Nella Last

I read Nella Last's War back in 2019 and Nella Last's Peace the following year. I knew that a television film had been made which was based on Nella Last's diaries and I'd intended to watch it but it's only recently that I got round to doing so. Housewife, 49 is written by and stars Victoria Wood, greatly missed since her death in 2016. After finishing the first two books, as well as intending to watch the film, I'd intended to buy the third book in the series but it's only since watching the film that I've done so. I'm really looking forward to reading it.

Nella Last lived in Barrow-in-Furness and wrote diaries for the Mass Observation archive from 1939 till 1966. If you want to know more click on the link at the start of this post.

I can resonate with Nella Last as I've kept diaries my whole life. I don't still have them all but the ones in this box go back to 1994. These are pocket diaries and Filofaxes, I always use a Filofax now. These are diaries where I jot down birthdays, appointments, places I've been etc.

I'm also a journaller. I write about my life, quite insignificant things in most cases, but my journals are interesting to look back on. I suffer from anxiety and I find that writing things down can really help, it puts the jumble of my brain into some kind of order. 

I've used different brands and sizes of books for journalling. I've sometimes decorated pages in different ways but I started the large grey A4 size book you can see here back in 2006 and that seems to be the one I always go back to, no decoration, just straight forward plain writing, it seems to work best for me.

Do you keep a diary? Do you keep a journal? What works best for you?

Dunham Massey

It's been a dull weekend but we didn't let that stop us crossing the Pennines on Saturday to visit Dunham Massey in Greater Manchester. A National Trust property, it hosts one of the largest winter gardens in Britain.

We thought it would be a good time to visit with the snowdrops now putting in an appearance and we weren't wrong. The scent as we approached the garden filled the air, it was amazing.

Snowdrops carpet the ground in many areas of the garden.

More than 200,000 bulbs have been planted so there's plenty to see at this time of year.

Winter Aconites.

Lots of different varieties of irises. These are just a couple of them.

There were a few daffodils blooming here and there but many still in bud. They'll put on quite a show in a few weeks, I'm sure.

Camellias are flowering at the moment. This one is St Ewe. All the plants are very well signed in the garden.

There's a whole patch of hydrangea Annabelle where the flower heads have just been left to fade and they look so pretty.

Witch hazels are striking at this time of year with their ribbon-like flowers.

There's some really interesting trees at Dunham Massey too. These Himalayan Birch trees have a bright white bark which really stops you in your tracks, although they haven't come out as well as I'd have liked in my photos and you don't get quite the same effect.

This gnarly old tree is covered in burrs.

We were serenaded by a robin as we wandered round.

Dunham Massey is set on a 300 acre estate and as well as the formal gardens, there's a historic house and deer park.

We don't get to see as much of a place as we'd like these days as we have Archie with us and being an elderly dog, he can't walk as far as he used to. We always have to be mindful of how much exercise he's had, but it does mean that we can return to the places we've already been and see something new.

We were lucky with the weather for although it was very dull, it stayed fine. It had rained during our journey there and it rained again on our journey home.

Dunham Massey is somewhere we'll definitely go again. The garden has got so much interest just now and I think there will be more to see over the coming weeks. It would be good to see what it's like during the summer months when the spring bulbs have died back. We had a very enjoyable day out.