October . . .

Last Friday, while having a quilting day with my sister-in-law, I picked up a folder of photocopies of other letters that my Uncle wrote home from the day he enlisted till the day he was killed.  I have spent the last week reading and re-reading them.   I have followed his changes in mood and attitude from the brave new soldier in his new uniform describing himself as 'some class', to the homesick boy in the trenches, admitting to his mother that he keeps himself cheerful by telling himself lies about his safety and situation.  For the first time, I feel like I might, in a very small way, 'know' my Uncle.  And I must admit, he would appear to be a completely different person to what I thought, from the tiny amount we were told as children and probably that our childish imaginations made up about him.  He was full of life and enthusiasm and somewhere between then and now, things in our family changed dramatically.  I feel very sad when I realise that what we were told was the truth turns out to be only someone's interpretation.

I have a very real need to visit his little resting place.  Mike is not very interested at all.

Meanwhile, in the garden, things are positively blooming!

DA Lucetta is once again looking gorgeous.

The clematis on the archway over the side gate.  The rose on the other side of the archway is Crepuscule, and it is covered in lovely apricoty buds, which will, no doubt, open the moment the last clematis flower is done!  So much for thoughtful colour combinations.

DA Mary Rose - delicious!

Peace on the archway near the front door.

A blurry DA Summer Song in the snake bed.

Vivid Reine de Violettes (with a bit of BS thrown in for good measure).  Even tardy old Leander has heaps of buds!

Tall yellow iris in the snake bed - a super eBay buy!

The cheery faces of violas - Johnny Jump-ups - and they do!  My dad used to love these plants.

Pink geranium in the front bed.

I have so much lavender in flower along the gravel path, that when I walk along with my little watering bucket, I basically have a bow wave of bees go along in front of me.  Sometimes there are so many, it makes me laugh.

I took more photos but they turned out awful, and were deleted.  My computer is having an issue at the moment, and deleted all my 2010 photos from iPhoto the other day, most of which I managed to recover.  Technology!