Mary Hall’s Letters	
Letters to close relatives	

	

Contents
Preface
Excerpts from Letters
1967
Postcard from Iceland (July 1967)
1973
Launching HMS Herald (October 1973)
Autumn days (October 1973)
HMS Bulldog in Force 10 gale (November 1973)
Zither Carol (December 1973)
Almost full moon (December 1973)
Christmas Eve (December 1973)
1974
Christmas and New Year (January 1974)
King George’s Fund for Sailors (January 1974)
Aconites and snowdrops (January 1974)
WRVS (January 1974)
Funeral (February 1974)
Spring-like perfection (February 1974)
Ordnance Survey maps (March 1974)
Easter service (April 1974)
Matthew Flinders lunch (April 1974)
Lifeboats anniversary (April 1974)
Beech trees and kittens (May 1974)
Americans (May 1974)
Summer day (May 1974)
King George’s Fund for Sailors (June 1974)
Orfe (June 1974)
Fleet Air Arm VIP (June 1974)
Boston Festival (July 1974)
Fishing in the Dee (July 1974)
‘The ceiling came down…’ (December 1974)
1979
Manby renovations (November 1979)
1981
Manby west wing construction (February 1981)
Easter service (April 1981)
Midmarsh Parish incumbent (October 1981)
White Christmas (December 1981)
1982
Murder in the Cathedral (April 1982)
1984
Sail Past of the Tall Ships (August 1984)
‘To a bird migrating’ (November 1984)
1986
Christmas and New Year (January 1986)
Halley’s Comet (January 1986)
Snow (February 1986)
‘Chill factor’ (February 1986)
Recovering from ‘flu (March 1986)
‘These dogs!’ (March 1986)
Coldest Easter (March 1986)
Unspeakable weather (April 1986)
Reluctant spring (April 1986)
Expedition to ‘Farm Park’ (May 1986)
Chernobyl (May 1986)
Scripture and Shakespeare (May 1986)
Natterjack Toad (May 1986)
Purple orchids (June 1986)
Highgate Church Embroidery Group (July 1986)
Journey through Ireland, Part 1 (July 1986)
Journey through Ireland, Part 2 (July 1986)
Christmas (December 1986)
1987
Norwegian Holiday (June 1987)
Holiday in Scotland (September 1987)
1988
Holiday in Scotland (September 1988)
South African trip (December 1988)
Fortnum and Masons (December 1988)
2006
Sheltered accommodation (February 2006)
New Zealand recipes (April 2006)
Rudi (September 2006)
My time in the WRNS (October 2006)
The bungalow (November 2006)
Medics who are close relations (December 2006)
2007
Christmas presents and cards (January 2007)
First snow (February 2007)
‘More winter to come’ (February 2007)
Daffodils (March 2007)
Parkinson’s (May 2007)
‘Still very immobile…’ (June 2007)
‘Autumn coming on now…’ (October 2007)
2008
‘Lovely chocolates…’ (January 2008)
‘Spring is on its way…’ (April 2008)
‘I had a bath recently…’ (May 2008)
2009
‘Able to walk a bit…’ (September 2009)
Postscript

Preface
The following are excerpts from letters written by Mary Hall to various close relatives, mostly during the 1970s and 1980s.  For reasons of privacy, personal details have generally been omitted.

Excerpts from Letters
1967
Postcard from Iceland (July 1967)
Postcard dated 11 July 1967 from Iceland: “Borganes viđ Borgarfjörd.  Borganes, a friendly village in Iceland.”
I wonder if you remember this.  Geoffrey and I saw it across the fjord, but couldn’t see the very bright red house!  We passed our picnic place where … dived from a rock, and someone was camping there.  Geoffrey and I have been staying in a little tiny bungalow right on the shore of a huge lake.  Alas, a deep depression was over Iceland and it poured with rain, so we only caught one fish, but that was very exciting.  I am just off now to Sellfoss with… and on to Langavatn…
1973
Launching HMS Herald (October 1973)
Suffice it to say now that Oct 4th was a splendid occasion.  HMS Herald took the water beautifully and the ceremony surrounding this was quite something.  A Royal Marine band played and we had a short service first.  Then a pause while every last ‘chock’ was knocked away – then I had to name the ship and break a bottle of champagne on the bows (no ‘push button’ here and Geoffrey apparently was terrified that I might miss!).  Then I had to push a lever, which actually signalled to the men below to knock out the last pin, and the ship slid slowly and most gracefully down into the water.  Just as she became afloat she did a sort of curtsey and then the tugs took over.  We returned to the Caledonian Hotel where there was an official reception and lunch.  I thought this was going to be a bit of an ordeal because I had to make a speech, but in fact I enjoyed it and the speech seemed to go down well too.  It was a great day.  Lots of Navy there too, which I think the shipbuilders rather liked, and this ship had three Admirals at her christening – which was quite something!

Autumn days (October 1973)
I went to London this week and also spent 2 days at Bexhill.  Lovely autumn days still, and bright sunshine with mist early and late.  Iain drove me round quite a bit, and the country looked wonderful.  Great beech trees with glorious colouring.  I have to nip to London again tomorrow for a Royal Geographic Society meeting, but then will get back here Thursday for at least another week.  Lots to do in the garden now, and as soon as I get word I shall be starting on a cushion for the church.  I spent a long morning with Sylvia Green in Highgate and decided that the first three of “All Saints” will be St Hugh of Lincoln, St Andrew and St Nicolas!  Kittens flourish and are beginning to roam around.  I shall have to find homes for them soon…

HMS Bulldog in Force 10 gale (November 1973)
I have had a busy week – quite eventful.  Geoffrey and I drove over to Heswall last Sunday…  It was pretty stormy on the way over, but clear and some lovely Rowland Hilder-ish landscapes.  On Monday afternoon I drove Geoffrey into Liverpool to sail [HMS] Bulldog in a Force 10 gale!  We arrived early, so paused and watched the tugs and ferryboats tossing like mad.  Then I rushed back to Glenburn to collect… and drive them to the University for a recital where Griselda was playing, and this was lovely.  But what a maze of one-way streets Liverpool is – I should have been quite lost without a guide.  I had meant to leave on Tuesday and spend the night in Huddersfield, but changed my plans and went with Griselda and Keith to the Philharmonic concert – lovely, including Britten’s Spring Symphony.  And in the morning G and I drove to the beach to watch the tide.  I had never seen it so high and stormy – waves right over the car as we drove along – really very dramatic indeed…  Just off now to choral – our last practice before the Messiah on Sunday.  We had a ‘cheese and wine’ party here on Thursday, which everyone seemed to enjoy, and made over ₤90 – which is encouraging and helps pay the soloists!  

Zither Carol (December 1973)
Our performance [of Messiah] had good press!  I think it really went very well, and certainly it is a lovely thing to sing – I had never done it before.  We are now on to the “Carols for all” evening on December 20th, mostly fairly well known ones, but Peter… is very particular about how we sing them.  And last Monday we did one new to me, the Zither Carol, which is an old Czech folk song with zzing-zzing in the lower parts – great fun in the off beats.  On Saturday 22nd the Bowdens are having their carols and party at Ranby – but a little different because there are to be more grown-ups in the choir and they have asked me to join, which is nice...  Unfortunately I was not too well and snowbound, the evening I was supposed to go to dinner and discuss it all.  Yes we had quite a lot of snow and very, very cold winds, keeping everything white and crunchy, but then suddenly on Monday it all went and we are in a mild air-stream – for a bit!  I am… down in Taunton – it’s the time of winter lectures, CO’s conference and general get together, so we have a party tonight.  I came down by train, not really liking to risk having no petrol.  This oil shortage will certainly bring problems.  I can see all our rations going on meeting trains unless we can get a bit extra for that.  It may make summer holiday plans difficult too, but this is too far ahead to look at just now…

Almost full moon (December 1973)
I do love singing carols.  We have our Louth concert next week – some lovely ones among the ordinaries, and on 22nd the Bowdens have their Ranby Service and have asked me to sing.  I went over for a practice last night and stayed on to supper, then I had a fantastic drive back, with clear skies, an almost full moon, and the wind rising to a gale.  My little car nearly took off as I crossed the bluestone ridge, and the shapes and shadows of trees were sinister indeed – a witching night!  It sounds rather the same now, but I am sitting in front of a log fire – very cosy and warm, and will try and get all my letters written.  I had various meetings this week.  Nothing very exciting, apart from a WRVS lady in Horncastle being given a BEM [Medal?] by the Lord Lieutenant, acting for the Queen…  

Christmas Eve (December 1973)
There seemed to be a lot of meals to cook!  But the Aga is a good thing, and fortunately oil and electricity seem OK at the moment!  We had a lovely carols-by-candlelight service at Ranby on Saturday, and went again this year to the Christmas Eve service in Lincoln…  We had tea this time at the White Hart for a change – more Dickensian than the Eastgate [Hotel].  Hot buttered toast and a roaring log fire!  But no frost or snow on the way back, just rather damp… and on Boxing Day Geoffrey and Roger played golf at Skegness while we went to the Meet [hunting] in Louth and on to… doing quite a tour of Lincolnshire on the way.  Donna Nook yesterday – no seals – but skeins of geese coming in at dusk which was a magnificent sight.  Now the guests have gone...  

