1946

My day off, but I was up early and in Cromer by 8.20. I'd finished Lidl and Morrison's by 9.30 and then walked into town. It was nice and bright, but still very cold. Too cold for a dress and thin tights which is what I was wearing (I have been dressing up for my weekly food shopping trip for a while now, since it's the only time I go out). I had hoped to get some more fimo for mouse making, but Jarrolds in Cromer no longer sells it. I'll look elsewhere at the weekend.

Home at 10.30 for brunch. Egg and bacon muffin with a lovely cup of tea. I also took my dress off and put sensible comfy warm clothes on!

My phone had been pinging all morning as one of our messenger family groups had fired up overnight, with my cousins in Australia sharing family photos. Mum is the 4th of 5 siblings. Sadly, now the only one of those 5 left. Her older siblings, Bob, Ken and Eileen were quite a lot older. They were almost like 2 families. This lovely photo is of Eileen, aged 17, then mum 6, David 3 and their mum Nellie, my grandmother who I never knew. She would have been 48 in this photo. Isn't it just lovely! The 3 eldest children all emigrated to New Zealand. Ken in the 50s, and Eileen in 1967 and then Bob and his family shortly after that I believe.

My cousin Sarah (actually she is my cousin once removed) Bobs granddaughter, organised obtaining the photo, and she has found several old ones with my grandparents in, among her mums photos. I have only seen one photo of my grandparents before, that I can remember as there are so few in the UK. With Bob being the oldest sibling, the family photos have ended up in Australia. We know Eileen had lots of photos too, but don't know what happened to them when she died. She was living in New Zealand. So who knows! Sarah is going to scan them for me, so it is going to be lovely to see them.

My whole day after breakfast was spent in my shoebox of a kitchen, trying to put food away, clean and tidy. After mopping the floor, I decided I wanted to attempt to descale the dishwasher. I bought it second hand and it has never worked that well. I managed to get the arm things out, and spent a satisfying hour with a lot of water and an unwound paper clip gouging limescale out of the holes. Successfully put back together, I hope it works!

Caught up with The Sewing Bee which was inspiring. Mollie and I now want to make something proper that we can wear!! Then a facetime chat with mum. Now I must go to bed. Work tomorrow.