21st February 1943

Sunday

Thick fog, did not get up until half past 9.  Raw and cold.  Helped Joy all I could.  Parry stayed in bed.  Fed stock, took some meat up to Mrs Belfield at Birchett’s Wood.  Penelope expected from Harwich this afternoon, bringing a sailor to tea. 

Went down to Dedham and called on Sissons, to talk about Poulter.  Mrs. Sisson could not understand why the hospital authorities took such a gloomy view.  She agreed that his voice was better than it was last week.  Back by Pond Lane.  Thick fog, shapes of trees and sheds looming out.  Complete silence everywhere, not a plane in the sky, not a car moving.

After lunch, up to the watercress beds.  Most complex system of canal and little lakes, water running in all directions at different levels.  Don't understand it at all.  Back by the buildings.  Saw Robin.  His feet need trimming.  Fred Nunn’s little cottage in the fields silent and deserted.  All the family gone to Severalls to see Dorothy.  What an inexplicable affair.  The meadows next the cottage are both ploughed now, one just broke up from grass, the other set with oats for the second time.

Caught and fed Roger, fed hens, collected eggs.  Moorhouse’s field, where the bombs fell, now being very liberally mucked, the steam from the muck heaps mingling with the mist.  A fast train went by, going towards London, then silence except for wheeling sea gulls and the distant barking of Mrs. Belfield’s dog.

After tea, sawing wood.  Then writing letters, etc.