1974
Christmas and New Year (January 1974)
Here there were six of us… and a busy time as usual.  Now everyone has gone.  Geoffrey and … return tomorrow, but I have had a few days here on my own, beginning to clear up.  I have taken down the cards – such pretty ones, some of them, but will leave the crib and the tree till Twelfth Night.  The tree was about the same size as last year – not all that big – but a good shape, and we dressed it very simply: red candles, red, gold and silver, with a splendid dusting of artificial snow – which made up for having a rather damp and drizzly outside!  We had the usual gaieties, though for me they were not very gay – and on New Year’s Eve Geoffrey and I, the only ones still here, went to a fabulous party at…  I almost didn’t, because I felt so sad, but am glad in the end that I did, and we saw the New Year in with many friends and music and dance.  I only hope that 1974 improves as it goes along… 

King George’s Fund for Sailors (January 1974)
Pause, while I potter round the garden a bit, helping pick up the aftermath of the latest gale, and hearing the hunt.  They must be drawing Legbourne Wood – hounds and horn – all very winter-afternoon-ish.  I went to London this week – by car because of the rail go-slow – and had a horrid wet drive back.  But the main object was a King George’s Fund for Sailors evening – a dinner and then to the Coliseum to see Offenbach’s ‘Orpheus in the Underworld’ – I’d never seen this before, and it was absolutely delightful – very light-hearted and amusing, with some lovely music too, somewhat in the vein of Gilbert and Sullivan.  And we go with… to Iolanthe next week…  

Aconites and snowdrops (January 1974)
Scotland should be lovely – all family at Inverpolly, and I may go to the Dee for a week in July with the Drury’s.  I have been in London this week, and… took me and Barbara to Iolanthe on Thursday – great delight, and we went on to have an Italian supper afterwards.  Now Geoffrey and I are having a quiet gardening weekend.  Mild weather (which we fear we’ll pay for later) has brought up the first aconites and snowdrops, and all the bulbs are poking through.  The silver birch by the cedar is down at last – quite dead – and another planted, but I fear it will take long to grow to such a lovely height.

WRVS (January 1974)
I have been very busy doing WRVS this last week, trying to see all the village representatives in my area.  I do quite a mileage seeing 3 or 4 in one expedition, and as last week took me to Saltfleet I climbed the bank with my binoculars to look for the whale.  Poor thing, there it was about 3 miles away stranded right on the water’s edge, and coastguards etc. were just about to go out with bulldozers etc. to dispose of it.  I didn’t have time to walk out, but lots of people did.  We had dinner with the Maitlands at Harrington on Saturday, and lunch with Diana on Sunday.  She’s just back from South Africa.  Otherwise we’ve been busy in the garden – aconites and snowdrops all coming up.  But everyone is profoundly suspicious of the mild winter and predicts cold spells to come.  Political news is gloomy too, but I get so tired of these pompous little men on TV that I would like to bang their heads together.  All I can do however is to switch off!

Funeral (February 1974)
… and we have been busy in the garden too.  In fact Geoffrey was so enthusiastic dealing with huge fallen branches that he has done his back again, and hobbles about – very dot and carry one.  We have had such mild weather so far that aconites are nearly over and snowdrops already forming their usual carpet.  Gloomy forebodings about snow in February (the great snow-up of 1947 started on February 7th!) but we shall just have to wait and see….  I had a day in London – wrote in the train, if you could read a word! And joined with… to go to Aunty Syl’s funeral.  Rather a bleak affair in Golder’s Green Crematorium… – a very impersonal service too – what Aunty Syl herself said she wanted, but I would prefer a village church myself.  I have busy with WRVS all week, trying to see all the village representatives from Harrington to Beesby, Walmsgate to the coast – quiet a mileage for one area.  I must say I hope petrol does not go on a ration, but the next few weeks may well be a bit tricky here.  The whole political situation is really a bit too interesting.  Charmian comes next week to paint my portrait, which I do not relish – not feeling in the mood at all, and not knowing what to wear...       

Spring-like perfection (February 1974)
Climate here is spring-like perfection today – extraordinarily mild and a lovely sun.  The snowdrops are a wonderful carpet and we even have a few daffodils out.  The willow has its first green, and all the elms that lovely pink as the buds swell.  My, how the donkeys are enjoying life – and Sheba brought a baby rabbit in this morning, which Charmian nobly took by the ears and put it out to grass, where it rushed off – like a shocked rabbit!  Certainly the sun is a welcome tonic, and a change from all the rather gloomy news in the papers.  Election news dominates of course, and is becoming thoroughly tedious on the box!  Charmian has finished the portrait.  She and Geoffrey both like it.  It has to have its retouché varnish and then I’ll take it to Lincoln for framing, and it will hang in the dining room, gazing rather soulfully out of the window! 

Ordnance Survey maps (March 1974)
I was in London last week.  I came back on Friday, having left the car in Lincoln, so that I could pick up the framed portrait, and arrived here not long before… came on a weekend visit.  They have only just left, so none of my letters were written – Alas!  London was quite an amusing visit.  I went to the theatre with… on Wednesday – a light and amusing play called Habeas Corpus, for which she had been given free seats.  I tried unsuccessfully to do some shopping on Thursday and in the evening Geoffrey and I went to a reception in Lancaster House given to mark the New Ordnance Survey maps – these are being metric and on a different scale, slightly larger than the 1 inch (not metric yet, but ready to go!) – and a history of Ordnance Survey maps was exhibited on the way to the drinks.  We met quite a few people we knew, and more we did not, so it was all quite amusing and a change from Legbourne.  Having the… has meant a lot of extra cooking, but I had managed to do quite a lot (and froze it) before I went away.  We went to church at Manby – sad without the RAF – and in the afternoon out to the beach.  Oh my!  So cold that even the birds had taken shelter.  We saw a few waders and ringed plovers but no geese at all.  Spring has come to a sudden stop here, with bitter north-east winds, sleet and some snow.  So all the brave flowers have paused, early daffodils seem to be no further out, but do come open in the house and are lovely…  

Easter service (April 1974)
I had meant to write long letters this weekend, but am struck down with a sort of ‘flu/cold, and feel ‘not very how’ indeed, so am just penning brief lines and retiring defeated.  Such a pity as there is as usual lots to do.  Geoffrey and I are having a very peaceful weekend – no visitors!  Alas, the East Coast cold weather is still with us, which discourages gardening, but I did manage to get on to the island again (pond still very deep, so it’s a bit perilous, even in waders).  A moorhen is nesting, as usual, and I disturbed her, but she has gone back I’m glad to say.  Mr Jacques and I had a go mid-week clearing brambles etc.  I have now planted some iris and aubrietia etc. and will put in a honeysuckle and water mint this afternoon.  Sudden thought, I might take some primroses too – they and daffodils are just lovely now, and made decorating the church quite splendid.  The Easter service was well attended and the church looked beautiful – even the pulpit, which I have such a struggler with, didn’t look too bad!  

Matthew Flinders lunch (April 1974)
[We] had a very quiet weekend.  It was mighty cold, and I had a mighty cold too!  Having avoided one all winter, I went down with a stinker and finally retired to bed!  Better now, but still feel a bit limp.  I guess the machine runs down at my age.  We’ve been doing the usual gardening etc. and Geoffrey canoed to the island yesterday to cut off some dead branches from the willow tree, so I shall wade out this afternoon and plant a honeysuckle to cover the stump, and hopefully to climb up the trunk.  We did a day trip to London on Thursday for a ‘Matthew Flinders’ lunch and lecture by Admiral Ritchie, which was fascinating.  But London was nearly as chilly as here.  Infuriating when one hears that the rest of the country is bathed in warm spring sunshine.  I am off on the road again next week – Taunton on Tuesday and Wednesday, then on to London…  

Lifeboats anniversary (April 1974)
I have had quite a busy few days.  Drove down to Taunton on Tuesday, the first time I have done a long drive for ages, and I rather enjoyed it, though I was tired on arrival.  But there was a meeting the next day for ‘Revisers’– the retired naval officers who work at home revising sailing directions etc., and for the first time we had a social for wives too – which was a good thing I think, and fun meeting old friends – some from New Zealand days!  I drove to London the next morning, and in the evening went out to Crouch Hill… and on to the theatre – an evening with Edith Evans – aged but remarkable actress and two pianists who played delightfully.  The next day was busy!  I went in the afternoon to the Mansion House (No 15 bus all the way from Paddington to the City) to the AGM of King George’s Fund for Sailors – which is always interesting, then back by tube – no quicker than the bus – and out in the evening with Geoffrey to a splendid dinner given by the Lord Mayor in the Guildhall to mark the 150th anniversary of the Lifeboats.  Geoffrey in full figure with medals and CB around his neck, and we had a service car to take us and collect us too, which made all the difference.  The evening was fabulous, with some wonderful paintings to look at when we arrived.  Then on upstairs and past musketeers and pikemen in gorgeous 17th century dress – all presenting arms to Geoffrey (not many others in uniform, two other admirals and one RAF Trinity House etc.).  The Lord Mayor in ceremonial costume with fantastic chain and diamonds, and all his entourage – City Marshall, sword bearer, mace bearer etc. – the sword bearer wearing a huge fur hat!  Guests were ‘received’ and after glasses of champagne in the library we went in to dinner – quite gorgeous, fanfares of trumpets, band playing – amusing other guests at our table, and very interesting speeches – one by Coxswain Evans from Moefoe (Anglesey), who has two gold medals.  Altogether a memorable occasion.  We drove back here yesterday.  Oh my!  Is it cold!  

Beech trees and kittens (May 1974)
I’ve had a very busy ‘Local’ week.  My new WRVS District runs from Humberside to Skegness, Woodhall to the coast, and I am trying to see all the local organisers before the end of the week.  Almost done now, and yesterday, having driven Geoffrey early to Market Rasen, I set off via Louth to look at a new Reservoir at Toft Newton, then on to Lincoln for a Lincoln Arts Supporters’ meeting – back briefly and out to choral.  Today I have been to Spilsby and Horncastle, and go to Boston tonight for a new ballet to commemorate Matthew Flinders.  It’ll be interesting to see how they do that in dance!  Must rush now to my ‘office’ in Louth.  I first heard the cuckoo today; swallows are returning, beech trees are at their enchanting first best, and Sheba has (to date) three kittens, just popping out (in the corner of the kitchen!)

