10:00 Lois and I phone through our order for next week's groceries to Budgens, the convenience store in the village, and then I agree to give Lois some driving practice. It's usually me in the driving-seat, but when we next drive the 100 miles to see our daughter Alison and her family in Headley, Hampshire, I'll need her as my back-up driver, or "co-driver" as we prefer to call it.
Budgens, the convenience store in the village (on left)
Despite the fact that Lois almost never drives, she's a much more confident and aggressive driver than me, which is nice. She drives inches behind the car in front and tends to drive in too low a gear so the engine makes a satisfying lot of noise - what a woman!!!!
She's just like Odette Siko!!!!
Odette Siko, the French woman rally-driver, who was never
afraid to "tailgate", that's for sure !!!
Lois's heroine, Frenchwoman Odette Siko (left), with
her male co-driver Louis Charavel during the 1932 Le Mans 24-hour race.
What a woman !!!!!
We fill up with petrol at the local Murco petrol station, and then, with Lois in the driving-seat, we take the car for a "spin" up to Bishops Cleeve and back.
our local Murco petrol station (on left)
a live-action shot taken by me in suburban Bishops Cleeve:-
the view today from my passenger seat: excitement mounts
as we approach the A435, where soon there will be cars
a-plenty for Lois to "tailgate" haha!
today Mark the Gardener plants, by the fence, the flowering currant
that Lois bought a couple of weeks ago at Gotherington Nurseries
flashback to August 6th: we visit Gotherington Nurseries
this is me showcasing the wire-basket
I accidentally "stole" from the store. Now safely
back in the store's official "wire basket" rack, I'm glad to say!!!!
Luckily nobody ever spotted its temporary disappearance - phew !!!!
Lois picks out some asters and a flowering currant - happy times!
13:30 I get a text from my sister Gill in Cambridge. She's been talking on the phone to our "new" cousin, on-line journalist David - who we'd never heard of until a few weeks ago, when word came through from a DNA database that he was a very close relative of Gill (and hence of me also).
David and another "new" cousin, Jonathan, are both sons of our Aunty Joan, who had them both adopted. She remained unmarried all her life. We're not sure currently whether the two boys had the same father - they were born 8 years apart. We know David's father was called Peter, and was probably of Irish, or mixed Irish and British descent.
It's a reminder of how shameful it was regarded in those days to have a baby out of wedlock - my god!
mine and Gill's Aunty Joan (1921-1977),
a picture taken at around the time that David was born
flashback to the 1920's: mine and Gill's grandparents Sidney and Gladys,
and their 4 youngest daughters, my mother Nan (in front) with the twins
Babs and Joan, and elder sister Ruth.
Joan is on her mother's right arm, and Babs on her left arm,
on a sunny day at the beach near Bridgend, Glamorgan, South Wales
Jonathan's original name, as given to him by his mother, was Roy, so we imagine that his foster family for some reason changed his name to Jonathan: Gill and I don't know why, but we know that his foster parents were very religious: they couldn't have children of their own so they adopted 7 and gave them a good upbringing, and it's interesting that they gave them all Biblical names. This could be the reason why they changed 'Roy' to 'Jonathan', but this is only our speculation.
David and Jonathan have just this week been in contact for the first time: quite a milestone for them personally. David is about 64 and Jonathan about 72, and they have lived all their lives without knowing the extent of their "real" families.
A fairy-tale ending, to put it mildly!
20:00 We watch a bit of TV, and what a treat to see a celebrity travelogue from none other than the urbane, smiling, witty and (above all) quiet and thoughtful Richard E. Grant, travelling through the South of France.
Carol Drinkwater as Helen in "All Creatures Great and Small",
seen here with Christopher Timothy as Yorkshire vet James Herriot
Carol and Richard discuss Elizabeth David's book on Mediterranean Cooking, published in Britain in the 1950's, a book which opened British eyes to the possibility of non-British cuisine - my god!
When Elizabeth David arrived in the region, things like olive oil and garlic weren't widely available. Carol's mother kept a tiny bottle of olive oil in the house, but it was only used to clear the wax out of little Carol's ears - my god (again) !!!!
And people didn't drink wine very much either, and not generally at meal times.
I'm sure that my mother didn't have a copy of Elizabeth David's book, so we were completely safe from those dangerous new ideas from the Continent, which was nice!
Lois and I didn't know that Elizabeth David arrived in the South of France in 1939 with her lover, and they only got as far as Antibes, when war was declared.
Richard and Carol discuss boiled cabbage, a staple British meal stalwart
So the couple were stuck there for a while, and that was when Elizabeth started discovering the local cooking and the markets, and what could be done. When she returned to Austerity Britain 7 years later she was horrified by the contrast - oh dear!!!!
That was when Elizabeth realised her mission in life!
22:00 We go to bed - zzzzzzzzz!!!!!
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