Unpacking

It's been a truly miserable day here with a strong NNW wind building steadily to produce gusts approaching gale force by late afternoon, accompanied by biting rain and temperatures which struggled to reach a wintery 10C. The garden birds, including this young robin, have not enjoyed the conditions, and there's little sign of change in the next 24 hours

Not that the weather worried us too much as we spent most of our day unpacking our belongings which arrived from Essex yesterday in a huge removals truck.

Some of our time was spent on the books, digging out those which we've sorely missed in our attempts to re-establish a rather faded garden. We also found....

....the two books on wildflower identification which we missed much less as we were given a new book which turned out to be excellent.

So many old friends appeared out of the containers, including the Arab chest which my father bought off the captain of a dhow in Zanzibar harbour. Into it we re-packed the photo albums, spending a few minutes leafing through some and finding....

....this picture of my father, taken after a Christmas lunch at their house in Fambridge Road, Maldon.  At his elbow is the blue pot of sweets which he dipped in to, and a small basket in which he kept his change. Also there is his copy of the monthly magazine 'Ships', which he loved.

Happily, one of the other items which is now in the sitting room is the beautiful inlaid table, brought back from India by Ernest, my father's father.