page 137 — December 1941

After lunch I biked in to Petworth, to fetch shoes from the cobbler (a good Red), and to get an emergency ration card for Nora. When I got back I helped finish the de-husking of corn. zdc zrn zpn

Sunday 21^st

A dense mist all day. … we all, except Mommy and Nora, went for a holly-picking walk. It was a lovely surprise when, half way up the green slope, we came into brilliant sunshine, and it was very beautiful indeed to look across the flat stationary sea of mist, with the [church] spire rise by Petworth sticking through, and the bottom parts of the hills cut off. When we got to the top I took three photographs. We got lots of holly (which the goats, who had come too, tried hard to eat) and then we went home to tea. zwr zwk  zds zph zpt

News—Russian pushing bulge before Moscow—line shortening excuse liquidated, Hitler, because of inner tuition [i.e. intuition], takes command of German army. Cracking? zru zwg

Monday 22^nd

… The boys [from the village] came up at 3.30 and we went for a walk with [compass] bearings, taken before we started. The first time we just missed, and we went along a path to the wrong crossroads, which were further than the right ones. Thus the next bearing did not work either. Then we practised ‘scramming’—scattering and hiding quickly. Except for two of them, they all did it properly. … zcb zct

[See note]