salad days

I have mentioned this salad bowl and Clare McDermott before (asparagus pie). I was scanning some pictures for Telling Tales who is writing a story about Mum and Dad getting married in Grayshott. One of the pics Mum gave me to scan was of the famous Clare. Here he is with Mum in March 1959.


He met up with Mum and Dad on the Paris part of their honeymoon. He spent the day wandering with them. On their wander, they saw the salad bowl in a window and admired it. When Mum and Dad got back to their hotel, the salad bowl was waiting for them with a note from Clare. I never met Clare but I think of him every time we have salad.

happy birthday dad

wedding day memory

This is another picture of my parent's wedding day. The guy in the foreground is Mel Morris, the best man who lent Dad money to buy a suit for the wedding. They are in Grayshott, the village where Mum grew up. Her mum and dad are at the far right. The bridesmaid is my cousin Jill.

At Ant's birthday, Dad told this story about his wedding day.
Then we talked about Grayshott, shot, clover, daisies and dandelions :P

UPDATE: The plant that grew because of the iron in the soil was watercress :P

happy birthday ant

Kellie brought balloons.


Ant's friend Irene came to dinner.


We had a chocolate cake.


Ant loves purple. There was lots of purple at the party. Irene wore purple. Dad wore purple. Ant wore ORANGE!


In 1964, Ant took me to see Mary Poppins. She tells me that after the movie I would not leave the theatre and cried, "I want my very own Mary Poppins." I do not really remember the crying but I remember the feeling. Ant is a pretty good Mary Poppins for a girl to grow up with -- lots of treats and fun outings. And lots of love. I found this little music box that plays Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious for the party:

why i call her ant

Here is a picture from 1962 of Ant and me in the backyard of the house at Dovercourt and Bloor where we all lived. I have been told that I am playing with a sparkly, dangly thing on her shoe.


At that time, one of my favourite books was Bobby the Dog, beautifully illustrated by Pierre Probst.


When Bobby waters his garden, a little ant has to put up her umbrella to keep dry. My dad told me that the little ant was an ant like my Aunt Beulah. So Aunt Beulah became Ant.

first photo

Mum and Dad celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary in March.

My dad lived with Paul Chisholm in London around the time he met my mum. Paul was just visiting from Australia and he brought my sister and I a gift for the anniversary -- copies of a picture he took of the happy couple in 1955. My mum says that this is the first picture of them together.