October 16th

Dear Heidi,

How lovely to see all the photos you sent! Thank you.

Here at home, our hunters have cleaned up nicely, and dumped all their smoky clothes into the laundry basket for me. It has been a lovely day, warm and sunny and I was able to get two loads dry outside on the washing line. The sweet peas, marigolds and roses still have a few blossoms and the dahlias are going strong. I have done a bit of tidying up in the garden and planted all D’s seedling trees for him. Pappa has been continuing his spraying on the fields, but they are too wet to start ploughing still.

W sent me a photo of “the moon” which he took at 14:30 today. I saw the BBC news this evening and apparently all over England the sun turned red today, because of the hurricane in the Azores and the forest fires in Spain and Portugal. I suspect his Moon was in fact the sun! I am so pleased that he thought to photograph it and send it to me!

I forgot to tell you that the ice cream truck is still coming around, ever hopeful; and that on Sunday Bella howled and howled and howled at him! It’s funny how she has always hated that truck!

Now the rain is beating down on the balcony and I need to close the door.

Lots of love from us all here,
Mamma