Warm and sunny day resuming my landscaping and then welcoming the builders for the start of work on No 7 and then to meet Mrs David with Marilyn to hear her recollection of the Haylings and the wartime fires in Little Paxton before serving a tea of bread rolls on the front lawn after Daniel came home from school as Liverpool is paralysed by a 24-hour strike with schools closed and a rally at The Town Hall and the UK, at last, joins the world in implementing EEC sanctions against South African brutality and apartheid.
My bad back proved no impediment to a sound night’s sleep and it was much better when I woke this morning. I did not stay in bed long, however, and sat up in my folding bedroom chair to protect my back. I have found that sitting in bed is poor for back comfort. Breakfast and then quickly washed and dressed and out to feed the doves, which were quite hungry. I then started to pick over my excavations, removing large stones and carting off the soil to the riverside land. Then the builders arrive, as promised, and I walk over the house with their manager and he then starts his workmen on the task of stripping out the carpets and fittings of the new house that would not be needed. I prepared my tools to start to clear the overgrown shrub patch but, before I did, I realised it was today that I should go to Marilyn’s to meet Mrs Davis. I popped over, but was too late to see her and so come back until 11.00 when she had come out of the drier! Marilyn caters for a wide variety of old ladies with her hairdressing skills and attention. We chatted for an hour and I learnt much of Little Paxton’s history from Mrs Davis.
She does not like my landscaping, however, and has an aversion to paving slabs, feeling that the Haylings were intended to be overgrown as “fishing paradises.” I was most interested to hear of the background to the purchase and splitting up of the Haylings, the old goldfish lake of Lady Esme Gordon with its upstream and downstream sluices, and the fire in 1943 that finished off several of Little Paxton’s old thatched cottages that were opposite the church. Eventually, time to come home for lunch of smoked mackerel, potatoes and ice cream after. This afternoon to steadily clear the shrub patch and measure it for a greenhouse. I took it easy because of my back and the rising temperature. The day was, in fact, magnificent and the morning mist cleared after lunch to result in a hot and sunny day. By 5.00pm Daniel had come home from school and I served tea of bread rolls and tea on the front lawn. After, to start and finish a bonfire, clear the new house of tools and materials to give the builders free reign, and bring in all of my stuff from outside. Then to help Daniel with his homework, before out to feed and put away the ducks. I sat outside in the dark for a while on a warm night and change my mind about the greenhouse. I will now put it on the riverside garden by the river as a better position. Then a quiet time watching the TV before the 9 o’clock news. Main story is of the start of a life sentence for the father of Heidi, as the jury decide he is guilty of murder. His sentence was recommended to be of at least 15 years. There is a further inquest into the failure of the NSPCC to act on a warning as the girl was being starved. The French Prime Minister publicly stated today that the two dismissed senior statesmen were themselves responsible for the orders to sing Greenpeace. This should protect both him and the President. Two new born babies were brought out alive today from the Mexican ruins. Also a man was miraculously saved as well, but the official death toll is now 5,000 so far. Soon the rest of the buildings will have to be bulldozed and cleared, but child specialists say that they should search on for several days yet. Thousands of people were on 24 hour strike in Liverpool today, with nearly all schools closed and a rally at the Town Hall. The UK has, in the end, agreed to support the EEC’s sanctions against South Africa, but two sisters have succeeded in getting a court order to prevent Cape Town police from assaulting detainees. The fine weather is due to continue for a few days at least, with more temperatures of 70-72degF