Summer

Joe's Flowers

 

 

Some of the flowers Joe grew in his new greenhouse.

A rather moist day out in Yorkshire

 

Lovely Woodland

 

The weather was glorious on this day out to Bolton Abbey.

A Day Out in Yorkshire

 

A Walk To the Allotments

 

 

 

The best I could manage of Federer and Nadal

Starlings in the Garden

8-7-08

The weather is cold and dismal. Rain keeps showering down and there is little hope of a pleasant walk today. We have the light on so that we can read or write. We want to have a short break beside the sea, maybe Southend. Also we want to go to Edinburgh and to Yorkshire. Shall we manage all this? Time will tell!
The garden looks lovely. The tomatoes in the greenhouse are flourishing, and the seedlings which have been planted are flowering magnificently. This is all down to Joe’s hard work. .The Tree of Heaven is, as usual, growing at high speed. We pollard it every year to prevent it galloping up too far. I think that if we cut it down it would send out mini trees all over the garden.
We had a flock of starlings land in our garden a few evenings ago. They roosted in the wood at the end of the garden. The following morning they flew off. We had not had starlings in the garden in such numbers for many years.

 

I am rather pleased with this photo of Andy Murray that I took from the television yesterday. It is a pity he did not win Wimbledon.

A bird box

 

Here is a bird box which Joe put in the woodland at the end of our garden. It is a bit late for nesting this year but maybe some very small mammal may hibernate in it next winter. There is a fox in this wood. She has two cubs, quite big now. They sometimes come in the garden. I like to see them although they do sometimes make holes in the lawn to the annoyance of Joe. There are always squirrels. They also come in the garden, of course, looking on the bird table to see if there are any tasty titbits. The only animals I am not very fond of are rats. The only ones I see are dead ones that other animals sometimes kill and leave on the lawn. I heard some expert of some sort say on the radio that in London we are never more than ten feet from a rat. That thought makes me shudder although the poor old rats cannot help what they are. I think I shall now go downstairs, make some tea and take it in the garden. If it is too cool there I shall go in the conservatory where it will probably be too hot. There's no pleasing me, is there!!

The Fleet End Bottom Cottages

 

Family cottages in Hampshire. sadly,they are now demolished.

 

The old Jarvis house with Aunt Alice at the door.

Food Or No Food

Every day I see the crowds doing their shopping,
Walking on the pavements with their trolleys,
Loaded high with foods of great variety.
I come home with our food,
More than we truly need.
At home I see the news;
Often shown are skeletal people
With beautiful, huge-eyed babies,
Stick limbed,
No food.

MSK

Rhododendrons

 

Our rhododendrons have been doing remarkably well this year. In fact, considering the very mixed weather we have been having, everything in the garden is flourishing.

Grandad Samuel

 

My dear old Grandad

A Holiday in Jersey

 

This muzzy old photo was taken in Jersey while on holiday there in 1948. What luxury there was for sale on that lovely island. The UK was still rather drab as far as luxury items went. I bought my first pair of nylon stockings in Jersey. Another purchase was a pair of shoes, also a handbag. Many people were buying fur boots. My pocket was not sufficiently full to buy those. Anyone who has not lived through that time will not be able to imagine the intense pleasure of sitting down in a milk bar and drinking a cup of coffee with a large helping of thick cream floating on the top. There were films everywhere so we took endless numbers of photos. Buses took us to the beautiful bays. The sun shone and on the day we regretfully caught the boat home the early morning sky over the island was a golden glow. I said to myself then that I would never go to Jersey again. Never could a holiday there beat the wonder of that fortnight in 1948. So far I have kept that pledge.

This is Joe's greenhouse which he had for his birthday. His seedlings are coming on very well. We hope to have a good crop of tomatoes later, all being well.

Our Old Tree

This is the old conifer which had to be felled last Autumn

The Open Road

What I feel like doing at the moment is going over the hills and far away. The sun is shining, absolutely perfcct weather. Unbelievable!! I hope that tomorrow brings more of the same.
The North Country beckons me. Another visit to Cumbria and then on to Yorkshire. From there on to Northumberland with maybe another visit to Holy Island and also Bede’s World which we visited when it had not been open for long. Yes! The North definitely beckons. Then it’s not far on to Scotland.
Also, being an Essex girl, that county has its memories. It always pulls me and deserves a visit.
Can we manage all this? Very unlikely, I should think, but one never knows. Part of it, yes.

