Days gone by

Another gorgeous day today, after a light frost. I must go outside to rearrange my crates so the least hardy plants are close to the house and under the eaves. This will give them some shelter - it certainly keeps the worst of the rain off them over the winter. 

My brother has sent me some family bits and pieces which belonged to my great-aunt Emily who died in 1990 at the age of 98. I was fortunate to have known her and visited her house in Tidcombe, Devon, several times. She was a great gardener and had been a widow for 35 years.

One of the items is a lovely little box of bookplates, which also contained three train tickets. She married her Cornish husband in 1925 and at some point they went out to the Sudan, where he worked as a water engineer. Two of the tickets are for a journey from Shellal, which is on the Nile in Egypt, to West Medani, in the Sudan. The third, which unfortunately I've put upside down, was for the journey onwards from West Medani to the capital, Khartoum. 

There was also a lovely little booklet on the Suez Canal - all such lovely memories to keep!

She did once show me pictures of her garden in the Sudan, but how I wish I'd asked her more about her life while I had the chance!