While unpacking, the photo below of my brother Bean and I fell out of a book, I was now, as I was then, in awe of my Mum’s beautiful flowers, grown and tended by her.

There was a whole border of these flowers. It may not seem to some like much, but Mum was a mother of six under 10 year old children at the time, a feat into itself. She also got up before 5am in the morning to tend and milk with my Dad a large heard of lovely black and white cows, after this she prepared us steaming porridge, toast and big glasses of milk for breakfast, got us up and ready for school or to go out and play during the holidays. She would then do the clothes washing and housework. Still not finished, she cleaned all the milking equipment until it sparkled. She had rough cracked hands due to all the hot water and strong detergents.

During the summer holidays she would make picnics for us to take to the beach, at Easter we always had an egg rolling picnic. In the winter holidays and the week ends there was always soup and pudding for lunch, she would ring an old Swiss cow bell and we would all appear from out of nowhere.

When we got home from school there were scones and bread and jam and big glasses of milk. Mum would then go off and milk the cows again. And then come in and prepare supper for us all. Then it was bath and bed for us but not for her, she would be back out to the farm to again clean the milking equipment and settle the cows down for the night.

Everybody’s Birthday was celebrated with a family party with a lovely birthday cake, Halloween costumes where made, Christmas decorated, sweaters and mittens knitted, clothes mended, buttons sewn back on, shoes polished, letters written, WI meetings attended, jam made, friends visited, wellies dried out, grazed knees tended, hair cut, I could go on. Instead of a car she had a Massey Ferguson tractor using it as we would use our car these days. She still has a tractor now and still drives it, only around the wood to stock up with logs.

An this is only half of what she did for the family.

And still she had time to grow a beautiful flower border and still does.

Thank you Mum for always being for us then and now and our children and our children’s children,  have a wonderful Mothers day!