is related on March 18th, when, following a day spent with Enid Denis in Southampton, Gran catches a bus home:

I caught a bus marked Hiltingbury, which the driver (a woman!) said was going to Kingsway Post Office and when we arrived, she asked me if that was near enough to home for me!  It was the end of her run, and when I said I only had to go a little way down Hiltingbury Road, she took me to our gate!  The first time I have ever had a private bus…

On the following day she receives news of her impending operation:

… a phone message from the Masonic Hospital to tell me that I cannot be admitted for my operation until the end of May.  At first I felt pretty shattered and depressed but later was cheered by the fact that all the migrants will have arrived by then and I can enjoy each day of Spring without wondering when I shall go.  I expect I shall lose the chance of a holiday in the Summer again…

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