27th August 1944

Sunday

In the small hours had an unusually horrible dream – dreamt that Father was dead, and woke dazed and sweating. 

Had to be at the Post again at 1.00p.m., an awful nuisance.  Miss Bentley says I’m doing too much, in a most motherly manner.

When I got there, found that ‘divers’ had been on from 1-2am and 6-8am, the first for nearly 48 hours, but not very many sent over.  During the afternoon saw a very nice grey cob in a tub-trap go trotting past, with father, mother and two little girls in it.  A lot of ‘planes about all the time, which made us very busy.

Got off at 5, went down to Dedham and had tea in the café.  Then called at Sissons’ and then went with them in their car to Stratford where Mrs Sisson proposed to borrow a boat.  However, someone else had already taken it, so we borrowed an old fishing punt which lay handy, and I rowed them slowly up stream towards Higham.  It was a glorious evening, and we drifted smoothly over the calm water, through bulrushes, under the hanging arms of trees, with cattle drinking on the green margins of the stream, while swans sailed by majestically, moorhens puffed about, a reed-warbler flitted through the rushes.

Spent a most delightful hour, then back to Dedham in the cool evening and had supper.  Perhaps it was so much delight all at once that made me more than usually anxious but at any rate I went back very slowly to Boxted, stopping to eat sweet blackberries by the light of the moon, and all the time apprehensive of what I did not know.