Letters from a Jersey Mother 1956-61

31 March 1959 My dear Len and Margaret Although it’s now gone 9 o’clock and I’ve finished my Canadian letters, I feel I must start a few lines on my Glasgow letter, otherwise you good people will not receive your weekly letter. I blame holidays for this, why must there be holidays, they disturb the usual routine. In less than 3 hours March will have passed away, it is disappearing as a lamb, today has been perfect weather, sunshine the whole day. It has been like a summer day, the sun was warm. Yesterday Easter Monday was fine and dry, but there was a cold wind, people needed their coats. Still it was fine enough for people to go out in the country, this made up for Sunday’s rainy day. Wednesday evening Here I am again to see if I can get through this letter so that it can be mailed in the morning. I don’t really like to be so late with my letters. I am trying hard so that you can have it. First of all I want to thank you very much for the lovely picture you sent us...

23 March 1959 My dear Len. + Margaret This is Monday evening & very early to make a start on your letter, but it's better to make an early start & make sure to have it finished in time for mailing at the right time. Is Lennard properly settled after his short Jersey holiday? When we came back from the airport after seeing Len. off, Roselle had gone to work, but before she left, she had cleaned & set both fires ready for lighting. Also she had stripped Len's bed, folded the sheets ready for the laundry, also washed the few breakfast dishes we had used & set the table again for if we wanted a little more breakfast & got herself ready for work. I thought she should never have done all that work in such a short time as she had before leaving for work. All the same Dad was pleased not to have the fires to see to before getting ready for work, but as I said, I could have done them myself. I guess that Margaret was pleased to see you back, I hope all...

9 March 1959 My dear Margaret and all Monday eve. It seems rather strange to me to be writing to you only, Margaret. Still I want you to have your weekly letter as usual. Wednesday is getting very near now. We hope Len has a nice trip over and no fog to delay his arrival. We received Len’s short note today saying that he had arranged to leave the conference at 4.45 on Wednesday even if it has not finished. He doesn’t mean to miss his plane, does he? Yesterday AM there was quite a thick fog. It cleared up late morning but returned in the evening. Some planes could not land, they flew back to Dinard. Today has been a fine day, nice for drying. We are having quite a bit of a hectic time these days and more so tomorrow. Well this is it, Roselle has decided that we cook by electricity, we are going to have the electric cooker this week. We have been trying to have it installed before Lennard comes. We thought this was very doubtful, anyway Nick has the order for fixing our co...

10 February 1959 My dear Len and Margaret Tuesday evening. I must make a start on your letter, it has to be finished tomorrow, so as to be mailed on Thursday am. We have thought about Len today he being in London, having appointments with two Societies, that is the Municipal Unit Trust and also the Unicorn which he had in mind before, we will be anxious to know the results of these appointments; we are wondering if you will be returning home this eve. I guess you left early this morning, We hope all your colds are better and that everyone is fit again. No wonder you get colds, because you have had such terrible weather, is there some improvement to your weather? It’s time there should be. Oh the first thing I was supposed to say on this letter was that my beautiful plate is up at last. It went up on Friday eve at 8:45 and believe me it looks swell. There’s nothing else on the chimney breast but this lovely plate, it’s dignified on its own. I feel sorry that Margaret is...

29 January 1959 My dear Len and Margaret This is Tuesday evening. Father has gone to the Masons. I hope he's not too late to get back. We went on our usual drive, made it Corbiere again, it's been a truly lovely afternoon, nice and sunny. There was a certain heat in the sun, but in the shade it was rather cold. Kay had taken a bucket in the boot of the car, she was hoping to find some horse manure on the roads. Arthur wants some, this is not easy to find these days. In olden days it could be found everywhere, you could get as much as you liked.the horses are much fewer now. Anyway all she managed to find was just a handful in Mont Rossignol. She said she would continue to bring the bucket when we go out until she can find some though I think the cow manure would be better and could be found more easily in the fields. Roselle is busy in the kitchen making a lemon pie for tomorrow. She will very soon be here with me. I have made up a very nice fire with coal and logs...

