By e-mail this morning I received from my Australian friend, Gwen Wilson, a copy of a 1939 register of the residents of Shaftesbury Rd, Carshalton. This was the location of the VE Day Street Party featured in my post, “Holly”. I have added it to the post.
Later, Malachi initiated a FaceTime conversation.
Schools in Fremantle are open again. Attendance is voluntary. Other children may continue on line. My grandson had spent the day on virtual classroom worksheets .
This is his effects cartoon of his feelings about it;
and this at the end of the day.
Mal wanted to send some other pictures to my mobile phone. I was forced to explain why I couldn’t access these because I do not use the internet on my phone – this because I am old and can’t manage it. I had to resort to telling him how limited technology was when I was his age. At each stage he registered his amazement with a suitable effect.
Ordinary people did not have telephones, and those who did often had party lines shared with neighbours who could pick up their phones and listen in. We had no telephone throughout my childhood.
We didn’t have a television until I was 15 and that was a small black and white second hand one given to my father.
We didn’t have a car. We could play cricket in the London street because there were no cars there. (I do hope that is a dollop of chocolate, Mal.)
So, you see, I like to keep things simple.
For most of the day the skies darkened; a fierce wind threw garden furniture to the ground and smashed a pot; heavy rain lashed the windows, also battered briefly by sharp hailstones.
During a brief lull I stepped out to gather up North Breeze’s soggy rubbish scattered around our front garden. I got no further than photographing a little of it before hailstones clattered down. Was the litter the badger’s revenge?
Jacki had taken advantage of the precipitation cessation by wandering round the back drive with her camera.
She focussed on the blooming borders
with their healthy hostas,
happy hawthorns
and euphoric euphorbias. (I couldn’t help myself).
White libertia and Erigeron;
lemon antirrhinums;
and pink pelargoniums also thrive there.
The Head Gardener is particularly pleased with how the stumpery on the corner of the Weeping Birch Bed is developing.
Nearby, daffodils continue to bloom.
Just as I was photographing the gravel at the front, Jackie had reached the Star of India clematis beneath the wisteria.. Like me, she was driven inside by the piercing sleet.
This evening we dined on The Culinary Queen’s spicy chilli con carne, savoury rice, and tender green beans with which she drank Heineken and I drank Cellier des Dauphines Cotes du Rhone Cuvée Spéciale 2016.