Leviticus 248/84: Howard and Joan Day - The Bentleys of Bognor Regis - et la neige est tombée!

Gratitudinal journalism - The Sequel! I must quote from the six page journal just received from Howard, cousin of sister-in-law Joan in Edmonton and his wife also Joan: "In the backwater home of the Bentleys of Copeland Road we have heard of the terms blog, Twitter, Facebook etc. but have never been exposed to any of them. So the gift of your bloggings have been a really interesting and enjoyable introduction. [They're referring to Existential Normal.] Finished reading them all on January 5th. …… Reading them has triggered lots of memories of our own … and thought a few of them might be of interest to yourselves." From the outset reminders came flooding back - [1/84] their Range Rover that was as useless as our stranded Maserati when it got bogged down on a track from Lochgilphead and Oban, and our foxes brought back their memories of hedgehogs [8/84] and a patient Bognor Regis fox waiting in line for supper on the lawn. Granddaughters figure proudly and strongly with BA or BSc degrees ranging from Archaeology to Forensic Science and Geography. They started a fruitless search for gluten to add rather than subtract to a chocolate Christmas present from Isobel.

VE Day [47/84] saw memories conjured from photographs some here above which included Howard's mum Violet in her WAAF uniform at RAF Tangmere and Howard's Dad George [tallest] in the centred press cutting. Sophie and Lauren produced the banner for the front window! George had worked with cousin Joan's father, Joe Refoy, and they had a reunion in New Zealand years later. Howard himself was post WWII and served on Operation Grabble on Christmas Island in the Pacific during the H Bomb Tests there with journeys out and back to be marvelled at including Iceland, Winnipeg, the Panama Canal and Curacao [55/84]. Avril's runner beans brought discontent with those tasteless ones from Kenya today [or is that old age?] and Oak Apple Day [68/84] a flood of memories from Worcester and the 3 day/ 34 mile Monarch's Way walk granddaughter Abigal made aged 9 to Arundel in their Walking Group. Never knew King Charles II fled after Worcester defeat in 1652 from Shoreham-by-Sea to France. There are myriad more splendid examples of triggered thoughts for Howard and Joan but I'll conclude not only with our thanks for [i] reading start to finish but [ii] spotting the opportunity to blog themselves so interestingly and then to share. As a special bonus we've got a Cranachan receipe [112/84] suggesting extra porridge which was Avril's original downfall when making ready for Burns [249/84] which of course is coming tomorrow!
We apologise …. …. that the gravelled area in the front of The Lodge lovingly named The Beach hadn't merited a picture in the blog but ACTION THIS DAY as Winston often wrote sees this now remedied … yet leaves one none the wiser? We've included both Beech Hedge and Beach Driveway below to make sure we've covered all bases. The beach and Weymouth references had led Joan and Howard to a digression into fish pieces and from there to one-upmanship on Fish Pies where we totally disagree with their conclusion that Tesco's is superior to Morrison's. That notwithstanding, their suggestion that our paper shredder might demolish their most welcome ramblings could not be further from our plans … they're pearls, the seldom found evidence that our labours have brought ambulatory delight to the Bentleys of Bognor Regis .. and they'll realise this blog sequence from the pandemic has already reached 248/84 [Burns Night is 249/84] giving them more triggers yet … whilst we'll be enjoying our 'reward' that came in the post - those two elegant bottles of Spitfire. We all in our time did service in the Royal Air Force so can relish the credit those planes deserved.
La neige est tombée! At last, sustaining the wisdom of M. Jourdain from 247/84, we finally got 2cms of snow in Milton Malsor. Whilst the Ilkley crew get more than a fair ration most winters we seldom see any at all. But as proof that it came here are the photographs AM today. Which brings us back full circle to Howard and Joan who their shared blog reports saw Howard propose matrimony in the snows on Dunstable Downs at Easter 1958. Joan played hard to get, shock/ horror, but made her mind up [fortunately, she says with hindsight] a few days later.