Lorna Baxter's books

A children's author, who lives just 20 minutes away from my farming cousins, invited us to lunch today. I have blipped her two published books.

As Mr hazelh's second cousin once removed, Lorna Baxter is one of Mr hazelh's (many) relations based in the south west of England. Her real first name, however, is not Lorna. She adopted this because in the 1970s there was already a well established children's author who shared her real first name. With the permission of Mr hazelh's grandfather Theo, she chose Lorna as her pen name. This was in honour of Theo's deceased sister Lorna Lloyd.

One of the reasons for visiting Lorna Baxter was to see some more of Lorna Lloyd's writing and art work. Lorna Baxter inherited a lovely album of illustrated stories that Lorna Lloyd had originally compiled for her beloved Grannie in the 1930s. Between the chat and a wonderful slow-cooked beef stew lunch, I photographed the pages of the album to add to my archive of Lorna Lloyd's work.

After our visit, there was time for us to look around the nearby Victorian gothic rival house Tyntesfield and to walk through its beautiful parkland. The National Trust staff at the entrance were extremely welcoming (we pay attention to this since the incident at Wallington on 23rd February 2023), as were those who showed us around the house. The highlight of the trip, however, was nothing to do with the property itself.

While we were sitting in the sunshine drinking tea and coffee, a man approached us, calling out Mr hazelh's name. He was one of Mr hazelh's old work colleagues. The pair of them had not seen each other for around 15 years so had plenty of catching up to do. I met this colleague of Mr hazelh's once or twice in the past, and although I would never have recognised him, his name was familiar to me. I was both astonished and impressed that he remembered my name without any prompting.

Back at my cousins' farm at the end of our day out, we enjoyed another jolly evening with my extended family. Amongst those who joined us for drinks before dinner were my second cousin Tom's best friend Freddie and Tom's sister-in-law Louella, who are getting married in six weeks. There was much chat about the wedding and all the preparations for the big day.

Exercise today: small amount of walking (8717 steps).