My dear sister brought these beautiful roses as a gift at the weekend, how lovely they are and how they cheered and lifted our spirits. It has been rather a sad week in our little village, losing a much loved older village member. Arthur was in his eighties and had started work at the age of thirteen on the local farm – he was such an interesting and very knowledgeable man – often winning the first prize at the village vegetable show. He knew all there was to know about growing vegetables and was a fount of knowledge for us all. He answered all our gardening questions with such grace and clarity. He had not been well in recent years but still managed to tend his plot and produce the best tasting and marvelously ‘giant’ marrows and onions amongst all other vegetables, that I have ever seen. We will miss him at all the shows and when on our walks, seeing him with his cheery smile, sitting in his window, waiting with a wave. Today we celebrated his life. The village church was full to bursting as over two hundred people paid their respects to this much loved man. He never travelled far, once visiting Skegness but didn’t like it much there, quickly returning to his beloved village. Arthur was honoured with a medal from the Queen for forty years service to farming but carried on for many more years after that. He was laid to rest in the village churchyard with his family and many friends around him. We will miss him so.