Ahem
The Malawi weather improved considerably in the first week and by the time of our departure the farm was experiencing some classic crop-growing weather: a couple of hours of determined rain and several hours of sun each day. On our last night we finally managed to witness a sundowner – watching the sun go down with a G&T in hand. Unfortunately I forgot to pack the T in the cool-box, but I was reassured that neat gin with ice was an acceptable alternative, as the sunset was striking (see above). We drove via the Dedza Pottery to Lilongwe where I stayed a couple of nights with friends Rob and Kate while Julia and her friend Sylvie stayed in a new hotel hurriedly booked for them when my initial reservation disappeared. In the end all went well with our return trip via Addis. We landed in Gatwick before 6am on Sunday morning. I was dishevelled and exhausted from my inability to sleep on the long-haul flight but I managed to get my head down once I was home. I got up groggily at around noon to be surprised by my daughters and a son-in-law for a birthday that I had momentarily forgotten. I received some useful presents: a box that used to be called a music centre, a ticket to the London South Bank production of Oliver, a wallet phone holder, a book about New Orleans, a couple of shirts, a spherical pouffe, and a bottle of Greenalls gin. I revived over lunch in the unbeatable company of my wife and daughters and a home-made fish pie.
The next few days were more industrious. There was much to do in planning an upgrade La Hune’s bathrooms and toilets before the holiday season starts in late May. I had more writing to do for Uckfield Matters – the second of my series of interviews of Uckfield’s High Street entrepreneurs, a profile of Lisa Hepburn’s The Flower Shop. Flatpack-wise, I helped Alli to build a herb table and put a finishing touch to her potting bench, both presents bought last autumn. Alli and I went to see Fionnuala and Andrew and their miraculously recovering dog Orla for the weekend. They are currently renting near Aldershot before they buy a house. Orla has recently suffered severe spinal damage but after sustained vet and owner care the front half of her body is as energetic and wiggly as ever, as she showed on our morning walk around nearby woods. Fionnuala and I then spent a couple of hours walking around Farnham and inspecting its somewhat sparse historical museum. We didn’t visit Farnham Castle as the sharp winds were turning me, uncoated, into ice. However, we did have a snack at the reassuring Castle pub nearby. We returned to Alli and Orla, who were on the sofa getting on fine, before a self-catered feast in the evening. On the previous night we had enjoyed an Indian takeaway from LaVang – a cut above the rest.
Andrew, Lionel, Fionnuala, and Orla, Ash Vale, March 2025
Alli and I went to Brighton where Alli did some gardening at J3’s flat while I finished a biography of Etienne Choiseul. According to the biographer he was responsible for the eighteenth-century birth of the political left-wing in France – a bit like discovering the tiny source of a grand river in a mountainous forest. Choiseul was sacked by King Louis XV as the Prime Minister of France after falling out with the King’s new mistress, whom he had previously met in a Paris brothel.
Alli went to stay in Burgess Hill with her mother for a few days while I adopted my accustomed solo mode of doing small jobs around the house and garden and working upstairs in the loftice. At the end of the month, Alli and I went with Jessie to the unexpectedly fabulous Kinky Boots, with music and lyrics by Cindy Lauper and featuring a tireless and energetic cast at the Theatre Royal in Brighton. This came after Alli and I had eaten well at the Permit Room on East Street. It was a most satisfying and enjoyable Brighton evening out. But more was to come as, in further celebration of our wedding anniversary and the rites of Spring, we went to the Babylon Kitchen near Maresfield a couple of nights later. We enjoyed a wedding anniversary dinner featuring locally produced food and wine, an excellent organic Bacchus wine from another as yet undiscovered local vineyard nearby in Fairwarp, the Winklestone.
Yours springing forward
Lionel