Tim Harding’s wedding; Gladioli in the Forest; Lizard Orchid at Downton; Andrew John – “like a hedgehog”; fifty years of tennis; Gran and Stuart “hold the fort”; an Icterine Warbler at Farlington; much knitting, and Geoff arrives.
Gran does love a wedding, and on June 20th 1964 she attends that of the eldest son of her great friend, Mary Harding. She describes the event in detail, as is her wont, including the flowers decorating the church, and also the clothes worn by the bride and her attendants thus:
This afternoon I went to Timothy Harding’s Wedding to Daphne Beare. It was at Chandler’s Ford St Boniface Church, and the reception at Otterbourne Hall. The bride wore a long lace gown, full-length veil and carried a small bouquet of pink rosebuds and Stephanotis. She was attended by five charming child bridesmaids, the four older ones in two shades of blue, long dresses of spotted nylon, and the little one in white with blue piping at the waist.
Jill Harding [Timothy’s sister] sang a solo, “Guide us, Lord”, as the bride arrived. The service was choral… Mary looked delightful in a black and pink figured dress and coat, and a black hat with shaded crimson and red roses across the front. The sun shone, happily, but it really was cold.
Two days later Gran, with Peg Eagle and her recently ill son, “pay their respects” to the Wild Gladioli growing in the New Forest. She writes:
This afternoon I went out with Peg – the first time since John came out of hospital. I met her at Bassett and we took John with us, though when we arrived at Beaulieu Road, he remained in the car and did not walk with us.
They are successful with the Gladiolus, and Gran writes later, early in July after another visit there with John Guningham (now spelled without a double “n”), that:
…it really is a most flourishing colony. We saw dozens without disturbing the protective bracken, and there must have been literally hundreds under this cover in the wide area so colonised.
[Read more…] about Forty Years in Chandler’s Ford – a Journal (Part 118)