Letters ..... hundreds of letters

I have been spending the last few weeks reading through all the letters written to family in the UK while we were living in Kenya.  I found the letters I wrote to my mother when I was clearing her things after her death, and they make fascinating reading.  My lovely mother-in-law gave me, before she died, all the letters written to her so I have a full spread of 11 years worth of details of trips we took, politics in Kenya in the late 60's and through the 70's, odd newspaper cuttings we send back, and also comments on the political happenings in the UK during that period.   

The only thing I wonder about is that I don't have the replies sent to us in Kenya, so questions I asked my mother must have been answered .... but who were the people she mentioned and told me about ?   I'll never know !

Anyway, I recently wrote about Barack Obama visiting his ancestral home in Nyang'oma, and read in one of the letters that Joseph (pictured in the right hand column) went to school in Nyang'oma, although his home was actually in Ng'iya, about two or three miles north.

I had forgotten so many things, places we went to, and people we met and got to know .... we bumped into Joy and George Adamson several times; Eric Hoskins the famous bird photographer was at Nakuru when we were there bird ringing, as was Peter Scott, and Prince Bernhardt of the Netherlands .... sorry, name dropping !!!

I'll continue to add snippets from the letters from time to time, and must show my oldest daughter the letters she wrote to Granny when she was about four years old ... they are all in the shoe boxes, neatly tied into yearly bundles. !


Memories .... tied up with white string ....