There was a calmness to Ruth’s parents life in Cocking, with no television and the radio only warmed up for the news, weather and the Archers or for the religious service, their evenings were spent talking or reading. They were both practicing christians, with Don regularly reading from the bible and grace always said at the table. Soon after they had settle into the village, Don took on the job of church warden.
Once a fortnight Derek would drive the family over for Sunday lunch, taking a route north of the downs, through Graffham and the stunning heathlands there. Once there, Ruth would join her mother in the kitchen and they would chat and prepare lunch, Josse would play in the garden and Derek and Don would walk to the pub for a beer. No alcohol was drunk in the home.
Don had a bronze coloured Renault 4CV, in which he drove Dora to Midhurst to do the shopping, but he didn’t like long drives, so when Ruth and Josse wanted to visit, and Derek was working, they would catch the double decker bus from Arundel, via Chichester and Singleton to Cocking, an adventure that they both loved and which gave Ruth splendid new views of the fields of corn.
Whether from the little van or the top of a double decker, those wonderful images of the downs and heathland, were stored up in Ruth’s memory, only to be released on her next return to the easel.
Heathland II
Oil on hardboard
38 x 27.5 cm
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