Marion

March, 2006

I am awaiting a report from Marion on the vacation she took in Switzerland, Absent the words, here is a photo of her relaxing above the peaks and looking like she is really enjoying her ride on the trotti-bike.



Marion is still "sitting on the fence" as far as the reunion goes. Maybe she needs some coaxing to put down her hoe and make the trek to Bedford.

We spent some frustrating times trying to get her Christmas card to cross the Atlantic electronically. She had devised something cute and complex, but our applications were not talking to each other and we had to resort to . . . the mail!

September, 2005

Marion has been great about keeping in touch with me via e-mail. Having said that, I must admit that this year I kept her e-mails in my in-box, ready to put them in a folder when I began this undertaking, and one day in a fit of absentmindedness, I wiped them all out. So I apologize, Marion, for not passing on your more recent news (and losing your wonderful photo of your wall) and will do better with my new set-up.

I also rather imperiously demanded second copy of Marion’s delightful Christmas, 2003 newsletter because I had mislaid the first, promptly found the first and still didn’t get my act together. Marion is most skilful with her computer. I get photos from her with e-mails, she puts out great newsletters and if you got a Christmas card from her last year, you know she created that too! I especially loved the photo on the back: her trusty bicycle. Marion is not going to be parted from that means of transportation: “I definitely have no plans to get a car again. I gave mine up mainly on environmental grounds and I can hardly complain about the nasty, smelly, congestion-causing vehicles if I run one myself. Anyway, cycling is much better. You see the countryside and don’t have parking problems. It is always possible to use public transport when cycling is impractical. It may take longer but time is not usually crucial when one is retired.” Marion astounded me in a 2003 letter when she described a round-trip of 27.3 miles to keep a lunch engagement with a former colleague. At a time when she was already having knee problems! And she talked wistfully of enjoying a book entitled “Greece on my Wheels” by Edward Enfield “because his cycle tours of Greece, round the Peloponnese and in Epirus, included so many places with which I am familiar. Oh, to have trusty knees so that I could follow in his wheel ruts!” Her knees must be pretty trusty, because in her 2003 newsletter she writes of a trip to Harwich, “I covered about 32 miles that day.” And a photo of Marion in her Christmas, 2004 card shows her atop Snaefell in the Isle of Man in July of that year. I sit with my map of Britain and follow the route of her trips. No M4 for her!

I rely on Marion for some of my nostalgia fixes. After my second newsletter, I had a great letter from her, writing about her Christmas traditions. She still uses the same recipes for Christmas pudding and cake that her mother did. She also sent me her marmalade recipe and I regret to say that’s another item on my “yet to do” list. Marion wrote, “Another of my 'traditions' is to make marmalade about the end of January when the Seville oranges are in the shops. I have recently made 20 pots, which should last me till next January at least. 'Proper' marmalade, on the bitter side (I always add an extra lemon), is an essential breakfast ingredient so far as I am concerned.”

And of course she can always be relied on for vignettes from nature: “Recently we have seen some snow even here in northeast Essex. It didn't last long, of course, but I always feel the old childhood excitement when I see it falling, especially if the flakes are big and fluffy instead of that silly seedy stuff. I woke one morning to a white lawn and by afternoon most of it had melted and as I walked round the garden (just looking at things, as I like to do!), I found a violet in flower. There are plenty of snowdrops and winter aconites but even some daffodils have buds showing already. Global warming is certainly confusing the plants!”

Life in Essex is certainly more interesting for having Marion to chronicle it. Let’s have more.