Some industry calls and agreement for river plot purchase and then a trip down memory lane to Shefford, Stondon and Hitchin before stop at Antiques showrooms and Bickerdykes garden centre and then home to talk to Bill Tees about my landscaping all as a TWA airliner is hijacked and a large bomb explodes in a Belfast shopping centre
A fair night with more rain, but a sunny start to the day. The morning paper and then cereal for breakfast in bed. Up, washed, dressed and out to the birds, but only five duck eggs, though one more broken. The 13th duck seems to be recovering well and is eating satisfactorily. I take time to empty the house of soiled straw so that it can dry out today. To the house again and the morning mail. A letter from Mr Poynter accepting our offer of £5750 (+legal costs) for the other riverside garden, which now gives us the full frontage to the river alongside our new combined house, which is excellent news. To the office and phone calls first to Eleanor Deady of Vinters to get the legal arrangements under way and to Great Gransden Gardening Centre to discuss the prospect of some assistance in landscaping the enlarged gardens to combine them into a coherent whole. Then returned calls to Informatics Daily Bulletin and a DHSS consultancy, the latter about an article in their Health Service equipment catalogue. Home and to collect Diana for a drive and day out in Hitchin. Her parents were to look after the girls today and let us have the time free. We set off, stopping at Sandy Little Chef for morning coffee, and arrived in Hitchin after travelling through the ‘memory-lane’ of Shefford and Stondon.
We parked beyond the market place and walked along to Sun Street, passing through the old market where my business career started on a market stall 20 years ago. We visited a number of antique shops together – first in Sun Street and then along the Bedford Road. Lunch together at the principal inn in Sun Street and a fine meal of soup of asparagus, roast beef and ice cream to follow. After, we split up with Diana visiting dress shops and charity shops and me checking out the antique shops in Bancroft. In particular, some time in the prestigious Philips showrooms in the Manor House, where particularly impressed with a late 18th century folding mahogany wheeled table and other pieces of what is generally known as ‘Campaign furniture’. A walk back to the car and then the drive home, stopping at Sandy (Bickerdikes) garden centre for some plants and vouchers for Mum’s birthday and the forthcoming Father’s Day. Home to afternoon tea and the second day of the test match until play was stopped by rain. The Aussies were scuttled out for 330 odd and later on, after the rain, England scored 130 odd for two wickets, which is a good fight back. Out before and after tea and to remove another fence panel from between our gardens and to clear out one of our new gutters, which had been blocked. The landscape gardener, Mr Bill Tees, visited tonight and took measurements of the garden. He will produce a plan and design in a week or two and an estimate thereafter. News tonight of a Lebanese hijack of a TWA airliner and the drama rolls from country to country as the American hostages suffer. Also of a large bomb in the Belfast shopping centre – the first for a few years. The Cambridgeshire Councillors have voted to stop up the Molesworth layby – the last refuge of the peace campers, which is a pity. The weather (raining again tonight) is forecast to improve over the next few days