Frost this morning again and a cold east wind blowing. Car washing again. Mc. S. D. B. 23 to date. American sputniks not very successful. Too cold to finish off the windows.

My granddad died in 1983. For the previous 20 years, he kept a diary, recording his day as a farm worker and then through his retirement. We are lucky enough to have his notebooks, all the entries in block capitals, often in pencil. He always tells us about the weather, sometimes about what is going well at the allotment. We get updates of how Liverpool are doing and the occasional political thought. He suffered from rheumatoid arthritis, was always in pain, but you would never know from these entries. My mum once described him as a contented man. Who knows, really, but certainly, there is something soothing about these entries. So I thought I would share them with you. We have a few years to cover so buckle up.

Frost this morning again and a cold east wind blowing. Car washing again. Mc. S. D. B. 23 to date. American sputniks not very successful. Too cold to finish off the windows.

A frost this morning. Went to see Dot and Ron. Had a nice afternoon by the fireside. Went to the Wheatsheaf at night. Saw Harry Mealer. Good session.

Dot, my mum and Lee’s daughter.
Day on today. Not a bad day but foggy. Got done early. Cleaned windows. Finished house and did a good bit of lab. Went to P. Dug the border. Burnt some rubbish.
Not a bad day again. Fairly mild. Car washing again. H. A. K. 19 to date. Cleaned both jets again. Gave 3 bags of salvage to the bin men. Going to clean windows again. Not fit last night. Rain.
Another mild day with showers at first. Had to clear the silage lab out twice today. Forked the borders round the vet labs. 3 sacks of paper for salvage. Cleaning windows if fine.
A nice mild day today. Swilled round the bins. Cleared silage bins again. A big lot of stuff to burn on the incinerator. 600 gallons of oil came first thing. Stayed to do a few windows.
A mild day but cloudy. Forked borders in front of lab doors. Emptied the silage bins. Burnt Mr Howarth’s knife. Saw first snowdrop. Cleaned both jets. Stayed cleaning lab windows 319 3wks. can.
Not a bad day but a strong, very cold north west wind was blowing. Did some car washing again. B polished and S. 16 to date. Brushed up around the bins. Asked Mr Howarth bunts.
(No idea what “Asked Mr Howard bunts” means.)

Not a bad day. Nice and mild. Got up 10am. Not fit to do any gardening. Dot and Ron came in the afternoon. Nothing unusual to report. Went to the Wheatsheaf at night.

Ron, my dad, on his motorbike.
Day off. Came out to clean the windows but got rained off. Went to P in the afternoon. Cleaned car. Did some tidying up. Went to the Wheatsheaf.