News today from our old friend Celia, concerning the breakdown of her second marriage, as I find neighbours’ rabbits and cats amongst my garden plants and birds, and then to St Ives for the auction and some more folding chairs before home to commence battle with the moles as there is news of mounting casualties in the latest French rail crash with 43 dead and Maxwell now orders his Manchester plant to print the whole nations newspapers as he closes the Fleet Street works
A letter finally opened late last night from Celia, who writes from Cardiff, revealing that she had broken up with her second husband, Ken, last May. This fills us both with sadness and, together with the sudden coldness of the night, gives us more trouble in getting to sleep. It was ironic that we had met her former husband in Cromer recently and would wish she were equally happy. Awake to my tea and the Investors Chronicle on a much cooler morning and I had to shut the veranda door on a brisk southerly breeze. Down to a breakfast of boiled egg and buttered toast fingers and then to get washed quickly. Out to the doves, who feed well, and the ducks, who only manage a paltry two eggs today. I saw a neighbour’s cat, Lady, a black & white one, catch a bird today and kill it. I think it was a coot or moorhen. This, and another neighbour’s rabbit amongst our plants today, makes me consider getting a gun again to protect our things.
The family (except Daniel) join me and go to St Ives this morning for the viewing of next Tuesday’s antique auction. There was also the fortnightly general auction and I was surprised and pleased to see two more folding mahogany chairs and I successfully bid for them. The first, a carpet chair in poor condition, I got for only £5, as there was no counter-bidder. The second was a charming folding mahogany rocking chair, which I never knew existed. I had to buy a vacuum cleaner as part of the same lot (which was quite serviceable) for £24. A light lunch at Tooks in the High Street and then home in early afternoon. I watched the test match again this afternoon – more nails in the Aussie’s coffin – then out in a sunny spell to continue stripping my second steamer chair with Debbie helping me and Della enjoying the chance to walk round on the grass in the back garden. In for tea and then after I feed the doves and then go to find Daniel, who had not returned for tea. He is jousting with Paul with an outboard dinghy each and I chide them both for playing carelessly and not looking after the boats. He has also left out my fibreglass gel coat repair kit and our lock handle and has done badly on is first day of play. Then to tour the garden, when I decide to have a blitz on the moles. I ignite three separate smoke canisters and insert them in holes on the grass verge and a further one in a cavity under an old stump actually within the boundaries of my riverside garden. I clear up as darkness falls and unsuccessfully try to catch one of Marilyn’s more athletic rabbits. In to a late evenings television and some news. It is getting dark earlier and earlier now as the summer draws to an end. It is well before 8.30pm now that darkness falls. The news today is of the mounting casualties in the French railway crash, when two trains collided head on. 43 is the latest death toll in the third major accident in the last few months for SNCF. The irony is that this is the anniversary of the largest French train Crash of all time in the Montparnasse derailment on the similar-sounding date of 1895! More confrontation at BPL as Robert Maxwell orders the Manchester location to print enough copies of the Daily Mirror for the whole country, or be closed down like London.