Yum yum

This apple tree has a lots of blossom this year. I hope it will have a great many apples.

A Mothering Sunday bunch of flowers

This Spring

This Spring is a dull, drear grey;
Where is the sun?
With hope we open each new day,
Hoping that this will be the one
When the sun shines bright
With a golden glow
And a sapphire blue. Summer’s near.
Soon will come warmth,
Winter will go.

MSK

A Green Man in our garden

A Child of the Thirties

I have just recently realised where the England is that is in my heart. It is the England of my early childhood, a place of magic. It is a feeling that has somehow come into being in my old age. It comes from my childhood, probably continuing until twelve years old. My world was one of freedom. There was no war, my home was happy, we were not poor as so many were in those days, I felt I was part of the village where I lived and all was well. My love of woodland, fields and open spaces developed during that time. I had friends to explore with and a bike to ride. I had a mother, father and a little brother to love. What more could I want?
I have not mentioned school. I did not hate it but I must confess that I preferred the holidays. That is a dreadful thing to say these very serious days, I believe.
England is a very different place these days but still a good place to live. There are so many interesting people here. I am a long way from the fields and woods of my childhood. That world no longer exists. Also the child I was no longer exists. I have always lived in the present with no longing to go back.

A Day in the Brecon Beaons

Reaching the mountain top
Was a worthwhile attainment.
Aching footed and out of breath
We sat enveloped in the joy of it
While the winging larks filled
The air with their summer song.
The surrounding azure vault
Stretched away to infinity,
And we were replete with satisfaction.
Maternal ewes with attendant lambs
Roamed the green distance
While far below diminutive vehicles
Sped on their frantic, fuming way,
Leaving the hills to us.

The Jarvis family in 1935

We are fifty five years married today.

Yet more snow in April

When is Spring going to begin, though I must say that there is blossom on some of our trees and

there are plenty of leaves developing.

Storm Clouds over Middlesex

Woodland

Here is a scrap of wild wood at the end of our suburban garden.

Thirty Years in Town

Thirty years of urban life
And still the fields they call,
The wild woods they pull.
The salt marshes send forth their feelers
And fill my heart with an anonymous ache,
Why can’t I let them go.

Or do their pagan gods still cling,
Put out their invisible threads,
Hold me with a grinning satisfaction
In their primeval power.
Oh, let me cut the threads.

But no, I would not cut those threads,
Destroy the unforgotten,
Anaesthetise the ache.
The tremulous spirit needs to stir
To far off music.
I will not close my ears.

MSK

Peggy and the Methodists

I must start this bit of scribble by making one thing quite clear. No one forced me to go to the Methodists. At the age of five I discovered from a friend that when starting at the Sunday school one was given an exercise book, a pencil and a rubber plus a folder in which to put them. The friend was older than I and I was able to go to the chapel with her. This started a connection with the Methodists which continued until ww2 started and I went away with my family.
On looking back I must confess that I don’t think my reason for going was quite as it should have been. However, I remained with the Methodists and who knows, I might have still been with them had the war not started!
I am amazed when I remember that I went Sunday mornings and afternoons for so many years. Of course, the fact that we were given a text every week, and when we had collected a certain number which I can’t remember, we could choose a book, which did not necessarily have to be a religious one, made one good reason for such a regular attendance. I have always been a bookworm. Another reason was the outing in the summer and the Christmas parties.
At the parties we played games. One I can remember was ‘The Farmer Wants a Wife’. Another I think was ‘Poor Jenny Was ‘A weeping’. Those were old folk games, or maybe dances.
One of the summer outings was to Theydon Bois and another to Clacton. I fell off a donkey at Theydon Bois and grazed my arm. At Clacton I could not find my way out of a mirror maze. Also at Clacton there was a roundabout which startled me by suddenly putting a cover over everyone.
We were all given a bunch of violets each to give to our mothers on MotheringSunday.
I remember the Methodists with affection.