Americans (May 1974)
Geoffrey and I drove in the Rover last Monday, and Tuesday and Wednesday were taken up with an influx of Americans – lots in conference for Geoffrey, one wife for me – the return of our trip to Washington last year, if you see what I mean.  Luckily we had gorgeous weather – country looking lovely – and we spent the afternoon driving into Devon, to see the...  They have just moved to a beautiful smallish house in the depths of the country, keeping sheep amongst other things, and… has learnt to spin and showed us how.  We came up to London the next day (after an evening reception for all the Americans) and [we] took the… out to dinner and an film.  I came back by train on Thursday – alas, a coach had faulty brakes and we sat for over an hour in a field while they shunted it off – maddening to be so late, and I had a taxi waiting too!  WRVS work is keeping me busy, and various things happening here too – for old people – WI, Lifeboats, church funds etc. – never stops!  Just back from church now, which seems to have quite a good-sized congregation each week now.  Geoffrey read the Epistle – still thinking we should have Matins!

Summer day (May 1974)
Today we have had a real and unbelievable summer day – sunshine and a light, almost warm wind – a welcome change from the perpetual grey skies and bitter north-easterly gales.  I sat in the sun for quite a bit this afternoon and then have been cleaning out the summer house, and washing the garden chairs – not before time!  The… came for drinks after church this morning and we sat outside – me realising how dusty everything looked!  I've had a busy week as usual, going to London too, for a Challenger Society lecture, and before coming back I paid a flying early morning visit to the Chelsea Flower Show – something to be done every now and again.  It must have been three or four years since I went.  Fabulous, of course, but inclined to make one wish for climate and soil different from North Lincs!  I go to Taunton next week staying with… actually near  Chard, for King George’s Fund coffee morning etc.  I think I shall stay a night in Oxford on my way back to see friends and relations.  

King George’s Fund for Sailors (June 1974)
I have had a busy week, going down to Taunton for our annual King George’s Fund for Sailors ‘do’.  This year we had a coffee morning… near Chard...  It’s a wonderful garden with huge rhododendrons and azaleas, and lovely woods and lawns.  We had glorious weather too, and a very successful party at which we made £55, so that was nice.  I clanked to the Bank laden with silver and copper to pay in, on my way north – very satisfactory.  The country looked lovely as I drove back, spending the night in Oxford – and I had time in the morning to potter round a bit, which I enjoyed.  Lots of chores to do here.  Geoffrey at sea this week, so I must catch up – letters, garden etc., not to mention WRVS and S&T [Salmon & Trout Association]!  Kittens flourish and are becoming mobile, so never a dull moment…

Orfe (June 1974)
It is now Sunday and we are having a colossal thunderstorm – much needed rain of course, but I feel it need not be so violent.  At least it seems to be just rain this time – mid-week we had solid hail, whitening all the ground and blocking the gutters, not to mention flattening quite a few of the plants!  Luckily the day before was fine, for I spent much of it in the pond!  I suddenly noticed lots of teeny tiny fish… that size and almost transparent.  I telephoned Mr Lawson and said could these by ORFE?  And he rushed over with net and buckets.  Indeed they are orfe, and he had just been to a fishery management discussion in Hampshire, where it was stated that it was nearly impossible to breed ORFE in England – running water and ideal conditions essential.  Well, we waded round and he collected quite a few, for him to rear in tanks, leaving lots behind in the pond of course.  But in the pond there may be lots of natural hazards – predators etc.  However, I do hope some survive here as well…  

I’m off to London early tomorrow – various meetings, mainly the Royal Geographical Society, and I hope to see… too, then back to prepare for a wine and cheese evening for the Lifeboats (which I fear is getting as bit out of control!).  On Saturday I am to open the Village Hall Fete... next week is the Lincoln Show, at which I appear for the Salmon & Trout Association...

Fleet Air Arm VIP (June 1974)
We’ve had a very busy week – and it has been very summery too.  But today, as we had planned to have some people here for gentle tennis – down comes the rain and washes out the beautiful white lines.  I rather doubt if we’ll play, which is a pity, as Roger is here all prepared.  On Monday to Wednesday I was in London – RGS meeting on Monday, which was most interesting, and then, alas, I succumbed to a tummy bug and had to forego a lunch with Iain – and a party at Canada House, but I did go out to… for supper – and I had more-or-less recovered by then.  

Back here, lots going on.  Friday, the Lifeboats came to have a ‘wine and cheese’ evening here, which was crowded but quite amusing.  A goodly body of the ladies’ committee arrived in the afternoon and took over the kitchen, so I left them to it and went off to Binbrook to meet Geoffrey who was being flown down from Scotland by the Fleet Air Arm.  I spent about ½ hour in the control tower watching the radar plot and seeing the blip of the plane – news of its coming chalked up on the board with VIP in large letters beside the number!  Yesterday we had the annual Summer Fete in aid of the Village Hall – opposite in Mr Swinyard's garden.  I opened it – ha! ha! and then did the rounds, and had fascinating converse with Mr Swinyard himself, whose speech was wonderful Lincolnshire – wish I had had a tape-recorder.  During the afternoon the school-children gave a display of maypole and country dancing…  The children were really very good – well I remember the agony of counting and ‘weaving’ – all hell to pay if one went wrong and had to be unravelled!  

Boston Festival (July 1974)
We had quite a naval weekend.  [HMS] Beagle and Bulldog came in to Boston, and Geoffrey and I were there to greet them as they sailed through the very narrow lock.  Then we had a series of functions on board, and on Sunday a service in St Botolph’s, at which Geoffrey read the lesson.  The Bishop preached.  Naval march through the streets of Boston on the way!  It was the last day of the Boston Festival week and the church looked marvellous.  I’ve never seen such lovely flowers, and it is a very impressive building.  Tony and I spent the day in Lincoln on Monday, doing ‘wedding present’ shopping for various people, including…  Meantime I am vaguely getting ready for my week on the Dee.  It will be a bit a rush this year, and I have a horrid feeling that my waders leak.  However I have bought some stuff to spray on and waterproof them, so shall just hope I can keep dry…  

Yesterday the WI came and had their meeting here – 20 or 30 women crowded into this room to hear about beauty culture, and they had ‘tea and biscuits’ in the dining room – ‘Tea Ladies’ popping in and out, and we borrowed an extra kettle.  The party ended, as usual, in the kitchen.  We have another function here – coffee evening in aid of church funds – at the end of the month, and just hope the garden will look nice still.  Roses are now out, but all a bit battered alas, and lots of small branches down.  We still have two kittens left.  I had hoped to find homes for them before I go away, but so far no takers! 

Fishing in the Dee (July 1974)
I was on the road all yesterday – so didn’t write any letters.  What a long drive, 416 miles – and alas my car started to boil at the top of Carter Bar – most disconcerting, as nothing like that has happened before.  I let it cool, and then drove slowly on – didn’t find a Renault agent till Perth and then he could find nothing wrong.  Anyway the Banchory garage is going to have a day at it tomorrow.

Busy week, last week, before leaving, and some odd happenings – a rabbit in the drawing room for one – it suddenly scuttled across the room late one evening when Tony and I were sitting there – all doors shut.  I suppose Sheba must have brought it in and forgotten it!  I crept down at 5:30 the next morning and opened the French window – had a huge search at 7.30, no sign – but lunch time we heard noises – and finally found it right at the back of the music cupboard behind the piano!  Momma was waiting outside for it, so we hope it survives.  Odd how one’s attitude to rabbits is conditional on ‘Watership Down’!  The pond is full of interest now, with baby orfes and middle-sized orfes seen for the first time since last year, and Mrs Lawson has given us two beautiful koi carp – a pure gold and silver/red/black – very handsome.  We were enchanted too to see a family of swallows on the top bar of the tennis nets lined up waiting while parents swooped over the pond to get food and finally tried to help them fly!

The Dee is lovely as ever.  I spent the morning wading and fishing – no luck, alas, but there are plenty of fish around, splashing about, and I have decided they have a warped sense of humour – just popping up and laughing after my beautiful fly has passed over them!  Out soon to try again…

‘The ceiling came down…’ (December 1974)
I had meant to write long letters today, but Geoffrey has asked the Marshalls in before lunch and we rehearse the Rossini with the soloists this afternoon.  Also it’s being a busy weekend removing everything from… room.  The ceiling came down last week and will have to be re-plastered, which is an incredibly dusty business, and Geoffrey and I will soon qualify as removal men.  We have done some re-bedding upstairs too, and I will have to do a bit of shifting around for the Christmas invasion.  Last week in London was fun and interesting.  Salmon and Trout lunch and meeting.  Lovely theatre with… “Saturday Sunday Monday” – an Italian comedy, most perfectly produced and acted, then a dinner for the editor of Reed’s Almanac, where guests were very distinguished and included Sir Alec and Lady Rose (round-the-world sailor)!

1979
Manby renovations (November 1979)
You quite put me to shame with your long letter… Really Geoffrey is doing very well.  It was uncomfortable for quite a time, particularly until the stitches were out, and he sees the surgeon again next week.  In fact he is so nearly back to normal, but cannot lift at all just yet, or take the dogs on a lead for their long walks, so guess who does that?  A very time-consuming occupation, twice a day.  I am sure it will be good for my figure, but I do find I am quite tired at the end of the day, which is my normal time for letter-writing – hence the gaps in my correspondence… Here we feel winter is right with us.  No snow here yet so far, but quite heavy frosts, and gales tonight so the leaves are nearly all down – we’re letting the wind do most of the sweeping this year!  We still have a few roses.  I have a bowl beside me now, but otherwise the garden is a bit bare and I had to go to the market to buy flowers for my turn to do the church last week.

