Top posts

• More catholicism

  19 February 2014

  In the previous post on the subject, you remember perhaps Grandpa mentioning "popery"as a possible reason for intolerance towards Catholics in a predominently Anglican society... well, perhaps indeed what strikes one when remembering our grandparents'...

• Food at 9DR

  02 February 2014

  Seen from the French perspective, this subject is a double-sided one, because throughout my youth (and still now, come to think of it) people would always taunt me with the ordeal that (according to them) I must had gone through when in England. Not only...

• some old postcards

  14 September 2016

  Hi, I have already posted some old postcards, I'm sure (haven't checked where but I'm pretty sure). But here are some new ones I've collected recently: my information says: "before the bandstand"... This one shows Derwent Road corner, with the pillarbox...but...

• Church

  28 December 2015

  A post (the one hundredth!) dedicated to St Monica's parish church. Above, an aerial view of where the church would be built! Here and there on the blog some pictures about Church practice have been posted (check this link , and that one ): here you'll...

• 9DR Smells

  04 October 2015

  Smells! I'm not sure I'm going to be able to re-evoke much of this aspect of 9 or 7 DR in this post if you haven't been there yourself - but then on the other hand, who reads this blog if they didn't use to know the two houses? Smells are like will-o'wisps,...

• Can you identify these??

  02 October 2014

  Hi a sort of little game: can you identify the objects circled on this picture? I wondered whether the sort of box might be the same (or one of the same) as this one: What do you think?? Then there's the other object which is on the cushion of the high...

• Suitcases bags and boxes

  29 May 2014

  Recently Noël sent me some pictures of those big suitcases which used to belong to Auntie Olive and our Mum, so I thought I would post or re-post all the pictures of suitcases boxes etc. connected with 9DR. First here's AO's big fat suitcase (I understand...

• Grandma's recordings

  17 December 2013

  Here are the recordings of Grandma I said I would post - we've had some Internet worries lately (some *bumpkin* smashed into a telephone pole down the road!) and I couldn't post - now it's mended. These recordings are thanks to Noël's amazing patience...

• Swimming-pool!

  20 November 2013

  When we stayed at 9DR, one big activity was to go to the swimming-pool! There were certain stays during which it seems I used to go, I think, almost every day! I must have been quite clean at the end of the holiday! It was a thing we loved with my cousin...

• My maid Mary

  01 November 2013

  ... she minds the dairy, or so the Nursery Rhyme goes! Here's the last individual focus on each of the four girls! (here's the one on Cath , on Jo and on AB ) A picture which was in Grandpa's HolyLand album, indicating it was taken at Kingsbury in 1935....

• Broomfield park anecdotes

  13 October 2013

  The park , as we called it, was at the centre of our stays at Derwent road. It was part and parcel of the delight of our stay. Even if of course the house at 9DR and the family were the most important, I don’t think I’m exaggerating if I say the park...

• 9DR furniture

  29 September 2013

  I have now enough pictures of (only) some of 9DR's furniture, so I might as well post them; and when I have more from either house, well it'll be a n°2! This bookcase used to be in the frontroom, to the right of the fireplace . Mum uses it now. The next...

• Auntie Olive anecdotes

  26 September 2013

  Here’s another series of anecdotes, after Grandma and Monsieur Père. It’s a real pleasure to talk about Auntie Olive, because relations with her, for me at least, have always been great, perhaps because she wasn’t in a position of authority regarding...

• Bless this house

  14 September 2013

  Here are the two versions of mum's dedicatory prayer on her house at 9 Derwent, which she presented to Monsieur Père while still in England in the early sixties, and for which she had researched the calligraphy (and the little flowers and birds) at the...

• Charles at "Auntie's"

  21 July 2013

  Charles at "Auntie's": this is how he would refer to 9 Derwent road later in life. But what I wonder is where would he have slept? In the room above the dining room? BTW, this makes me think: how were each of the rooms called? Front room and back room,...

• Money at 9DR

  31 December 2016

  Happy new year to all readers! Here's a post on Money! In fact I have a few items on this topic and some memories to share, so here goes! At 9DR and perhaps even more at 7DR, money was not very plentiful. I recall mummy saying that scrimp and save was...

• Enid Blyton

  18 March 2016

  There must already be a number of references to Mrs Blyton elsewhere on this blog, but well, here's a focused appreciation of why she was so important at 9DR and to me. First if you're interested, here's the wiki link . You might as well learn some stuff...

• Nicknames

  12 December 2015

  Some families disregard them, others thrive on them - let's say ours is somewhere in between? A number of our family members had, and still have a nickname. What do they correspond to? What do they mean? Where do they come from? I've tried to remember...

• A Facebook treasure trove!

  04 September 2015

  Maybe some of you already know this Facebook page: Winchmore Hill and Palmers Green memories . But if you don't, and you're interested in views of what these two boroughs used to look like, the life which was lived there, say, ever since the photograph...

• Holy Land (4) - the preparatory notes

  24 November 2014

  The writing on the wall Hello! Noël hasn't just been given the two albums which were the subject of the two previous posts, but a wad of notes which Grandpa had been writing day after day as a diary (he calls them that) every day during their trip. These...

• Beware of Golliwogs!

  18 September 2014

  Hi, do some of you still have some of these??? I'm sure we used to have a number of them, but what has become of them, no idea! And I also have no idea as to how we used to get them? They could have been got as freebies in the jam, and perhaps you had...

• Aldermans Hill

  12 July 2014

  Funny how names contain our past, isn't it? This name Aldermans Hill never meant anything for me than: the main street next to Derwent Road, the thoroughfare to such places as Broomfield Park, to Green Lanes, to Southgate via Cannon Hill, yet somehow...

• A game about plastic animals

  16 May 2014

  Here is a game for the little ones and the former little ones: the idea is to try and find which plastic animal that was at 9DR corresponds to the following closeups. Now be careful, some photos are details of animals which are not shown in the blog,...

• Were we taught racism and discrimination?

  04 December 2013

  Do you remember these children's reading books? Little black Sambo (check here ) is now currently considered as the epitome of racist and discriminatory literature, for indeed the context in which the stories are told clearly makes fun of black people,...

• The little Roundy man

  24 November 2013

  If you've been following this blog a little, you know that Helene and I have been trying to solve the mystery of The little Roundy man (see here for a first version of the story)!! Even before the blog was born, we had exchanged about this long-lost book...