Friday 7th
Drizzle after 12 o’clock, with quite a lot of wind. Many stooks down. I stooked and re-stooked from 9-11.50, and then had lunch. zwr zhk
Everyone except Mommy and George was out for a walk miles away, and arrived late, having stopped to cook some soldiers’ dinner. Talking of soldiers, a Canadian artillery private spent the night here … having got hopelessly lost. … zfl zwk zfd zso zbe zhy zfr zev
Margaret’s friends are a jolly lot, Margaret Clifton fits awfully well into the family and is very helpful and cheerful … All are atheists and communists, I think. zfr zrl zpn zhy zop
The war news is awful, Germans doing well on 3 fronts in the Caucasus. zru zlb
Saturday 8th
Shocking up 23 acre ‘Crooked Six’ today, but I only worked for the morning. I was paid 13/6—6d per hour—so was George (11/6), but Major Shiner discovered later that this was the wrong rate. zhk zev
Lunch was at 1.30, by when one Herbert, Daddy, Dr. Tom Garland and his two sons had arrived. 16 at table was quite a squash! … Learned discussions on metaphysical selves and other weird subjects. zfl zhy zpy
Sunday 9th
… Have just finished reading ‘Darkness at Noon’ (Koestler) about the Moscow trials (novel). I don’t know how true it is, it is certainly very clever and good. … zbn zbp
Monday 10th
Back to work [stooking/shocking]. Daddy is now having his yearly holiday. … I spent the time shocking. I did it with Mickey in the afternoon, but after spending 10 mins. under a stook and a macintosh (Mrs. Willams’—a land girl, who saw us getting wet, kind of her), we gave up at 5.20. Talked on politics and education—she’s sensible as most of the people here at the moment seem to be. … zhk zfl zpn zop zfr
