Leonard to the family:

Dear Alec June Susan and Carol,

The postman duly brought the weekly budget from you all for which many thanks, and we are very glad to hear that both Susan and Carol are all right again and hope they will keep going now for the rest of the summer. So Susan has now qualified to be a ‘Brownie’ and we think she must be very thrilled. No doubt she will tell us all about it went down here next month. In the meantime you will probably hear snatches of conversations with Carol telling her the details of their evenings out. It will surely get Carol interested in the movement.

Your remarks noted re: typewriter ribbon – probably correct – but I have never come across a ribbon quite as heavy with ink as the one you are using appears to be.

The weather over the weekend was great and again yesterday and to a lesser degree today the real summery weather has continued. It was much too hot both yesterday and today in the afternoons to do very much work outdoors but this morning I did manage to mow all lawns again and my word they wanted to doing. It is only about a week since I last went over them but the grass was certainly long today and in spite of the heat was a little moist.

Glad to hear your neighbour going on all right but he must have had a rough time in the operating theatre. Please give him our kind regards when next you see him and wish him a speedy recovery to normal health. One thing about it when he does get going again he will feel remarkably well and fit.

Glad to hear that Carol seems to be overcoming her car sickness – she should of course grow out of it as Susan did but it must be a bit disturbing to you all when you have this trouble en route anywhere by car. Obviously she did not like being left in the corridor when you visited the school. It would have been alright if Susan had been with her but she had more important things to do that night. We are looking forward to them coming down with you both in just over three weeks from now. I suppose we must now hope that this good weather will not be all used up by then. Certainly those people now away are having some of the best of it.

Very pleased to hear of the agapanthus in flower but we did not have any flowers halfway up the stem, only at the top.

Sorry I mentioned Cook’s work – it seems to have been in the abstract. No doubt things will sort themselves out in due course.

Your gardening report noted and we do hope you will be able to have a feed of broad beans of your own picking. Your colleague Unwin evidently grows his own vegetables – where does he live? Have an idea you told me once but I have forgotten. Very kind of him to bring in a little surplus.

Yes I am glad I was able to get some blackcurrant wine going for there will be no cherry wine this season by the look of it. The birds have stripped all three trees and every time I go down the garden I throw a lump of earth into the first of the trees and about forty birds rise at once only to wait for me to leave the vicinity to return to their activities. There is a possibility I may be able to make some loganberry wine. Mum says the bush is absolutely crowded with them and she is having some for bottling and for stewing (they are lovely stewed with sugar and cream) and I shall probably get enough for at least a gallon of liquid. Have never heard of elderberry pie and do not think I should like to tackle it as it must be very bitter. This is a bit early for the berries yet but may have some for a brew later.

Noted you will not be bringing down any wine. We can have some of the stuff I have been hoarding. I still have that elderflower wine made several years ago – perhaps we could try it again? Yes you must bring camera with you for some snapshots. Could wish we had a coloured film at this moment for our carnations in the oblong on the lawn are just one mass of colour. Mum counted, I think, twelve different colours and they are all out in full flower. Really a picture.

Noted you have a party on Saturday for the girls. Hope they have a good time and that the weather is kind. Makes all the difference if they can play outdoors.

I think you can delete any idea of having a Bakewell tart whilst you are down. Mum made two or three experimentally for the T.G. but did not enter for the competition. Apparently there were only six entries so Mrs Hewitt did not have a very big job.

Our soft fruit is nearing the end of the season and I think Mum is ready to sing the doxology. Next will be the plums but these as with apples are bigger to handle and a less number are required to weigh 1lb. The first of the tomatoes is turning colour so this means that the others are not far behind. It was the 13th July when I first picked last year so you can see we are behind this time.