We are making a bit of progress with Manby.  The builders should be starting soon with our ‘Phase I’ alterations, and this should be quite fun – choosing colours and wall papers for the few rooms we are redecorating.  The trouble is that there is so much choice these days!  Yes, the dining room is pleasant – smaller than here but will therefore be warmer, and we reckon we can use tables, sideboard etc. that we have.  The heavy furniture will have to await ‘Phase II’ and the gallery!  The whole house has a lot of good points.  (I was told the other day that these RAF houses were designed by Lutzens but I am not sure that is true.)  The outside is soft red brick in Georgian style, and the rooms are nicely proportioned.  It was of course built for a senior RAF post, with plenty of ‘staff’.  We are going to use the ‘staff sitting room’ as a music room, and knock some sense into the kitchen, which is in several sections – pantry butler as well as cook – each with a separate sink.  Can you see me dashing from one to the other?  No, no – we are having it made into one, with an arch between, and one end will be our breakfast room.  I have found some lovely ‘Portuguese tile’ wall paper to take up the colour of the cupboards, and it should look greatly improved.  The bathrooms too are having a bit of gaiety added, with some plumbing improvements.  They all look very institutional, but we can alter that with colour, and again there are some beautiful wall papers.  We are putting a ‘colonial’ balustrade up the stairs instead of a rather lump-ish solid middle there at the moment.  All this should be finished in March – the builders are pleased to have a steady indoor job for the winter, and repairs to the outside fitted in as weather permits.  Meantime we have had quite a reasonable offer for this house, so rather hope we can get it all settled by the end of the year, and so able to move as soon as Manby House is ready.  I foresee busy, busy days ahead!  It’s time I stopped this rambling letter…

1981
Manby west wing construction (February 1981)
Phase II – the west wing – is now nearly finished.  They should be out on Friday, and we have Briggs bringing the stuff out of store on Wednesday next.  Geoffrey and I managed to get the book room more or less straight for last week’s guests, and the new ‘loft’ really is a splendid place.  We chose a ‘terra cotta’ emulsion for the walls – ceiling, skirting, picture rail and windows are white – and now I, as usual, have doubts!  The terra cotta – officially crab-apple – is a splendid colour, but at the moment I fear it looks a little fierce.  However, it is really meant to give a rich background to all those portraits, banners, trumpets, swords – not to mention the [animal] heads – if and when all are hung.  The walls will be nearly invisible.  We’ve not got curtain rails yet, but when we do (via Black & Decker drill!) I will remake the Legbourne drawing room ones – old gold with a pinkish gleam, so I am just hoping the whole effect will be as meant… The garage doors look good.  So does the wrought iron gate.  We are now just longing for the completion date, and absence of builders – nice though they are!  

Easter service (April 1981)
Easter here was lovely and sunny but very cold with a strong north-east wind.  (Dare I say it, but snow showers are forecast for us in the ‘outlook’ period!) No visitors here this weekend so we have been quiet, peaceable and busy.  Bishop Justin (Grimsby) took our Manby and Grimoldby service here at 11 am, and we decided to provide coffee afterwards, so I borrowed the Choral Society urn and made gallons – enough for 100.  Geoffrey helped me put the urn in my car before he rushed into Louth to collect the organist, as it was our turn to do that too – and eventually we were all ready.  I had helped with the church flowers earlier, and it all looked lovely.  The church was full, well over 100 I should say, and the bishop was most impressive – a really good man as well as being delightful, and during the service he announced the appointment of Ross… as the new incumbent, which makes that all official.  Ross comes to stay with us again at the end of the week, and hopes to move into the rectory in a picnic/camp fashion fairly soon.  His family won’t be arriving from Canberra till later – sometime in the summer, so the official induction service is delayed till then.  I must say this ‘patronage’ exercise has been quite fascinating – watching from the sidelines…

Midmarsh Parish incumbent (October 1981)
Other great news is that the Team Ministry plan is off!  Ross… is to be the Midmarsh Parish incumbent – so we hope all the controversy will eventually settle and a proper peaceful parish can be built.  I fear there may be a few difficulties yet, but time will show.  Very stormy weather – gales like mad and branches and leaves coming down...

White Christmas (December 1981)
We had a truly white Christmas here!  Lots of snow earlier in the week.  It turned us back twice from efforts to get to Elsie – too much drifting in the high road towards Ulceby Cross – and prevented us getting to the Foots’ party on 23rd.  It was slithery indeed that night, so we thought discretion was the better part.  However we did manage to make East Kirby on Christmas Eve, and took a box of goodies decorated with tinsel and crackers to Elsie, who I may say is getting battier than ever – and what a mess her dear little house is – I just did not have time or energy to start cleaning it up for her.  Maybe I’ll get over again shortly.  Christmas Day was lovely and very peaceful.  We walked down Church Lane and back via the edge of the airfield, which looked for all the world like the steppes of Russia, and the next day – or was it Sunday – there was a very heavy frost, so all the trees were rimed, holly had every tree just edged with white and it was all very still…  We are having about 40 people in for a little party tomorrow and plan to have it in the ‘gallery’, so I hope it's not too cold.   Thaw at the moment and all slush underfoot…  

1982
Murder in the Cathedral (April 1982)
I am now trying to start catching up with all the things I neglected while… was here.  WRVS for one, lots of sowing, gardening and general house work, spring cleaning and all.  I am getting Biggs to come sometime and move the piano into the ‘gallery’, now that it has some heat to keep it dry.  It should be fun to play there, in a room without curtains or carpet!  The little music room will seem more spacious with just the clavichord.  I’ll bring down the round table from upstairs I think, and another chair or two.  We have our concert, Louth Choral Society on Sunday.  Mendelssohn’s Hymn of Praise and Kodaly Psalms Hungaricus – great fun to sing and should be terrific with the orchestra…  We went to Sea Lane yesterday; a strong easterly wind had roughened the sea, and the noise was terrific.  We went in Geoffrey’s new car – a Peugeot 305 in Savannah green, a bit larger than the old car, and a very pale, almost white green – Super!  I’m afraid I’ve not left much room to tell you about “Murder in the Cathedral” which Louth Playgoers did in St James, a very impressive setting, and what a wonderful play it is.  Donald… was Thomas – great authority – the sermon was splendid… there were some very moving and exciting moments: the clang of the main door when the priests tried to keep the knights out, lots of movement in the aisle.  The chancel suddenly flooded with red light as the murder was done – but the words were best of all...     

1984
Sail Past of the Tall Ships (August 1984)
Just a note, written rather late in the evening, but I have busy days ahead and we are just back from a brief visit to Heswall, which was a lovely interlude.  We set off Friday CAB [comfortably after breakfast] – with dogs! And went over the old way (came back on the M62 today).  We’ve had rain recently and the very dried-up look has gone from the country and it is high summer now… through Clumber Park and the Dukeries, the peak and the old Cat and Fiddle – heather just beginning to colour.  We went through Ollerton and Bolsover.  Lots of police about, but no pickets!  

Saturday was spent devoted to the Tall Ships!  This was a tremendous Mersey occasion... Most of the tall ships were in Birkenhead’s Vittoria Dock, and [we] spent a chunk of the morning there.  It was fantastic.  The Russians had left, but the magnificent Polish square-rigger was still there, and others: the Winston Churchill… It was fun chatting to the various crews, but we couldn’t stay forever, so back to Heswall for lunch!  We set off again about 3.30.  Two cars this time with Keith ‘on call’ and telling the hospital he would phone in every ½ hour, and we were making for the North Wirrall shore between Seacombe and Hallosey.  However – not long after Thingwall we were caught in TRAFFIC.  I’ve never seen so much, moving so slowly.  All the world and his family converging on the Mersey to see the Sail Past of the Tall Ships.  After ½ hour or so Keith opted out.  No way could he have been “available” in that traffic!  

Griselda drove manfully on until we could turn off the motorway.  Then splendid backseat drivers did a superb navigation with a Merseyside A to Z, and we upped over the hill, parked the car and walked ¼ mile or so to a super vantage point, with binoculars, picnic tea and all, and had a wonderful time.  I gather there were 1,000,000 people or thereabouts, and it was, where we were (and I believe everywhere) a delightful light-hearted crowd – same sort of feeling as at the Coronation, Jubilee, Royal Wedding.  We saw Britannia come up the river and Geoffrey, in reply to some question, made a very nautical reply about the Royal Standard at the Mizzen or some such – after which bystanders put all their technical questions to “Horatio”, which made us all laugh so much!  It seemed a longish wait, but eventually the tide turned, and then the ships set their sails and came down river – Winston Churchill led them (all girl crew this time) with the yards manned as they passed the Queen.  Looking up river it was a veritable forest of masts, all very 18th century.  Then the separate ships sorted themselves out and of course the great square-rigged ones were unbelievably impressive.  We left our spectator spot before the end, so avoided another traffic jam on the way back and were home in very reasonable time.  But what a day!  Quite unforgettable, and I am so glad we managed to get there.  Church this morning.  A bit trendy compared with the old days, but I was glad to be there again – to see the graves and of course the lovely memorial to my Papa...   

‘To a bird migrating’ (November 1984)
 “Sombre November” indeed.  I feel disinclined to go out, and though I ought to be usefully sewing I shall write a few letters – sort of fireside chats – and maybe summon the energy to walk to the post with them later.  I have been back here a week now from my few days in Suffolk… We had two wonderful evenings in Norwich, for the Glyndebourne Mozart’s.  I think Figaro will always be my favourite, and it was a wonderful production.  Cosi is very much more static of course and a cruel opera, and the Fiordeligi was not so good as the others, I thought, but again it was a magical evening, and so lucky to have been able to go to both.  I left Mickfield last Thursday morning for a somewhat foggy drive back here.  It wasn't unduly daunting, but it made Thetford forest, which had looked all golden autumn colours on my way south, appear very mysterious in an almost sinister and Germanic way.  Fortunately I was driving in daylight, but I was tired when I arrived back here.  However I recovered enough to go out again that evening to our Louth Concert Society – Iain and Jennifer… singing the Winterreise: this has always been a love of mine, and I doubt if I have ever heard a performance so wonderful.  ‘Die Post’ with “the most moving silent bar in all Schubert” and the last ‘organ grinder’ [der Leiermann] with its strange little tinkling two-bar tune were haunting indeed, but so was the whole song cycle.  I am so glad I made the effort to go.  We seem to have a bit of a pause now before the Christmas rush, though I plan to go to London for a ‘Salmon and Trout’ dinner next week.  

