Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine

Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine

Writes that they will soon be together. Mentions arrangements that have been made for their allotment. Hopes he has received parcel she sent with lanolin face cream. Talks about state of cleaning their house and catches up with news of family and friends.

1941-01-19

Six page handwritten letter

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EValentineUMValentineJRM410119-01

I take back what I said about our artichokes – they’re enormous & abundant!! Lido Sunday 19th
Darling Johnnie, think of it, perhaps we shall only have one more Sunday to spend apart for months! It seems too good to be true. Today I went down to the allotment & saw Thompson. I told him that I have arranged for Mrs Sullivan (Bridget's sister, widow with five small children) to take any green vegetables she wants from the allotment & shall give her a note to that effect to give Thompson so that he can show her which is our allotment & she won't get jailed for stealing. He told me that he has let our allotment to a chap called Searle, who lives near the Quadrant, so I shall get in touch
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with him this week & hope to arrange to go down with him next weekend & show him what we have left in & what we he is free to dig. I am also going down on Tuesday with the gardener to collect as much of our tools, pea-sticks, bean-poles & storeable crops as poss. A chap at the hut was saying that it hasn't been a good season for leeks, ours certainly aren't really big enough to pick yet. I only wish I could arrange for Ba to gather them in March sometime, but tho' she says she will come over to the house at regular intervals to see that all is OK. Inside (pipes etc) I don't suppose she would ever be bothered to go
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down to the allotment to pick leeks, altho' she loves them so! Perhaps I could arrange something through the gardener. I shall also get the seed for the top of the garden from Thompson next weekend & leave for the gardener to put in. He had some shallots there this week & I think I shall get some, loathsome little things, because we may not be too successful with onions on this newly broken ground up the garden, & we must have some the smelly things.
I hope incidentally that this man Searle will be made to pay the rent for the allotment which they tried to squeeze
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out of me last week, after all we paid up for a full half year last Spring. Thompson is always very sweet to me & enquires after you. There is nothing much else to report since I wrote to you yesterday. I hope you will have received the little parcel by now containing soap, 2/6 & face cream. Lanolin is about the best thing there is for the skin & surely masculine enough for you since it is just the fat from sheep's skin. It is the fat which most nearly approaches the oils in the human skin. I thought even the scent wasn't too pansy, tho' heaven know most men's toilet preparations smell pansy enough (especially [underlined] hair oil [/underlined])
I would have sent you more than 2/6, which is rather a niggardly sum, but I shouldn't have had
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enough change left in the house to pay Bridget. She came on Saturday afternoon for 4 hours, & made some impression on the place. Superficially it all looks presentable, but I have the unpleasant knowledge all the time that shelves & cupboards haven't been turned out for weeks. I set to & polished all the silver yesterday afternoon, that's another of those jobs which is so easily skipped until at last you can't bear it any more. When I come back I shall certainly need a regiment of chars. “If 7 maids with 7 mops swept for half a year do you suppose,” the Walrus said “That they could get it clear”
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“I doubt it”said the Carpenter, and shed a bitter tear (Do you know your Alice Through the Looking Glass?)
I wrote to Mrs Stenzel the other day, haven't heard from her since Christmas & don't know if she's here or I.O.M. I asked her what she thought of the idea of coming to live & work here after May if she's free. I think she'd probably like it. I want to get Bethune to examine me thoroughly before I leave – the corsets are proving a real boon, you'll be tickled to death at the sight of them but they're worth it. Make me look about half the size too! I must also get my free milk business transferred – the formalities as regards RAF allowance are to be conducted from Aber. PO. Things are beginning to straighten out gradually – Ba's digs are fixed up again with Miss Henry.
All my love darling, Ursula