Easter 6 May 29th 2011

Tomorrow is my dads birthday. He has been dead now for 6 months and it's strange the things I remember about him. He was a very independently minded person. My first memories of him was being taken to the childminders in Streatham where we lived and putting my shoes down to stop the pushchair as we passed Pollyjoys the sweetshop. There is a photo of me at this time on the swing below the apple tree with his navy officers hat on. It's a fantastic photo taken with my uncles Zeiss ikon camera. Black and White of course. I spent many hours with dad while he was doing things like making something from wood in the workshop. He would give mea knife and some wood and I whittled away. I made a perfect replica of a barrel with a lid that I varnished, the middle hollowed out.In the garden I helped him with the aviary. We raised budgies of all sorts of colours, yellow, White, smokey grey. Every november he made a bonfire and hollowed out the middle. One year I made it a den and sat in it my black and white Dutch rabbit thumper. I spent a lot of time as his assistant in whatever practical things he was doing gardening, wallpapering, going to dog shows with our golden cocker spaniel Bonnie when he painted her nose black to win a prize.So he encouraged me to be practical and to have a go at everything. Not a bad thing!