We are well into the New Year and have had an unexpected guest for the past few weeks. This is because of my complicated family. My father (born in 1899 and died in 1989) married his first wife, the daughter of his landlord in London, while he was training as an architect. His first daughter, Patricia, was born in 1931 in Bulawayo. Although he and her mother divorced, he remained involved in her life. He was instrumental in getting her a job in Kenya in social work in the 1950s.

Pat was based in Kisumu, where she met and married a young colonial district officer, David de Pury. They had three children; the eldest, Kate, is just a few years younger than me. After an adventurous and mobile life, primarily working for Oxfam including spells in Sudan and Bangladesh, David retired. They eventually settled in Kent, partly to be close to family.

Pat and her family had me to stay for a few days in 1975 before I went to the University of East Anglia. I arrived at Heathrow, she met me and took me to their Mill House in Oxfordshire. I met my niece, and nephews for the first time – Pat and David had met me when I was an infant. This hospitality was important for me, I had never been to the UK, so it was a gentle introduction to the country and the way of life.

I saw Pat and David occasionally over the next 45 years, more frequently in the last 10 years. We organised several family gatherings, the first in North Walsham, the town in Norfolk where our father was born. These were great fun and made me aware of how important blood relatives are. The most recent gathering was on 28th December 2024 at Kate’s house, in Dulwich in south London. Covid-19 meant the turnout was somewhat curtailed, and David, who was waiting for minor surgery, did not attend. Despite this, a good time was had by all, and Pat was in good form.

One of the reasons for the gathering was for us, the Norwich Whitesides, to pick up their dog, Bessie. David had asked that it be elsewhere as he prepared for, and recuperated from, the surgery. We anticipated looking after Bessie for three or four weeks. On New Year’s Eve we received the news that David had died. He had reached the grand age of 92. (Pat is six months older than him). He will be sorely missed by his family and friends.

Bessie is a Patterdale terrier. This breed is not recognised in the UK by the Kennel Club. The American United Kennel Club describes the Patterdale as

“an active little terrier that presents a compact, balanced image. … a strong neck, the fortitude to hold its quarry at bay, the ability to squeeze into tight burrows, and great flexibility and endurance. … puppies tend to be bold and confident beyond their capabilities. The Patterdale is known as a working terrier.”¹

Bessie certainly fits that description.

She is extremely energetic and very good natured. She is also intelligent. She sleeps in a cage in the living room, and I let her into the garden at about 6.30 in the morning. She goes out and does her business, then goes back in the cage, until we all get up. Up to a few days ago this was simple, when she came back into the house she headed for the cage. She has realised that there is a bed upstairs, and now she is like a rat up a drainpipe. She dashes in past me, through the kitchen, up the stairs and onto the bed. I have, when I remembered, closed an internal door. If I fail to do that then she is away.

It is nice to have a dog in the house again, she fitted in immediately and gives us motivation for walks! This is not so pleasant on frosty mornings. The plus of the dog is company, walking and playing. The minus is having to walk and picking up the poo, both on walks and from the garden. We have areas in the lawn where we did not cut the grass. I am hoping we won’t find too much in there when we finally cut it. This is one of the tasks for the spring.

We had a visit from tree surgeons. We have been in the house for 25 years now, and Ailsa planted trees over the first few years. There are a number of gorgeous silver birches, one of which was blown over a couple of years ago. This is when I learnt that they are known for having shallow roots. We left the stump in situ to encourage insect life. My favourite tree is the walnut. We do get nuts from it, although to be honest the squirrels are there first. The alder was taken out by the young men, and they also cut down one of the fir trees at the end of the garden. It was amazing to watch the work, one of the chaps climbed to the top of the tree and it was cut down in increments. I was happy to see that the big logs were taken by one of their colleagues to be cured and cut up for firewood, sadly we did not have anywhere to store it for our wood burners, so it all went.

I decided to have a dry January. For those who don’t know, the idea is that one abstains from alcohol for the month of January. I wrote this section of my blog on 17th January, so I am over the halfway point. It was not too difficult to do this and Rowan, my daughter, is doing the same, giving me moral support. Do I feel better? To be honest I don’t feel very different, but I suppose I must be benefiting from this sacrifice.

There is also a benefit to my budget. I think I was spending about £120 per month on wine. However, to my surprise and delight, I discovered I had a credit of £200 with Naked Wines, a mail order outlet. They have very good selections, and so I ordered and received two cases a few days ago.² I have unpacked one case in preparation for February. There are also increasingly excellent non-alcoholic beers available, my favourite is Ghost Ship, brewed by local company, Adnams. A few years ago I bought two shares, for £200, to get the shareholder’s 10% discount. The price of the shares subsequently fell to just under £70, clearly it was not a very good investment!

We are watching the politics in the USA with a degree of fascinated horror. This is going to be the year of elections: the USA; South Africa; and, almost certainly, the UK. The reason there is a sliver of doubt on the UK is that Sunak could hold out up to January 2025. The consensus is that the Tories will lose the majority. It is not certain how the opposition parties will do; Labour may not win an overall majority. Our household is Green and Liberal Democrat and neither party will win here.

The weather over the last few days has been very chilly. I was out in the evening, and it took me forever to clear the windscreen when I got back to the car. This has been a bit of a shock as the winters have been so mild for the past few years. However cold Norfolk wins over steamy Durban in January and February every time as far as I am concerned.

The reason for being out on a freezing evening was attending a board meeting for the Norwich Credit Union.³ These Unions are owned and run by the members and offer access to safe savings and affordable loans. Credit unions help members take control of their finances by encouraging them to save what they can and borrow only what they can afford to repay. Members must save at least £5 over three months before they can borrow. The amounts are generally small. The equivalent in Southern Africa are the stokvels.⁴ I am enjoying being part of this and am full of admiration for the other members of the board. My contribution has been to persuade the board to put the surplus cash in an interest-bearing account.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patterdale_Terrier
2. https://www.nakedwines.com/
3. https://www.norwichcreditunion.org.uk/
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stokvel