We went down to Lyng last Thursday and it was a very good day – lovely and sunny. Left here 12:45 p.m. and arrived home 6.45 p.m. Don had finished up that day at Durston by taking his half day. He started with the new firm of printers the following morning and we had his first report yesterday morning. I give below an extract from his letter so you can see what he is doing in his own language: –

About 60 people in the Works and another 20 in the office. I am not on proof-reading except for very small stuff but I’m part of the production team to keep the machines going. My part roughly is as follows: – a firm sends say an order for 50,000 labels the same as last time with alterations enclosed. I have to run the previous order to earth, stick an old label on a piece of paper, make the necessary corrections and then start making out a sort of questionnaire which covers the whole progress of the order through the Works, the final entry being how much the firm has to pay. Before this form comes to me someone has registered it and attached a card estimating the hours that works staff will take and what machine is to be used for the printing and also decide how many runs for the machine e.g. for 50,000 labels the setup might be for four labels so that the machine only runs 12,000 times. Everything goes on this form – I have to show the sort of paper to be used, how many inks and the colours and how the printed labels shall be bundled up for dispatch!

Don says all the staff are most helpful stop they have thousands of orders and their filing system is marvellous. Incidentally they are looking forward to our visiting them some time when you are here and unless you have any other idea I suggest we go down on the Wednesday afternoon and leave after Don gets home at about 5:30 p.m.. He leaves work at 5 pm and takes about 15 minutes to reach Lyng.

I’m afraid there is very little to report from the home front again this week. I did notice the runner beans are forming and one is at least 10 inches long and several 6 and under. Shall soon be able to pick. The broad beans are nearly over but we have had a good crop.

I emptied the pond as just mentioned last week and then partly refilled with the hose. After a couple of days I filled up to the level it normally stood when it last was last in use with fish etc. and so far is his holding and we are keeping our fingers crossed. The birds are dusting themselves in the flower border next the water and scattering the earth into the water which is not good. Have had to use some of the wire pea guards to protect the earth but even so they seem to find their way in. It is really my fault. I wanted to have some good soil in there so put it through a sieve. It would have been better if I had left the soil lumpy. The next problem is how to arrange the surround to the best advantage but shall leave that until after you have been down when perhaps you can make a few suggestions to go with the others.

I don’t know about water lilies but yesterday I wrote to the editor of the ‘Field’ for certain information particularly for information about any publications there may be regarding the stocking of ornamental ponds with fish, and plants also water snails etc.

Referring to Don’s new job again he says it is pretty certain he will get a rise after he has been there for a few weeks. Incidentally the reply from Exeter to his retirement notice was received by him in an unsealed envelope so you can guess he gave them a good ticking off to finish up with.

Now let’s get on to June’s letter. Sorry Peter has no spare days owing to him so that he could have brought Mrs Baker down and stopped a couple of days himself. I’m afraid it was our suggestion re: the Bank Holiday weekend*, this being the only available time before you come down on the 15th August but we do agree it is the worst time for road to travelling. Anyhow it will be much better later on in September and we shall be very pleased to meet Mrs Baker at Weston if she decides to travel that way.

What is this mention of Holland? Something up Alec’s sleeve for later dissemination? Wrong time of year for the bulbs.

Sorry to hear Mrs Baker still busy clearing up behind decorators – what a job. Presumably the girls will still be on holiday until the middle of September so that you can go over and stay at Ealing? Any news of your lean-to yet? And how will they deliver? Query by road**. As you did not mention it assume you have not done anymore to the base for lean-to. Good job to get Mr Gray onto when he comes out of hospital.

No more now. All our love to you both and lots of kisses for the Girls.  Mum and Dad.

*At the time, the first Monday in August would have been the Bank Holiday – in this case, it would have been Monday 5th. The move to change it to the last Monday in August did not occur until a couple of years later, and in some places there were actually two Bank Holidays in August for a while. The move was probably intended to spread the days out a bit more, as otherwise there was a long winter gap from early August to late May/early June (Whitsun) with no Bank Holidays. Making May Day a public holiday and moving the August Bank Holiday to the end of the month did reduce the gap a bit, but probably not enough! N.B. there is a lot of confusion between ‘Bank Holidays’ and ‘Public Holidays’ which are more or less the same thing, but not identical. Christmas – which is of course always on the same date – and Easter, which moves about – are not technically Bank Holidays although there may be Bank Holidays attached to them. Confused? You will be!

**It’s difficult to imagine what alternative Leonard had in mind, maybe a helicopter?  But it’s possible he thought the thing would arrive by rail and have to be collected from the nearest depot, which even in 1963 was beginning to be a very outdated procedure.