The day before yesterday I finished reading
being the final novel in the trilogy of the Larkin family, first featured in “Freak Of Fate” in which I described the first book; how I came by it; and the amazing coincidence of the address on the flyleaf, also borne by this Book Club edition published by Michael Joseph in 1960.
In his now familiar rollicking style the author continues to relate the cheerfully energetic romp through life of Pop Larkin, his friends and family. I have now realised that one of the chief pleasures of these stories is the ease with which Bates weaves beautiful bucolic descriptions into his innocently scandalous narrative. For the Larkins, life really is “perfickly” beautiful. Maybe, only 15 years after the ending of the Second World War, that is what the world needed.
This morning we visited Bill and Helen to exchange birthday presents.
We diverted to Abbotswell, near Frogham, on our way home, then decided to lunch at The Fighting Cocks at Godshill.
In the deeply pockmarked gravelled car park at the top of Abbotswell hill a couple of riders were persuading two splendid, reluctant, black horses into their trailered transport which, with their weight, seemed certain to increase the potholes.
I took a short walk among the undulating woodlands overlooking the sloping landscape below.
As always in such terrain it was necessary to tread gingerly over tree roots.
Bees swarmed among wild blackberry blossoms.
Cattle and ponies congregated in the valley below.
A lone cyclist sped along a footpath
and re-emerged on the path to Deadman Hill on the other side of Roger Penny Way. To think that just four years ago I would take that walk without thinking about it.
My lunch at the pub consisted of steak and ale pie, chips, and peas; Jackie’s was mushroom stroganoff with which she drank Hop House lager. My drink was Ringwood’s Best.
Long haired miniature ponies groped their way across the greens beside Cadnam Lane where
an enterprising hairdresser had given a bug-eyed tree stump an impressive Mohican.
The Head Gardener has a little friend in the form of a juvenile robin that follows her around during the day and has taken to joining us on the patio for a drink in the evening. Jackie, on this occasion, drank Hoegaarden, I drank sparkling water, and Robin drank water from a flower pot saucer.
After this, Jackie and I dined on pepperoni pizza and salad; Robin probably finished off what was clinging to his beak.