Also I was browsing along library shelves this week: I have picked out a book called 'Bright Morning' by Frances Margaret McGuire.  She… quotes a poem by Paul McGuire (of whom she says nothing as the book stops in 1914).  Here it is:

To a bird migrating

 O wild, dark bird!  What winds have sent you forth?
 What word has blown through all the wild, dark north
 that sounded, in the silence ere the snow,
 like singing in the south, and filled the skies
 with wings, and the beat of wings, and lonely cries?
 Where do the wild flocks go?

 Are there great capes that look upon the sun
  and quiet waters, when the flight is done? 
  And stars at even, and no wind at morn?
  And is it wholly glad in that strange spring,
  or is it saddened with remembering
  the place where you were born?

I have put this in my Commonplace Book, the previous entry in which is a quotation from St Francis de Sales (1567 – 1622): “Do not look forward to what might happen tomorrow – the same Everlasting Father who cares for you today will take care of you tomorrow and every day.  Either He will shield you from suffering or He will give you unfailing strength to bear it.  Be at peace.”   A comforting thought, but difficult sometimes to put into practice.  Time to stop now, though this may have to wait till the morn's morn for posting.  It is an afternoon for staying in, and tea by the fire.
  
1986
Christmas and New Year (January 1986)
Here we are, nearly Twelfth Night, so I thought I would just write a brief note to send New Year Greetings, and to tell you of our Christmas here… I think I told you of our carol services – Carols for All in Louth.  I just could not get to the Ranby one this year, but we had a very full church at Manby on the Sunday evening.  Various people had made mince pies, and I took along a WRVS thermal urn full of mulled wine, so we had a festive evening after a lovely service.  The house party all came at several times on Monday, and we were just about a house full…  Stockings were duly hung up at bed time, and the awakening on Christmas morning was quite late – surprise surprise – not till 7:30 or so, but oh the excitement!  The day followed its normal pattern – church in the morning, children's lunch, a walk / garden play, the Queen at 3 – very good we thought – then we had our presents, and lit the tree – such a pretty one this year, when it started to get dark – still using proper candles.  It is sad that I shall have to put everything away tomorrow.

Now it is January 6th – a white world and a frosty forecast.  I should be going to our first choral rehearsal – the Creation this term, but I think I shall chicken out tonight.  To return to last week.  Boxing Day was reasonably peaceful… Geoffrey and I saw the New Year in quietly here, but rang the Sixteen Bells, and called our greetings to neighbours who apparently were listening for the ceremonial ship's New Year Message!  Now I shall put on ‘Carols from Clare’ for the last time this season, and put away the lovely decorations…

Halley’s Comet (January 1986)
The snow has cleared from the garden now, and locally too, but as I write gales are blowing up.  More are forecast and we already have branches down, and the one old yew tree.  I just hope that is our lot this time, but they say colder weather is on its way once more – one snow flake and I shall hibernate!...  Tea time, dark evening and I must stop as it’s my first ‘choral’ meeting of the term tonight – Haydn’s Creation, and I cannot find my copy, so will have to hire one – bother.  It’s also, apparently, nearly our last chance of seeing Halley’s Comet, and no breaks in the clouds again!  We have scoured the sky with binoculars on the few suitable occasions, no-cloud-no-moon type situations.  We thought we might have seen it in the early days, but it might just as well have been merely another star.  Now it dips below our horizons... 

Snow (February 1986)
Looking out of the window now we could easily be in the Alps, if we had some hills.  Days of bitter east winds have brought snow from Siberia, and I gather it is drifting all over the place.  I had meant to go to Louth this morning but decided not to, and am I glad!  I saw some quite nasty skids at the corner when I went to the shop this morning...      

‘Chill factor’ (February 1986)
We are in a Siberian air flow – official – and oh my, the ‘chill factor’ is now the in-phrase for what we have known for years!  Snow came, fairly heavily, about a fortnight ago.  Then we had a single calm day.  Sun, no wind, and I went with Geoffrey to Rimac on one of those magical afternoons – ice crystals in wonderful shapes at the edge of the paths and where footprints had flattened the snow – there were no geese, but some swans flew over, and lots of small birds... fussed about in the sea buckthorn.  The salt marsh was all snowy and the dogs had a super time chasing rabbits, but never catching them.  I think that Rimac walk was the last windless day.  We seem now to have had an unending east / north-easterly gale – not much more snow but all is frozen, except on the Wolds where some drifts are causing trouble.  “Winter blocks the roads with snow – and we have far to go...”  I'm afraid I chicken out of evening driving, and Geoffrey laughs at my reluctance to take my lovely new car out, in case I cannot find its beautiful Alpine white in the winter landscape!

Recovering from ‘flu (March 1986) 
I intended to write a note from Suffolk but time sped, and today I am recovering from ‘flu – there is a horrid bug going around and it’s most unlike me to succumb, but my temperature is now down and I think I’ll live, though still feel a bit shaky.  It is maddening, after our inhibiting cold spell to be seeing the first spring-like days only from the inside.  And if this writing is worse than usual it is because I am in bed still.  But I shall be up and about very soon, I am sure...  

‘These dogs!’ (March 1986) 
I am writing briefly to get this into the post this afternoon.  Geoffrey is at a meeting in Lincoln and the dogs are clamouring to go out, so I must rush. I had a busy WRVS morning in Louth and now feel lazy so rather have to push myself around – this the result of the local ‘flu which I gather takes an age to go – what a bore…  Geoffrey and I are planning a fortnight’s trip to Ireland in July – he wants to spend his birthday there.  I am not sure why – so we hope to dump the dogs, and take my car over Fishguard – Rosslare and back Dublin – Liverpool.  I hope to get to Inverpolly in September, my only fishing, but everything is a bit vague as yet...  These dogs! most importunate, so I shall have to go.      

Coldest Easter (March 1986)
This has been, I believe, the coldest Easter for many years.  We have only had a little sleet, and then misty cold winds and rain, but there's been a lot of snow further north, and we’re all rather tired of this unspeakable weather.  It has meant that Easter at Manby has been a quiet occasion.  I’ve done a bit of buzzing about to meetings recently and on Saturday went to Legbourne to do the grave and then on to East Kirby for poor old Elsie’s – her birthday too – rather a neglected churchyard and all a bit tumble-down.  However the spring flowers are now making a bit of an effort.  The little Lakeland daffodils by the flagstaff are coming out well, and all the others shouldn’t be too long…  

Unspeakable weather (April 1986)
We’re just back from a short service.  Ross not there so it was taken by… Church Warden – obviously a bit unfamiliar and nervous, but he did very well, and no long sermon!  Fortunately John Self is back with us again so I did not have to play the hymns!  Anyway I am seizing the extra time to write as we have an outing this evening.  We are going to a concert in Skegness!  Peter Donohoe playing Rachmaninoff 2 in the programme.  This occasion includes a ‘reception’ – there was to have been as banquet but that was cancelled – too expensive and too few takers – but even as it is ‘they’ want us to wear ‘black tie’ et al.  All this is in aid of the Cathedral Fabric Fund, so we will have to climb into best bib and tucker at about 4.30, and goodness knows when we’ll be back.  Luckily the sun is shining now, which raises morale and encourages the daffodils, but it is still unseasonably cold, and boring though it is to talk about the weather it has been quite unspeakable recently!  

Reluctant spring (April 1986)
Never have I known spring to be so reluctant: cold, wet and windy...  We had a pre-lunch drinks party here yesterday – about 30 near neighbours – all within walking distance, as we decided we must end hibernation, and at least pretend it was spring.  Some of the flowers did look lovely – inside – and everyone seemed to enjoy it.  We ought to do it more often I guess, but it does take a bit of doing and I get lazy!
  
Expedition to ‘Farm Park’ (May 1986)
We’ve had some lovely days luckily, so that garden and orchard walks are the order of the day – lovely spring flowers and we have picked cowslips and daffodils, and one day last week had a super picnic in a sheltered spot at the far end of the orchard…  The cuckoo has just arrived.  Last weekend was a Bank Holiday, so we have made a few mini expeditions.  One very successful one was to a ‘Farm Park’ – quite a big and busy general farm producing all sorts of crops, but a large area round the farm buildings was set out very well with pens for goats, kids, lambs, farmyard fowls, and the children could join in.  We bought special animal feed and gave it to tiny lambs, small calves etc…  We went to the milking parlour, walked to the millstream to see ducks and ducklings – and large fields with all sorts of different breeds of cattle: Jersey, Highland, Longhorn, the lot.  It is a noted farm for breeding and using the distinctive Suffolk Punch.  We watched one being harnessed up and set about with wonderful horse brasses etc. – quite magnificent.  We found ourselves part of a Rogation Day Service outside, with a splendid stout organist sitting among bales of hay on a tractor’s trailer!

