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With the crisis of Cleo’s death, Ruth’s parents Don and Dora move down to Sussex to be near at hand. They purchase ‘Long Cottage’ a sweet little bungalow in Cocking, just north of Chichester. It had a garage and a workshop for Don to make furniture in. At this time he was making chess boards for the Design Centre and furniture for the family, and for Josse, wonderful planes that flapped like birds around the garden.
The garden was large and stretched down to an enchanting stream, with watercress and Monkey musk and trout and kingfishers, and an unbelievable abundance of water-voles. Beyond the stream, cornfields lead steeply up to the top of Cocking Hill. It really was a stunning setting.
Dora soon turned the garden into a mass of flowers. There were lavender and herb beds and once Don had built a rockery, heathers and alpines, but most memorable were the lupins and delphiniums, nobody could grow them like she did. When she wasn't busy in the garden or the kitchen, she was at her sewing machine, surrounded by tweeds, Liberty fabrics and paper sewing patterns, keeping Ruth and herself constantly in new clothes.
Heathland I
Oil on hardboard
45 x 34 cm
Ref: DSC 0079