Sun 9.30 PM Jan 5. 41
# BAKING, BOMBS AND BUMPS IN THE NIGHT

So Roy is 20 now, suppose he will be called in the next batch of 20s. He just missed the Jan. 11. call up. Had 2 boys round to borrow Ron’s skates to-day just as dinner was on the table so as I am not sure where they are I said I wouldn’t let my dinner get cold and look. Peter came later and I didn’t feel inclined either to look for them or lend him them so told Jean to tell him I didn’t know where they were. The snow is still about tho’ no more has fallen since Friday. It has thawed a bit to-day and the air is damp so it may mean more downfall. I have had a sore throat and have some cold, took a Beecham’s Pdr [powder] last night and aspirin to-day, trying to keep it from getting too bad. Rene came home Friday after dinner. I did some baking and made a few muffins. Rene and I had one each to a cup of tea. They are best straight out of the oven. Made a little bit of lemon curd too as I had a lemon and enough sugar and thought I had plenty of marg. but Father could not get any this week so all I have now is a wee bit on a plate. Things are gradually becoming scarcer but tho’ there is less variety there is plenty of food about so far. I was able to get a small ½ shoulder of frozen mutton 3S/4D. Bacon is down to bare ration now. Eggs were 3D cheaper this week 2/11½ wholesale. 2/8½ pullet eggs. We got some very good pullet eggs almost up to hen egg weight. Three bombs dropped in sea off Mablethorpe Thurs. aft rattled the doors and woke Father who was resting before a night watch. Jean was feeding rabbits but stopped to comfort them before coming in as she said they were frightened. Her own legs were shaking, she had heard the plane a few minutes before.

My hand still a lot of trouble, if weather at all fit shall have to go to Alford again Tuesday. It is very weak and I expect gets used too much being the right hand before it gets set. Have finished Jean’s cardigan for school but not wide enough, am having to knit pieces to put in under arms between back and front. If fine shall wash a few things tomorrow. Did a big wash last week so shall manage with less this. Have lent Eff my E iron, hers has gone for repairs. Soldiers next door were dyeing their equipment green in a large bath or cooking tin on Friday, over a fire built out of doors, looks a better idea than daubing them with the green mess they often use. On Sat I saw one of them scouring the pans inside and out. They do not need to go far for sand to scour with. Think the tide is coming in. I can hear it bump, bump, bumping on the beach. Father got a bit or two of wood off the beach this week, we miss the wood from seafaring this winter. After tea and Jean has gone to sleep on the couch so had better see about bed soon. The El. light flickers badly just now and does not give a very good light at times.

Roy, nephew, was the only son of May’s brother Frank. Roy, like his cousin Ron (May’s son), did not wait for ‘call-up’ but volunteered to join the RAF. His father had served in the Royal Flying Corps in WWI. Now living in New Zealand, Roy has just celebrated his 90th birthday (in 2011)!
Peter, nephew, was a son of Will’s youngest sibling Daisy and husband Bernard. They lived in a ‘Coastguard Cottage’ at that time.
The coastal town of Mablethorpe was about ten miles north of Chapel St Leonards. No record of the bomb ‘dumping’ has been identified.
The ‘modern’ electric iron was quite a novelty for May. Indeed, so was electric lighting as their previous home had not been supplied by mains electricity and they had used oil lamps.
‘Seafaring’ here meant beachcombing for useful washed-up material.

Have you read an introduction to May Hill & family (includes photographs) and explored ‘The Casualties Were Small’?

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