Chernobyl (May 1986)
After 2½ weeks away, I have been fair put to it to catchup here, washing and ironing, cooking etc.  Garden screaming for attention, and lots of WRVS, as I hand over my job as District Organiser at the end of May (I shall be doing local work and emergency instructing only – but that will keep me busy too!)  Mixed weather and spring seems very reluctant to stay, but the trees are at their best now, and some of the blossom is lovely too.  Alas, rain is forecast again, and yesterday we had hail.  I think this strong westerly airstream kept the Chernobyl fall-out away from us.  What a chilling thing it has been.  I worried dreadfully about the children to start with.  Wondering if I should do any ‘protecting’, but it seems that so far all is well here.  Having done that course at Easingwold made it all too close for comfort though, and one only hopes that nuclear dangers get real political thought, and rigid controls for safety…
        
Scripture and Shakespeare (May 1986)
Communication by Biblical quotation is an old naval habit, signals being frequently made with just Chapter and Verse numbers (and very funny and apposite some of them were), but of course “the devil can cite Scripture for his purpose” [Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice] so one has to be a bit careful here.  I find the [Old] Testament very difficult, and Revelations quite horrific, but phrases from Old and New stick in the mind, to comfort and to warn, and one would be very much the poorer without the Bible and the Prayer Book as a sheet anchor in life.  Does anyone read the Catechism nowadays, I wonder?  Incidentally, one Old Testament thought: those lovely words of Ruth: “For whither thou goest, I will go; where thou lodgest I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God...” were spoken to Naomi, her mother-in-law.  I suppose everyone’s view of love differs a bit.  My own is that of my father’s, I think.  ‘All his geese were swans’, and – right or wrong – I would never stop loving and caring, though maybe sometimes a little critical of details.  Another (non-biblical) quotation: “Love is not love that alters as it alteration finds” [Shakespeare, Sonnet 116].  It is one of my own great blessings that I have still family who shared my childhood and my upbringing, who look at things in much the same way and whose own family life is close knit and infused with love, and whose lives I still share, though not always geographically.  However, as I grow older I find it more and more important to keep this love and contact alive, and to recharge my batteries from time to time.  This is one of the reasons that our Inverpolly days, while they are still possible, are so important to me.  It is not only the place, with its inherited, and now personal, memories, but… – the shared memories, the talk, the silences, the compassion, the enormous fun of it all too – I would be so much the poorer without all these.  Yes, we all count our blessings…

Natterjack Toad (May 1986)
I will take this, stamped with Rimac’s Natterjack Toad, to the letterbox by the church, and then get back to gardening.  Moderately warm weather and some sunshine is encouraging, but we are finding that quite a few shrubs etc. just haven’t survived our hideously cold winter / spring.  I hope we have a few days without commitments coming up – then June starts to get busy again.  We have a trip to London, Geoffrey’s ‘Bath Night’ (!) arranged, an evening in Westminster Abbey, and rather hope that the Prince and Princess of Wales will be there – then there is an Oxford Society meeting in the Lecture Theatre of the Institution of Civil Engineers in Great George Street, but alas that would overlap with our Garden Fete here, so I may have to miss that one.  We go to Ireland mid-July.  Geoffrey has arranged a fascinating itinerary – hotels and friends are booked, and ferries too, so that is very exciting.  We’ve heard from… who comes from South Africa in September, which is partly taken up with Inverpolly, so that will have to be sorted out; and I have various plans to visit Oxford, though not sure of dates...  

Purple orchids (June 1986)
Pause for supper and now it is getting rather late.  We have to make a pretty early start tomorrow as it is Lincolnshire Show Day.  Geoffrey is helping with the CPRE [Council for the Protection of Rural England] stand and I am involved with fly-casting competitions organised by the Salmon and Trout Association – some exhaustion envisaged as at last we have warm weather.  Anyway, an early night in prospect, so I must end this soon…  We had a lazy-ish Louth morning – sherry with David… included, then a lovely walk on the beach in the afternoon, returning via Rimac where the orchids are at their best – as purple as a Bishop’s bosom, as David said!  It was a fantastic and unusual sight – very memorable.  I also saw a toad, but doubt if it was the Natterjack!  I have been pretty busy tidying up my WRVS job.  I still have some reports to finish, and there still seems a lot going on.  We are also approaching the season of Garden Fetes and AGMs – never a dull moment!  Then we go to London on Tuesday (24th) for a Bath ‘do’ in the cloisters of Westminster Abbey, meeting friends and maybe catching a glimpse of the Prince and Princess of Wales, and I am hoping to get to London again on Friday for a birthday lunch with the Highgate Church Embroidery Group, but that depends on energy!  

Highgate Church Embroidery Group (July 1986)
Tuesday evening now; after another lovely hot day I am quite tired as I was in Bourne till mid-afternoon with WRVS – an ‘Emergency Training Exercise’, which went well on the day, but had needed quite a bit of preparation!   To return to my ‘narrative’.  We went to London on Tuesday – the first of our recent hot days, and spent the evening in Westminster Abbey – the ‘At home’ for the Order of the Bath – with a tour of the Abbey itself, then wine in the Dean’s Garden.  It was a lovely informal occasion, although the Prince of Wales was there.  We met a number of old friends, and ended having dinner with the… family - “and so to bed” in Geoffrey’s Club.  Being country cousins we found London a bit airless and noisy.  Geoffrey went off by a morning train back to Grantham.  I spent the morning in London, window shopping, park walking, and an hour or two in the Royal Academy… 

I took a taxi to Kings Cross and dumped my luggage, then met Beatrice… who was meeting a train there as Judith was arriving from the north.  This was amusing.  Beatrice drove back to Dancers End and we sat and talked for over an hour – that part of Highgate is just the same, and the Kenwood trees were looking lovely too.  Then Beatrice drove me up to the Grove.  This was the purpose of my visit – a lunch with the Church Embroidery Group.  What a delightful occasion it was.  Old friends were so welcoming.  … garden is superb – marvellous lunch and then after lunch we went across to St Michael’s and spent a long time looking at the embroideries.  These are quite lovely, and some really wonderful work with Sylvia Green’s vision and guiding hand behind it all.  It makes my own work seem sadly pedestrian – I can only be glad to have done some of it.  The present scheme-in-hand is ‘doing’ the Lady Chapel with a sort of Celtic twilight feel about it – all rather misty colours and shadowy saints on the cushions.  Well worth the pilgrimage.  

Dear Pam… drove me all the way to Kings Cross, so my London travelling was made very easy, and Geoffrey met me at Market Rasen.  Saturday was the day of a Garden Fete in Thorpe Hall in aid of the Cathedral Fabric Fund.  Hot and hard work, and there have been various social occasions since.  Now we have the Church Fete looming here on Saturday, so there’s lots to do and I must go and water my cuttings, potted up for the produce stall!            
          
Journey through Ireland, Part 1 (July 1986)
We spent last night at Castletownsend, and here we are now on the north side of Bantry Bay.  We are here for two nights, after a series of one-night stops, so I shall try and catch up with correspondence if I can, and maybe write some postcards later.  We stayed at ‘the Castle’ – now a guest-house run by Mrs S-T, right at the head of the bay, and it was quite an experience, Mrs S-T and the house both by way of being a period piece.  I think the bath must have been one of the very first in all Ireland!  We walked around the village to stretch our legs – what a steep street! – and met Paul… who had been in Sheerness many years ago, and has now married again, a most delightful ‘Pat’ – both very welcoming, and we sat in their garden looking out to sea from the point and sipping delicious sherry.  Weather has been mild, but rather grey and damp since crossing to Rosslare on Thursday, but last evening it cleared and was quite lovely.  Alas, the mist came down today – the ever present Atlantic Front!  So bus drive here, through Ballydehob, Bantry and Glengariff, was not as scenic as it might have been.  We left Castletownsend late morning, after we had been to church.  It hasn’t changed, except that today we had an organist, instead of having hymns on a cassette player… (Sorry, writing on my knee, watching boats and hoping to see more seals on the rocks just across the water – not conducive to legibility!)... 

On our way through Waterford we called at the Glass Works, originally founded by the Penroses in the eighteenth century.  Geoffrey had written in advance about this, and we had a fascinating ‘personal’ tour, watching the melting, blowing, finishing, marking, cutting, engraving, polishing, all marvellous crafts most excellently done by master craftsmen who serve long apprenticeships and whose actual type of work has changed very little over the centuries.  Alas, the finished products are very expensive, and not for sale at the factory, but we hope to find some when we shop in Dublin on our way home (unless our time looking at the Book of Kells etc. takes too much of the final day).  It is now quite misty – mist down on the water, hiding all the coast and the islands.  I hope we don’t have a foghorn outside our window all night!  Tomorrow we plan a day’s gentle, non-serious fishing and possibly some painting, then we potter northwards via New Zealand friends to a place called Clifden in Connemara Co Galway where Geoffrey decided he would like to spend his 70th birthday, before we turn east for Dublin, Liverpool, and back to Manby once more...

Journey through Ireland, Part 2 (July 1986)
It really was a “fabulous, fabulous, fabulous” holiday, though alas, the weather could have been kinder.  Lincolnshire seems to have had a mini-heat wave, but Western Ireland had more than its fair share of Atlantic / Irish mist, low cloud and rain, so sadly much of the magnificence of the coast line was obscured.  The nice hotel manager told us “the scenery would take your breath away, if you could see it”!  On our full day at Castletownbere however we did see quite a lot of sun.  We took a picnic, crossed from Bantry Bay to the north side of the Bere peninsula and spent a lovely day doing some lighthearted fishing for small trout in a long inland lough – steep-sided, and fascinating flowers, orchids, ferns, sundew, butterwort, scabious, bog asphodel and one I thought was gentian – quite blue enough but too tall and it was a member of the iris family – blue-eyed grass.  All near a waterfall at the lough side.  We spent some time in the afternoon looking for a 17 foot pillar with Ogham Script – ever so old – then a marvellous drive along the coast road back to the hotel.  Dramatic but misty!  We left the next morning in drizzly rain – so annoying, as surely the scenery would have been breathless!  We went along the Kenmara river to Parknasilla for lunch.  Then went round the ring of Kerry, which again was practically invisible, but we had glimpses of marvellous views, and after pausing for delicious tea at Killoughin, arrived at our next destination.  This was to stay with … whom I had last seen in New Zealand!  Geoffrey had met them since of course, and… is now Professor of Oceanography at Galway University.  … has been left a fantastic house and farm land by a distant cousin.  It had been very tumbledown but they have done marvels already and have plenty of plans for the future.  They had a dinner party for 12 the night we arrived – all rather formal, beautiful setting and most interesting people.  The next day Brian and Valerie drove us round the Dingle peninsula, the most westerly in Europe – and again most beautiful.  Lo and behold, too the sun shone – sometimes with a misty effect of grey and silver lights on the sea, and occasionally in full splendour over that very dramatic coastline.  We paused now and again.  Seafood lunch (and draught Guinness!), a bit of rubble-hopping; 'beehive' cells and a very early Christian chapel.  Gallarus oratory, stone-built with remarkable precision, mortar-less and completely watertight still – like an upturned boat.

