Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine

Letter from Ursula Valentine to her husband John Valentine

Apologises for ringing him and catalogues letters sent. Writes of daily gardening activities and jobs to do. Provides news of acquaintances who lost fiance.

1941-12-02

Four page handwritten letter

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EValentineUMValentineJRM411202

Start of transcription
Lido
Tenterden Grove,
Hendon.
2nd Dec. 1941
My darling,
I hope you didn’t mind my ringing you up last night, or think it foolish of me. It wasn’t [underlined] only [/underlined] that I was longing to hear your voice again and know you are alright. There was quite a lot of things to discuss too, weren’t there? This morning I received your letter of Saturday. By the way, I wrote each day last week except Tuesday. Wednesdays went to Halton, but you should have received one from Thursday. You will have heard in the meantime that I received
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2.
your parcel safely, tho’ I can’t remember now which day. I sent off your RAF vest & pants yesterday.
I’m glad you enjoyed your first night flying – It must be rather a weird experience.
I have been gardening again this morning, & want to finish off the job this afternoon if Frances will permit. I decided we must do something about the slugs & other pests in the old vegetable plot at the very top, so I bought 7 lbs of naphthalene (2/6) and have been digging it in. It’s rather tricky as the onions & spring greens are there. The more I do the more I see to be done in the garden, I hope to goodness the gardener comes this week. It’s so hard
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3.
for me to fit it in; when Frances is being good I have other pressing jobs to do first, else it is raining, & when the weather & the other jobs permit, Frances howls. Still, if we don’t get any frosts for a bit, I ought to be able to manage it. I am leaving the new vegetable patch till last, hoping the gardener will do it, & he must dig in some naphthalene there too. By the way, our onions were not the only ones which went “bull-necked” I see in the papers that more or less the whole crop was a failure because of too much rain, which on the other hand produced record carrots. Talking of carrots, Frances had some for lunch, sieved & mixed with white sauce, & she ate them quite willingly.
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4.
No news from Housewife yet, but I heard from Irene Galitzensten today that her fiancé Harries is dead, she has no details. It does seem so awful for her poor girl, he was a charming fellow, a Bavarian, an architect, keen climber and skier & swimmer, and great fun. What an awful world!
Talk of keeping a soft spot in my heart for you! The whole thing has gone squishy with longing!
Now I suppose I must “take a large hoe
And a shovel also
And dig till I gently perspire”
Look after yourself, precious one, and let’s hope you get some leave soon.
All my love
Ursula.