21 January 1959 My Dear Len & Margaret, Wednesday evening. Dad is fixed on T.V. Roselle is having another busy evening with her stock sheets. I am longing for her to be through with them. It will be a few more evenings before she is finished with them. She finds these stock sheets very trying. I want to thank Margaret for the nice letter we received from her last week. We are very pleased that she likes the tray we sent her for Christmas. We all liked it too. It was kind of out of the ordinary + very interesting & useful looking through the calories, some of them giving useful tips. But I will say again Margaret had better ignore the ones for slimming, they are certainly not for her. We notice that your friends were also interested in this tray. Oh yes Margaret I'm very much taken up with that beautiful plate you sent, but disappointed to have to say that it's not put up yet, though we may have the pleasure to see it up on Friday if Arthur comes. He is to borrow the...

13 January 1959 My dear Len and Margaret Monday Evening. Roselle had a letter from Margaret today. Many thanks for the nice long letter we received last week. We notice that quite a number of your Christmas gifts were delayed, although they were mailed in time, this sort of thing has to be expected at Christmas time. We are pleased you all liked your gifts. It’s nice to know that Margaret likes her tray, but I strongly hope she is not taking any notice of the calorie value of the foods for slimming. I do think she must ignore them. I very much doubt whether she can afford to slim more than she is, it would be drastic for her to try to do so. That stole that Roselle sent Margaret should help to keep her warm in this cold weather. Roselle gave me one for Christmas, it’s red on one side, the other side is a mixture, they are lovely stoles, so soft and warm. I am pleased that Len will find good use for his hair brush, it was really difficult to know what to give him....

16 December 1958 My dear Len and Margaret At last here I am in the front room, it is now after 8 o’clock. Roselle and I have been chatting at the tea table for such a long time, after that I peeled my potatoes for tomorrow  and then I helped  Roselle to peel  some apples to make an apple pie for tomorrow’s dinner, anyway I will try to put down a few lines in this letter. I went to town this AM. When I got to town I went right away to Margaret’s for a cup of coffee, then she came with me to do my shopping. We only went to the RU Stores, it took us quite a long time there, I had my club books to finish. I had done half of them last week. With my club book I have been building up my food store, it’s coming up nicely. I have salmon, crabmeat, sardines, pilchards, corn beef, Unox, tongue, Snax, peaches, apricots, pineapple, and mandarin oranges. I think this is all the kinds I have and quite a number of each tin. I have also 3 tins of biscuits, 2 huge jars of hari...

26 November 1958 My dear Len and Margaret Here I am this is Wed A.M. + gone 11 'o clock. I am late with this letter this week. If I don't hurry with it there will be no letter for Greenlees this week. I am hoping I am not disturbed this evening. I would have got on yesterday evening, as I generally do, but Father was at the Masonic Temple and as you know Roselle is sleeping at Kay's until Arthur comes back, which is tomorrow. Now Rose would not have me stay alone although I told her it was perfectly all right, that I wanted to get on with my writing & be quiet. This would not do for our lady, so Margaret & Charles had to come with me. They came to tea, of course I could not do any letter writing. I guess you will be surprised when you see the little paper cutting (missing) . I almost thought this fellow would remain a bachelor, but evidently he has come out of his shell. He is not so old as you are Len, is he? As you will see his fiancée is from North Wales...

18 November 1958 My dear Len and Margaret This is Tuesday evening but I must make a start on my writing. There will be no writing done tomorrow unless it’s in the morning. At this stage of my letter the phone rang. Roselle answered it, it was Flo Agnes. I think I had told you that they were coming to tea tomorrow, well the phone message was to say that Reg is down with ‘Flu’. Flo is just now getting over it, though she said she would have been well enough to come but today Reg is down with it. So now perhaps it doesn’t so much matter if this letter is not finished today, but then I will try to advance it as much as I can, so you don’t get disappointed on Saturday. We have been having a few days of what they call a ‘St Martins summer’, beautiful sunshine. I don’t know how long it’s going to last, though at this time of year it’s doubtful if it will last for many more days. Still this little spell has been very enjoyable for all. We haven’t been out for our usual Tuesday...