Blog 41 - Postscript

You may question why I am starting with a postscript today. It usually comes at the end of some kind of writing. I wore this scarf on Tuesday this week, the 13th April and I am wearing it again today. On Tuesday it was a mistake as I should have worn my black and red striped Dennis the Menace number featured in blog 38 on that particular day. I must now write this blog as a general postscript to update you!

First, I must describe my long silk chiffon beauty photographed draped on the Clivia plant on my windowsill. After many long dark miserable days in February, suddenly we had lovely sunshine and I captured shots of several scarves with my iPad. I am no expert photographer so need all the help I can get from Nature! The good sunlight showed up the jewel colours, deep turquoise, sapphire blue, the strong pinks of garnets and rubies, gossamer light, the borders scattered with tiny black dots like randomly scattered watermelon seeds. I bought it in the Richmond branch of Cancer Research charity shops a couple of years ago. I was served by a young male volunteer whose mother made theatrical costumes. We had a nice chat about collecting. How surprised he would be that today my purchase would feature as the star of Blog 41. There is a signature on the scarf of Ceegee. I know nothing of the designer. Who knows, there may be a postscript to this blog from a reader with more information?

So, now we come to why I am writing a postscript to update you on past blogs. This week has been a happy one for many with the lifting of some of our Covid restrictions. Personally, I had the pleasure of seeing a birthday-celebrating daughter with my granddaughter. Her birthday wish was to visit Kew Gardens. My readers will know quite recently my magic carpet hovered over these Gardens and I saw from the air Dennis the Menace’s Big Bonanza. I could not find a copy of the 70th birthday edition of The Beano comic in my local shops, but eventually my online order arrived two weeks late. By now, I had involved my local postman who told me of the vagaries of the Beano deliveries. Bless him, he offered to search for a copy in stores farther afield..... what acts of kindness I have experienced since lockdown! I had planned to take my first bus ride to Kew and read my Beano there. On Tuesday we were driven there by son-in-law and three generations of excited females entered. I will save that first bus ride for another day.

Did Dennis meet my expectations? YES! What joy to see so many young children happily enjoying fun on a sunny Spring day. I wanted to be five years old and jump on the pads sunk in the turf by the lake and hear a different sound from each as it squirted water at flower targets on the lake. A swan sailed by unconcerned. We walked around the Gardens for nearly two hours, carrying the Beano, but honestly there was no time to stop and read. The last time my daughter photographed ‘Author’ and ‘Art Editor’ together was last summer in a Wiltshire sunflower field with memories of Van Gogh and France. That photo ended up in the Sunday Telegraph Now the following Spring we are sitting in a dark glade on a carved tree trunk badger with the Beano. Who knows where that photo might land?

Elsewhere in the Gardens we could very well be in Japan enjoying the cherry blossom. My magic carpet is not big enough to take three people there so I’m glad Kew Gardens in on my doorstep. Totally enchanting the whole experience.

I have to add another postscript to THE RED LADY, Blog 50. She was my beloved 1987 BMW convertible. I sold her to a friend who has a collection of vintage cars and I knew he would restore and cherish her. I heard this week that her bodywork was as perfect as brand new and she too had been out for an April spin in the Suffolk countryside. She was replaced by a slightly younger SCOOPY, featured in THE ITALIAN JOB Blog 37 and there is a postscript to that this week too. I have been asked permission for this to be forwarded to the National headquarters of Age UK from the Richmond branch as an example of what older folks have been doing in lockdown.

As a final postscript, yesterday I removed my Union Jack in respect for Prince Philip’s funeral, but today it will be replaced in the flower pot on my doorstep as we go forward. Looking to the future, I wonder how long it will take my daughter to harvest beans from the tiny coffee plant my grand daughter bought for her in Kew Gardens in this coffee mug? Who would have thought there would be that connection of the Beano and coffee beans? Make mine a macchiato!

Busy Bee, Scarf Face!

Series 2, Blog 41.