in norfolk - and some sad news

a Barbara Hepworth in Norwich

duck family

the pond, or Mere with electric fountain

the long awaited time off arrived and i travelled down to brother's, from where i would travel further to uncle's and an aunt's possibly.

fully intended to start blogging again once i started my break. somehow did not start immediately - i think i was just winding down, and then bad news; our uncle who i was about to visit died suddenly.

sister and her husband are now landing in Heathrow from the USA, and in one week we are going to have to arrange a funeral and sort out his flat and notify as many of his friends and Ugandan friends as possible. i have already found one friend on the net by googling the school my uncle used to teach in in Uganda, and sending off an email to him - hoping - and yes, he knew my uncle well, and is passing on my message.

my uncle had a very interesting life, i always tried to persuade him to write it down but he never quite believed he had anything worth writing - but he was pleased that i thought so. i was hoping one day to sit with a recording implement and just record him talking. but we live so far apart.

He taught in Uganda for years, including all through the Idi Amin years. He was a gentle man of the 'old' kind - a person from the past, and i never really felt he was quite at home once he came back to live in England. he was a socialist. my mother often had to go and find him after their father had thrown him out of the house for being a communist when they were all younger. Our mother was always the strong one, the 'sorter-outer' and i think he missed her terribly when she died.

this uncle is my Godfather; he gave me all my ballet lessons at school. he probably has no idea how life saving those ballet lessons were to me. it is too difficult to explain how life saving dance used to be for me, for years.

i hope that soon we may learn more about my uncle's life and doings in Uganda from people we can contact who knew him there. but i do know that he often helped people escape.

on a very mundane note, the weather has gone from depressingly chilly to hot. all in one day. it begun last weekend i think, but because i didnt fully believe in the change to hot, i have not really brought enough cool clothes to wear. i can see i shall have to do a charity shop raid at some point, if it keeps on being hot.