Haymaking, Birthdays and Summer Days — May & June 1952 at Hiltonbury

Welcome back to My Mother’s Diaries – The HiltonburyFarming Family Story, and to May and June 1952.These two months begin beneath grey skies, with seeminglyendless rain and continuing concern about my father John’s health. Histroublesome back leads to one doctor after another, with very few answers,while life at Hiltonbury carries on regardless.But May also brings an escape from farm life, as Mother andFather head to Bournemouth for a proper seaside holiday. There are hot days onthe beach, walks along the front, trips to the Pavilion, coffee at the SwissCottage, new friends, shopping, bathing and even a little amusement on thepenny machines.Then it is home again — and straight back to reality.By June, the haymaking season is underway and once again theweather dictates everything. Hay must be turned, baled and brought safely inwhenever the sun allows, and Mother herself joins in, threading baling wire atFlexford on one particularly hot and dusty day.There are happier family occasions too: Janet’s birthday,dancing displays, school matches, gooseberries, strawberries and homemade jam.But farm life also brings sadness when one of the Jerseyherd, Wings of War, fails the cattle test and has to go — a reminderthat these animals were far more than simply numbers on a farm.And amid it all, Mother still finds time for ironing,gardening, dressmaking, entertaining visitors — and even manages to get up atfive o’clock one morning entirely by mistake!It is another wonderfully vivid glimpse ofordinary family life at Hiltonbury Farm in 1952