I haven’t had the big computer for a few weeks now, but Kieran has enabled me to publish the blog from my phone now. So this is a post that I wrote two or three weeks ago.

I’ve made so many trips to the local tip over recent months, with carloads of all sorts of rubbish, from half empty paint cans to long dead printers, boxes of old art gallery brochures to heaps of plastic plant pots. The men who work there recognise me now and are always happy to help me lift heavy stuff out of the car and occasionally claim stuff for themselves; such as the two gaudily painted walking sticks that we were given – not my taste at all, but one of the guys was delighted with them.

My most recent trip was just after Graham left; we’d sorted stuff in the attic into “tip”, “charity shop” and “keeping” piles, so I loaded the car with the rubbish and drove down to the tip. I thought I’d been through all the boxes, but as I was emptying the last one, a cardboard folder, which must have been near the bottom of the box, flapped open, showing a small corner of blue paper. I grabbed back the box and took out the folder. I knew exactly what the paper was; a handwriting sampler, done in 1937 by my grandad, in India, during the war, while he was recovering from malaria, and which he had given me when I was about 12 or 13. I’d always intended to have it framed, but had never quite got around to it and since we moved to France, I’d been unable to find it. 

I brought the whole folder home ; what a treasure trove! Amongst a selection of old postcards and Frank Meadows Sutcliffe photos I found a birthday card, embroidered for me by Gemma when she was small, a painting by my step father, inscribed for Gemma, and a professional photo of my mum that I don’t remember having seen before, taken when she was probably about 19 or 20.

To say the find made my day would be something of an understatement; the folder is now carefully packed in a cardboard box, ready for my move to St. Paul les Dax. Once I’m settled, Kieran’s going to teach me how to make simple picture frames – I know what the first ones will be for.