Saturday...

I have to admit that I haven't properly been in the garden for over a week, which is part of the reason I'm sharing another of my grandparent's postcards...

I've been spending a lot of time on trains over the last fortnight, but I have also 

been trying to get in a bike ride most days. This morning's bike ride ( ahead of the train journey I'm currently on ) was so beautiful; there were so many Hawthorn berries about, and the lichen was looking very fresh...

...the cycle path is full of wild flowers which I sort of thought must have finished by now because of the amount of Autumn berries about...

but, onto the postcard...

I can't quite decipher all of it but here is what I can make of it:

6pm Wednesday 11th September 1935 ( posted at 6:30 from Tenby to my Grandfather staying in Guernsey )

Hello Buddy Dear,

Have just returned from o.f ! Such a glorious ride.

Won't Cov seem flat when we get back? Haven't heard any more about getting back, Stones think 8am. Please come home safely love won't you?

Did you hear about Alan Cobham display at Blackpool? 1 pilot killed, also 2 passengers.

Rough sea and high tide tonight. Hope it won't be out for your crossing.

Best of love once more, love.

Ever with love, your Baby xxx

Hope you all have a great weekend...

Thursday...

I am very excited today, combined with being very busy, very scruffy, still in my pyjamas and justifying to myself that cleaning the house actually keeps me fit, and is basically a work out!

Tomorrow I am being taken to Italy for a week by my partner...my son is in Germany for a fortnight so we decided to get away together!

So, as I said, I’m very excited!

In the process of clearing out cupboards before I go away, ( having a house sitter makes you clear out cupboards and hoover under the bed... ) I came across some sort of 'love postcards’ belonging to Beryl and Jim.

I’ve had them a while, as I originally found them when I was helping to clear her house after she died. The response to her diary last week was so generous and lovely, I thought I’d share another piece of her everyday life with a holiday related postcard...

Beryl, ( my Granny ), was away on holiday in Tenby, Wales, at the time, and as there was no texting, Jim ( my Grandpa ) was obviously sending postcards from home as they were quicker than letters...

A postcard from Wednesday, September 5th 1935 (posted at 5:45pm ):

Hello Budd,

Thanks so much for your letter received today dinner time.

Love, I’m so lonely, I am going out to the Empire tonight ( alone ).

The front of this card reminds me of our Wed & Saturday teas, does it you?

Will write letter later.

Please enjoy yourself.

Bye Bye, Love

xxx PENGUIN

P.S I leave Coventry at 2.56 Friday afternoon, don’t worry.

...I know love letters are a wonderful and romantic thing, but these short and sweet postcards with everyday details completely bowl me over...

Bring back postcard romance!

Saturday...

I was clearing some things away this morning and my Granny’s old 1963 diary caught my eye...I wondered what she was doing on August 15th 1963; nearly 10 years before I was born.

What I read in her diary was quite ordinary... “long walk with dogs” and somehow it was a much more pleasing record of her life than writing flamboyantly about things.

Often things are simple, need no explanation and just are.

The entry on November 22nd is particularly poignant...Clive was my father, and I think maybe he came home from London to be with his parents because of the enormity of world events that day.

This is Beryl and Jim...some of the diary entries when he was on a fishing holiday simply say; “Jim phoned"

( Uncle Sport! What a name... )

...and there you have it; Tuesday 26th November, a whole day devoted to Ikebana!

It’s such a sweet little book, and just as informative as any of her old gardening library.