Thursday – sorry, I was interrupted, and now have lost a day, and rather lost the thread of my narrative.  I think I had better condense and just tell of the highlights – but there were many of these.  The Cliffs of Mohen, Co Clare – we climbed O'Brien's Tower, and you could look down and down, and see the sea birds wheeling up to their nests, fulmars and kittiwakes half way down the Cliffs.  The sea was reasonably calm, just a swell.  In a storm it must be terrific.  We motored next day through the Burren, a region of curious limestone slabs and curved hills awash with flowers and with, again, many relics of early Christianity – ancient 'cathedral' and High Crosses (v Celtic) at Kilpenora, and one place Kilmacdurgh with a Round Tower.  Seven churches and the tomb of St Colmar (who was he?).  Clare was followed by Galway, and on eventually to Connemara.  We stayed two nights at a super hotel near Clifden for Geoffrey’s 70th birthday, and this is a most beautiful part of Ireland – sea loughs and hills.  I wish we could have stayed longer – in spite of the rain.  The little car went beautifully (Geoffrey drove all the time), and some of the roads were reminiscent of the Coigeach, and that Inverpolly / Lochinver road in particular.  I really felt withdrawal symptoms as we turned east and made our way across Ireland to Dublin!  Dublin had us for a short day – just time to potter round a few shops after driving through Phoenix Park and having lunch, and particularly to spend some time in the Long Room of the Trinity College Library – so historic, and there on display was the Book of Kells, the Book of Armagh and other treasures.  Fabulous (x 4) I reckon!  We spent our last Irish night with a naval friend – had to make an early start to catch the ferry to Liverpool…    
 
Christmas (December 1986)
We have had a quiet Christmas here, mild weather too, but it seems to have entailed the usual extra cooking!  And we went out to one or two ‘occasions’.  Only two carol services this year – I missed the Louth one, and alas the Lincoln Christmas Eve one too – and there was nothing at Ranby, but we had a very nice (and crowded) one here in Manby on the Sunday before – a good sing, and readings various.  I read the TS Eliot Journey of the Magi – very difficult! and we had mince pies and mulled wine after the service.  Church all candle-lit and sparkly.  Then yesterday I went to the Legbourne service, now a traditional Sunday-after-Christmas occasion with John… (music master in Louth) organising a  small dozen-or-so choir for some of the more unusual carols, beautifully sung, and the usual readings and carols for the congregation.  The great highlight was to hear Jack… reading Luke 2 – the shepherds – you felt he would so easily have been one of them… and I came back to Lincolnshire.  I spurned the outer ring road as I wanted to see a bit of Cambridge, and it looked lovely – all the silvery stone almost sparkling in the winter sunlight.  I came down to Trumpington Road, left at those traffic lights, and then turned right along Queen’s road and out via Huntingdon road and back on to the A1.

1987
Norwegian Holiday (June 1987)
Here we are, nearly a week back in Manby after a fabulous (x 3) holiday in Norway.  Our ‘longest day’ in England, and it is damp and overcast.  We gather from Roger that Lincolnshire was like this, or wetter, all the time we were away.  But we had the most wonderful time on our ‘cruise’, and the weather there gave us a bit of everything…  We sailed from Newcastle to Bergen – flat calm – and then spent 24 hours in Bergen – lovely Hanseatic League town with Bryggen Houses on the waterfront… Then, having done a little sightseeing and taken a funicular to the top of one of the hills above the harbor, we embarked on the Coastal Express ‘Midnatsol’ – which was home for 12 splendid days.  These ships go daily, I think, from Bergen to Kirkenes and back, calling at ports, islands, fishing villages with no other means of access, taking mail, heavy goods, light freight, you-name-it.  We reckon we made upward of 40 stops – some very brief and some in the night.  Meanwhile passengers sat on deck or in the panoramic lounges (warmer!) and watched the world go by.  We landed at quite a few places, and joined several of the shore trips organized by the courier.  There was plenty of time for reading, and I took a piece of canvas-work to do too.  But it was the scenery that dominated – from Bergen area lush looking farms, and islands and promontories very like West Scotland, to steep and steeper mountains – more snow as we sailed north, and breath-taking fjords.  Flowers in the south part were fantastic when we landed – the north bleak and leafless for the most part.  And the birds – colonies of terns, a great stack or two of kittiwakes and gannets, fulmars, skuas, storm petrels, and twice I saw the great sea eagle – quite close the second time as we came out of Trollfjord – very narrow and almost claustrophobic, very troll-like!

We never got to the North Cape by land – our bus had to turn back because of snowdrifts – a pretty hairy drive as far as we went.  Then the road closed!  We went by bus from Kirkenes to the Russian border – which somehow had an eerie feeling about it, though it all looked calm and peaceful enough.  And we landed without ‘bus tour’ at a number of small harbours, just to potter round – or look at churches, old and new.  At Trondheim I did two organized trips, first to a wonderful Museum of Music in a nineteenth century farmhouse nearby – fantastic collection, very well displayed – and we were ‘guided’ by music students, who played on quite a few of the old instruments, and talked extremely well.  Our second time, southbound, in Trondheim, I went up to St Olav’s [Nidaros] Cathedral, dating from his martyrdom in the late tenth century, and rebuilt in ‘Gothic’ style fifteenth century by an Archbishop who had been exiled to England and spent some time in Lincoln!  The Cathedral decayed and was struck by lightning, but about 1870 they started restoring it, and the West Front has a very familiar look to it!  We got back to Bergen last Sunday 14th – and transferred to Jupiter again for another calm North Sea crossing, and so back to Manby, having had the most wonderful time, crossed the Arctic Circle (a Certificate from King Neptune to prove it!), seen the North Cape – magnificent from sea – seen the Midnight Sun – and photographed it, and brought back a host of impressions and memories…

Holiday in Scotland (September 1987)
I had mixed weather on my trip to Scotland and some absolutely wonderful days.  I paused the first night just north of Perth and was at Badentarbet next day for a late-ish lunch… Three days at Badentarbet went very quickly, fishing on Loch Vatachan, a drive round seeing old friends, paddling and swimming at Achnahaird, a trip round some of the Summer Isles in the Tinker, landing on Ristol which I had not done before, and a magical Garvie day.  

I rather rushed my drive on to Oban, turning off after Muir of Ord to Drumnadrochit and the Great Glen.  I had a ferry to catch, and in fact arrived in time for the one before, but as that was fully booked I had to wait after all, and pottered happily around Oban.  I spent 4 days in Carsaig, and as ¾ of ‘The Cottage’ is let during the summer I slept in the new ‘library’.  This is a splendid pre-fab building which came in kit form from Finland – bays of books; a long working desk; bedroom upstairs and bathroom etc. on the ground floor.  I gather the building of it was quite a drama, getting it all over the hill in the first place, then having to dynamite rocks away to make a level standing!  At the same time they had a few rocks in front of the house blown up (not the Dog Rock, however), and a proper swimming pool created at the edge of the grass.  Again, the 4 days went quickly.  We spent one on Iona, a perfect day, and a friend of Antonia’s lent us one of the only cars, so I was able to drive right up to the north shore, and we spent most of the day there – avoiding all the holy pilgrims!  Antonia is not well, alas, and very crippled with arthritis, so it limited our activities a bit – no fishing, alas – and Ruari was very busy with translating one book from German and getting another through the press.  We spent quite a bit of time correcting proofs, and there were people to visit, peas to pod, ‘Piaf’ to bring out of the water and into the boat shed.  Never a dull moment, and always that absolutely stunning view out over the reef to the other islands – the light always changing, and seals and sea-birds almost within reach – Gannets and a Great Northern Diver particularly memorable.  Antonia and Ruari came over to Oban too, the day I left, so we had the drive and the ferry together, then off I set south, still in wonderful sunshine.  I stayed the night in Moffat, then came down on the west side, crossing the Pennines to Scotch Corner, and that day had rain and mist most of the time.  What a climate!

1988
Holiday in Scotland (September 1988)
The days at Inverpolly went far too quickly...  I fished a lot, though when the weather was unspeakable I did not do my usual little walk down to the sea-pool before breakfast!  The days were full of incident as you can imagine, and various expeditions, and the evenings, with… wonderful cooking, were full of talk and much laughter… The lodge is much the same as ever.  Charmian… doesn’t change, and the landscape unbelievable as always.  Much rain had made the river difficult to reach and to fish, but most of us caught salmon – and lots of trout, and the climbers always dashed off to splendid heights when the clouds were away…  I came back via Mull – quite a detour down the Great Glen and across to Morven and Mull by two ferries.  Again, Carsaig is a fascinating place, and Antonia and Ruari made me very welcome.  But Antonia herself is not well, and goes into hospital in Edinburgh next week, which is a worry.  We spent some time one afternoon looking at old family papers and photographs – history indeed.  I shall try and sort some of them out this winter for the family to peruse…

South African trip (December 1988)
We are now nearly at the end of a most fabulous three weeks.  We decided months ago that we needed sunshine after such a dismal summer…  We started our visit staying with… in Benoni [Gauteng], then a night in the Natal Nature Reserve under the Drakensberg mountains – unbelievably dramatic and lovely.  Our next stop was with… we had a splendid day with some friends, and fishing, up 6,000 feet.  Then went for 2 nights to a game reserve and spent amazing hours driving to secret spots and gazing at all manner of game – lions included, but alas not elephants, who must have been in another part of the forest!  After we left Zululand and Natal we had a mammoth drive through the Transkei to Grahamstown (Carlisles were among the 1820 Settlers and names are recorded there).  Then on to George to stay with… We were now on the Garden Route to the Cape, and had two nights on our own in Hermanus – upmarket seaside resort where… has a house.  Then to Stellenbosch – lovely Dutch-built place and to… who farms (vineyards and sheep) near Wellington.  It was very hot there but lovely, and we spent part of a day ‘doing’ a wine cellar.  Cape Town was our last port of call, staying with...  We turned in our hired car – most excellent Toyota – and stayed out at Camps Bay – still beautifully sunny but a mammoth gale.  Our last afternoon was spent at Braai (barbecue) with so many of the younger and youngest generation cousins, and then we were lucky enough to get on to the Blue Train, and are pausing briefly before our flight back.  We have noticed many changes since 1971, especially that there is no apparent apartheid.  All shops, restaurants, buses – all colours and races.  We gather that this divestment policy is doing more harm to those it is supposed to help – but no room to go into that now.  The young we met were all optimistic that black ‘rule’ will come peacefully if it is allowed to take its own pace...

