19520810 Katty
Katty signs herself "Owlie", the pet name used for her between her and her sister. The name arose from her ability to puff up her face to give an owl impression. Alas! There are no pictures of this.
Belmont
Douglas
Isle of Man
August 10th 1952
My darling Violet
Your dear interesting letter came the day after I had posted mine to you, thank you so much for it. I loved your description of the Falls with the lovely rainbow, & the rainforest, & also the animals in the game park, you always describe things so well, & I loved the illustration of Father Giraffe’s legs trying to stoop to eat out of a low trough!! The luncheon party sounded so nice. I hope the children arrived back at school all right, such an awful journey, poor dears, I think they are wonderful, & can just imagine how I would have hated it at that age or any!! Though I’m sure you would have been “perky & brave about it” but we were so differently brought up & dependent! I do hope you had a good flight home on Friday
& found all well on your return. I suppose it was colder at Livingstone as you were so much fur
ther south. I haven’t much news since I last wrote. The weather for the last four days has been awful, up to then it was showery & mild, & then on Thursday, we had torrents & torrents of rain, I don’t know how many inches, including a thunderstorm in the afternoon. The drive was nearly washed away & most of the gravel washed half way down the road! We were going to tea with Betty, but she rang up & said not to come, it was so awful, & so dark, we could not have been able to see her lovely view from her new house (bungalow) at its best, & we arranged to go the next day, when it was rather better, but not much sun. She has made the bungalow very nice & her old furniture that she has kept looks very nice, in spite of the low brick modern fireplace in the drawing room. It is a nice very sunny room, two windows & of course a glorious view of the mountains & sunsets, etc. A nice little dining room, & very nice kitchen out of it, with everything of the latest - Aga cooker, & it also heats the water, a.
stove for central heating down some steps. A “fridge”, cupboards, etc., Larder. Three bedrooms (all rather too small) & a nice little hall, bath room, Lenin, & also a housemaids cupboard. All the brothers have been to stay & she had already had lots of visitors, & when she hasn’t, doesn’t mind being entirely alone as she has a telephone. The garden (mostly done by Walter when he comes over) is getting on, full of flowers, but so far rather in the rough & wind swept! She gave us a very nice tea & seems very pleased with it all. Mrs Walter & Diana came to tea with us on Wednesday. Diana was very nice & seems very happy. She talked about the old days at Eagle Hurst, & said how she loved them, & said “I just lived at Eagle Hurst, it was my second home”!! She asked very much after Fenella. On Friday morning (also a wet day) we were asked to go to see a film at 10.30 a.m. done of the Isle of Man for Norway, all in Norwegian as an advertisement to tempt people to come here, archaeologists etc., & to see the scenery! Certainly if I lived in Norway where the scenery is so grand, I don’t think it would tempt me! Some of the photos is tetra were very pretty, but so little sun, & all so
gloomy & it began with the most depressing scene of arriving by the boat, in pouring rain, & dripping wet streets in Douglas! Very true to life, but anything but a nice beginning to a holiday, & most putting off!! Mrs Taggart is home, & I have sent her all your jumper measurements, & do hope it will be nice, she will make it as nice & as like as you describe as she can. It won’t be lined with chiffon I fear. I once tried to line one years ago & found it so difficult I had to give it up, & Georgie found the same. I don’t wear any slip undermine, I just a lacy bust bodice, pinky (White doesn’t look nice) but I have a silk pink slip to the waist, which would fit you & I never wear, & it is practically new, if you want one, & I would send it with pleasure, darling. I had a nice letter from Cecil, she had a good journey & Georgie met her in London. She seems to be doing a lot & enjoying herself. I also had a dear letter from Georgie, she said she was afraid Cecil was not going to be any help about Vi, she said she couldn’t have her and she couldn’t cope with her, & Gleucuetchey (?) would be too cold for her. (Don’t mention this
to Georgie unless she does to you) but I think she told you she doesn’t want to get rid of Vi, but does want the two sisters to help about her, & take some responsibility, & each have her for three months in the year. Neither of them want to, which is rather hard. Vi said to me before we left, “I’m going to try & go & stay with Cecil for a bit, I think I ought to, she seems so miserable, & also it would give Georgie a rest, & I could fly there.” Evidently Cecil doesn’t want her, & this is not going to come off! I told Georgie what Vi had said to me, & she was quite pleased. It’s all very difficult, Georgie has been so good. I do think they ought to do their best to help her, & poor Vi.
Monday, August 11th. Another pouring wet day (the 5th running!!) & The English papers say the I.o.M.had over 3 inches in that deluge on Thursday & have already had much more rain than usual for the whole of August. It’s not really cold, but the damp has made me feel so shivery I have today gone back to my will and undies & am afraid I shall have to go back to sleeping in blankets which I was
hoping to put off till it was really cold. I was so glad to get out of them the whole time I was away, & had hoped I might be able to give them up after 13 years! I began them when I had that rheumatic fever the week war broke out & Dr Pamtine said I must always sleep in them & I’m afraid I will have two as long as we are here, it’s so damn. I had a dear letter from Fenella, they were dining out the night before their wedding day, & going to a dance in the evening of the day, & she had a new pale green frock for it. It does not look very hopeful weather for the Bishop’s Garden Party tomorrow!! We have had so little sun since we came home, but Owl has stored up a lot of Malta sun, which is still fluffing out his feathers. It was lovely, our Malta jaunt, & I love thinking about it & the joy of seeing you, darling & Gerard. Must stop now, with very much love from us both to you both.
Your v. Loving
Owlie
