Saturday, July 22nd, 1944

Darling Joan,

We have been out nearly all today as it is the first day of my holiday. As I think I told you last time I wrote, we are not going away at all but hope to have some good outings and a thoroughly good time at home. This morning I took Anne and John with me into Harrow to buy a book or two for the holiday, just in case it rains, and it looks very much as if it will. The wind has unfortunately gone around to the north again and the sky is very heavy and overcast. Still, the rain has kept off all day so we cannot grumble. We did a little more shopping which took us all the morning, for one thing we went into three chemist’s shops before we found one that had any tooth brushes and they only had three. So you can see that shopping isn’t at all easy here, you have to search for a long time sometimes for certain things which are in short supply.

In the afternoon we went into Bushey by walking over the fields and through the farm. It was nice for walking, not being too hot, and we came back by train to Wealdstone which pleased the children very much. We joined the queue at the station for a bus home and it was a long time coming, so that when it did arrive there was a lot of people waiting and consequently a rush to get on. In the rush, Anne and I managed to get on but Mummy and John were left behind and off went the bus before we could get off to join them. We had to get off at the next stop because Mummy had come out without any money and she and John had started to walk home. We all managed to get on the next bus all right, and Mummy had some hard things to say about Daddies who get on buses before Mummies. But it was only in fun, because in the rush and with two children you can easily get separated. But Mummy says she will never go out again without money.

We thought the children would drop straight off to sleep tonight because they must be extremely tired, but no, they are in their shelter bed and larking about as usual. We cannot separate them because we may get an alarm and then whoever is out of the shelter gets disturbed by being moved.

We have now finished picking all the gooseberries and we made most of them into jam for the winter when fruit is scarce. It isn’t too plentiful now, but there are plenty of cherries. I believe there are plenty of strawberries too but they are not allowed to move them as there isn’t the transport to spare and so there are none in this district.

Monday
I am sorry I had to leave this letter but Mr. and Mrs. Kemp came for our usual game of bridge and I had to stop to make them welcome, and this is the first chance I have had to finish it. And I am glad that I did because I can tell you now that we have just had a letter from you written from the farm, together with one from Mrs. Gautier which caused us great delight. We hope you all had a good time there and we await your next letter telling us all about it.

Mummy has a little sparrow that has a bad leg and it is so tame that it comes and sits on the doorstep when she is in the kitchen and chirrups for breadcrumbs to be thrown down for it. And this evening we found another that couldn’t really fly properly in the shed. It had got down behind some coal and had to be rescued, again by Mummy who seems to have a way with her as far as birds are concerned. It was duly rescued and put down in the garden and almost immediately its mother came down to it. It couldn’t fly over the fence and has since disappeared amongst the plants, but I expect it will be alright.

Last evening we all walked to Pinner and tonight to Bushey, where we found an open-air bath that we didn’t know was there. Of course, Anne wanted to go in, but we hadn’t towels or costumes so she couldn’t. Perhaps another time we shall. I know you will when you come home because we hear that you are very fond of swimming.

Lots of love to you, Joan darling, from
Daddy
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