Fortnum and Masons (December 1988)
Geoffrey and I set off tomorrow for Suffolk, laden with dogs, presents, and some contributions to the table, including my Garvie salmon (smoked) to add to the festivities.  We shall be away for only a few days, hoping the weather will stay open for travel.  …came over for the day last Sunday – a Christmas lunch here for them.  Then they helped me make a quantity of mulled wine for our Manby Carol Service in the evening.  There was quite a congregation for this, and as I was the organist I did feel a bit nervous.  But I have a new ‘Oxford Christmas Carol’ book, with simple settings for 60 carols – plenty of scope there, and the service went well – crowded and candle-lit, it started to feel like Christmas!  Earlier in the week I had been to London for a splendid ‘reception’ commemorating the centenary of uncle Joyce’s [Cary] birth.  All the Cary’s were there of course, including Tristram and his charming lady.  I only had a brief word with them – so many people for us all to talk to...  Griselda was there, and she and I had met for a splendid tea in gorgeous Fortnum and Masons, which was a dip into the past, as far as I was concerned – Antonia and I used to have a meal with Great Aunt Emmie there on our way to school – it all seemed very much the same, a delicious place...  

2006
Sheltered accommodation (February 2006)
Here I seem to be making slow progress, which makes me despondent, but more help is on its way, and I hope to be able to cope at Manby quite soon.  However… and Dr Storin are concerned that I should find a smaller place – ‘sheltered accommodation’ which I suppose makes sense, but the thought of moving from Manby is daunting indeed…

New Zealand recipes (April 2006)
Herewith the old NZ recipe for fudge cake that I used.  I sometimes put peppermint essence with it, and used various fruits, dried peel etc. that I had handy, and sometime put a thin layer of chocolate on the top – and cut into fingers to serve.  Enjoy!  April day here today and rabbits on the lawn having a high old time.  Rudi sometimes doesn’t see them now.  I must now tackle some paperwork…

RECIPE FOR FUDGE CAKE

	½ lb biscuits
	1 cup walnuts (not always!)
	¼ lb butter
	2 oz sugar
	1 egg
	Tablespoon cocoa
	Raisins etc.

1.	Grind biscuits.
2.	Beat egg, add sugar, cocoa, butter, put in saucepan, heat till melted.
3.	Take off heat, add biscuit and fruit.
4.	Put in square tin and press down.

RECIPE FOR ‘PINK’ (SUMMER FRUIT CORDIAL)

	2 lb strawberries
	2 lb raspberries
	1 lb redcurrants
	2½ oz citric acid 
	5 pints water

1.	Dissolve citric acid in water.
2.	Add fruit and steep for 24 hours.
3.	Sieve fruit.
4.	Add sugar – 1½ lbs for each pint.
5.	Bottle when sugar is dissolved (which will not be for some days).
6.	Do not cork for some time.
  
I hope you can read this.  It can ferment and explode if corked too soon! 

Rudi (September 2006)
Sad news from here.  Rudi died last week. He was 14½ had been failing for some time, but had a very good life, and I think was a happy dog.  His heart just gave out.  Fortunately my neighbour (who for several years had been walking him) was here, and the vet came hurriedly and was marvellous.  He went very peacefully and in fact has solved one of my problems: what to do with him when I move.  This was so much his home.  I doubt if he would settle anywhere else.  But it does leave a gap.  Meanwhile I am slowly going round the bend, trying to sort out 85 years and decide what to take to the bungalow.  John… came to look at naval papers, and has taken a lot to go in the archives in the Hydrographic office at Taunton, and others to the Naval History museum…  I am now planning to move on October 16, and my new address will be 10 The Terrace, Stewton Lane, Louth, Lincs, LN11 8RZ, Tel No 01507 607090…
       
My time in the WRNS (October 2006)
I am back in Stewton House for a few days!  Do you have internet?  A friend was ‘surfing’ recently and came across an account of my time in the WRNS!  I think it was either  c/o Mary Hall or ‘Second World War Experience Centre’.  If you can find it, it may amuse you all.  It included a wedding photo!  … was here today and went over to the bungalow.  Still a lot to be sorted and unpacked but it felt quite cosy and warm.  Apologies for my writing.  Not easy on my knee…

The bungalow (November 2006)
I’m afraid I am slow about writing these days.  Lots of reasons – arthritis etc.  The cards have been much appreciated and give a lot of pleasure, and the diary will indeed be much used.  I am getting so vague about dates…  I suppose I shall settle in here eventually.  It is a very small bungalow – a living room, two bedrooms, one of which I am using for a ‘spare’ bed, my desk and files all so far in a rather confused state.  (Lots of loose ends left in Manby too, which will have to be sorted out.)  There is a kitchen with room for a small table, and a bathroom, electric night storage heaters – and it is very cosy as we approach winter.  The bungalow is in the grounds of Stewton House Nursing Home, and room at the back for sitting out on a garden bench – weather permitting!  Altogether the move makes sense, but it’s a bit traumatic all the same.  It has a fitted carpet throughout, a reasonably pleasant green, and curtains are liveable with.  In the sitting room here and in my bedroom are muted flowers patterned in predominantly greyish pink – all harmless and a good background for the things I have brought with me from Manby – limited in size!  … have put up some pictures for me, and I have some books, radio and TV to keep me going – and friends from round Louth pop in…

Medics who are close relations (December 2006)
It may amuse you to know that there are quite a few medics who are my close relations…

My father WG Carlisle – a country GP of the old-fashioned sort
My brother Iain Carlisle – ditto
An uncle Heneage Ogilvie – a noted surgeon of Guy’s Hospital and wartime RAMC
A cousin Pat Ogilvie – wartime RNVR and then a GP
Brother-in-law Keith Rawlinson – consultant urologist
Nephew… – consultant in Bristol
Niece… – consultant in Cardiff

Apologies for my arthritic hand...  

2007
Christmas presents and cards (January 2007)
Thank you all so much for the lovely parcel.  The mat is already under Griselda’s poinsettia.  The freesia’s in my drawer, and the towel in use on my walking frame!  My sitting room is much decorated with lovely cards and the crib will stay in place till Twelfth Night!  

First snow (February 2007)
First snow of the year has just arrived!  I feel a bit hemmed in here!  … has been doing mammoth work at Manby.  Various things have been mislaid on the way but will doubtless turn up….

‘More winter to come’ (February 2007)
Lovely photographs.  So impressive.  Thank you so much for sending them…  We’re warming up a bit here but presumably we’ll have more winter to come!  

Daffodils (March 2007)
We’ve been having some marvellous weather – quite spring like, and all the bulbs, daffodils etc. are bursting out.  I am still finding walking rather difficult, which is a nuisance, and I am a bit despondent!  I think Manby House is sold now – subject to contract.  ‘The end of an old song’ indeed.  I shall miss it but am very cosy here…

Parkinson’s (May 2007)
I hope you are all well and the weather a bit kinder.  It’s lovely here just now.  This plane [Lancaster bomber in postcard] has just been revamped and is flying again from Coningsby in the ‘Battle of Britain’ flight.  I’m still not walking properly and ‘they’ are talking about Parkinson’s – which is a bore...

‘Still very immobile…’ (June 2007)
I’m sorry not to have been in touch, but have not been too well.  Medics have taken charge and changed some pills, so I am better now, still very immobile which is a bore!  Hope you are all well and not too stormy!

‘Autumn coming on now…’ (October 2007)
Many thanks for the card and beautiful photographs…  Life quite peaceful here, but I am still limited in movement and have to have a lot done for me, which is a nuisance.  Autumn coming on now.  It’s getting colder and we’ve had some gales…

2008
‘Lovely chocolates…’ (January 2008)
Thank you again for the lovely chocolates – a lovely surprise – delicious.  F & M [Fortnum & Masons] did address the parcel wrongly, putting “10 Stewton Lane”.  Address should be as above.  “The Terrace” is a turning off Stewton Lane.  10 Stewton Lane is a different house altogether!  Have you been having rain?  Best wishes for 2008.

‘Spring is on its way…’ (April 2008)
Hope you are all well.  I am, alas, getting very stiff, which is a nuisance.  I think spring is on its way at last.  April showers included!

‘I had a bath recently…’ (May 2008)
My main reason for writing is to thank you again for the lovely holder of bath toiletries – much appreciated.  I had a bath recently – the first since 2005 when I broke my hip!  A delicious difference from the strip wash, which is the fate of the elderly.  I hope I shall soon be back in the bungalow; the weather is certainly improving.  We had lunch in the garden yesterday and today.  I shall be able to telephone when I get back ‘home’ again…

2009
‘Able to walk a bit…’ (September 2009)
Many thanks indeed for your card and all the news – so interesting and impressive…  I am able to walk a bit, with a frame now, but it is slow going.  I still need a wheel chair, which is certainly limiting.  Griselda and Keith came over for lunch the other day.  Lovely to see them.  Lots of news and chat.  I seem to have got this card upside down – Parkinson’s takes hold – alas!  Best wishes from me, and love to you all, M.

Postscript
Mary Hall died peacefully at Stewton House Nursing Home, Louth, Lincolnshire, on 12 December 2010.  She was nearly 90.