Juliet's Kenya Days blog

Letter from Judy to Lisbeth & Peter 29 Jan 1975 –

Our three bedroom bungalow has a big garden back and front. As it hadn’t been touched for 4 months one of our first jobs was to find a ‘garden boy’ to work for us. In three days he’s already done a great deal. He has been at school until his 13th year so speaks good English. We have several loquat trees, a passion fruit, and a kind of blackberry, all of which produce fruit, also a lot of other trees most of whose names I don’t yet know. At the moment it is the height of the dry season so there is not as much in bloom on the trees as there will be later. Outside the window I am sitting by is a cactus in bloom (it is about 5 feet high) which attracts a large variety of sunbirds each day.

Reminiscences written by Juliet in 1978 –

Our garden had a huge tree in it and lots of other trees which we later learned were flame trees with large red flowers on, jacaranda trees which had small bluebell-like flowers, and wattles which grew like weeds. There were thorn hedges called kei-apples which bore a small yellow fruit about the size of a walnut which we ate although they were a rather sharp flavour. Another hedge was the ‘Golden Shower’ hedge so called because of its many orange flowers. In the back garden were three loquat trees that were quite small. They also bore a yellow fruit about the size of a kei-apple but not so juicy and bitter but it had stones in which were poisonous. There were birds called mouse-birds that were fairly large with long tail feathers who ate the loquats.

Stills from our ciné film taken in our front garden of us three enjoying the swing rope we had hanging from the big tree. Left Fiona, top right: Juliet and Helen, bottom right Helen.

Letter from Judy to Jane & Malcolm 13 Feb 1975 –

We are now almost ready to sow and plant our vegetables. We can get manure from the school farm but even so people don’t seem too successful growing things up here – they say it’s too cold when it’s wet and too dry when it’s hot !

Letter from Graham to Simon & Pat 16 Feb 1975 –

Our garden has room for vegetables and fruit but is not really private as it backs on to a tennis court and boys often come in looking for balls which were lobbed out.

Letter from Judy to Grandma & Grandad 17 Feb 1975 –

The blue lilies at the front of our house are agapanthus lilies and were really past their best when we arrived. We have eleven trees in our front garden. The one that is shading the front door is a real giant and must be quite old – the children have measured it and it is 180 inches around the trunk. It is apparently one of the truly indigenous trees left in the area. We have a pink bougainvillea bush – the pink colour is actually the leaves and the flowers are tiny and white. Nairobi has a great many of these ornamental plants – there are a big variety of colours – we also have them in the hedge around the school swimming pool.

Stills from our ciné film taken in the garden. Left: Helen swinging from the big tree with agapanthus lilies behind. Top right: our minibus on the drive with the big tree in front. Bottom right: Juliet and Helen with bougainvillea.

Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 21 Feb 1975 –

Hudson is making great strides with the garden and it begins to look very nice – he has just planted onions, leeks and melon seeds but I think he is fairly pessimistic about growing these ‘European’ plants ! However, he waters them carefully several times a day so he hasn’t given up hope !

Letter from Judy to Jo 28 Mar 1975 –

Our big cactus outside the sitting room window is in flower again so we are being treated to a display of beautiful sunbirds – they are highly iridescent little birds with long tails and long curved beaks for getting nectar from the flowers.

Diary entry by Juliet 1 April 1975 –

This morning Mummy & Daddy went to Nairobi leaving us 3 at home. We played outside in our log-house which Daddy made for us. The house is in the corner by two hedges. It has sort of ladder up onto the flat roof. On the roof Dad fixed a seat and you can sunbathe. By dinner time Mum & Dad hadn’t got back so I tried making scrambled egg but the cooker wouldn’t work so we just had bread and things.

Letter from Helen to Nanny & Grandad May 1975 –

We sometimes see yellow wagtails. There are two black and white wagtails living in our garden and I often see them.

Letter from Judy to Sue & Gravel 13 June 1975 –

We have just got rid of our gardener so at the moment I am busy gardening hard – we have a very big garden but found it frustrating to sit and watch someone else making a not very good job of it.

Letter from Judy to Nanny & Grandad 5 July 1975 –

This ‘winter’ weather seems to suit the plants – all the vegetables are growing apace and our sweetcorn is now higher than the hedge – about 7ft I suppose. Caroline’s next door is a good 10ft high as it was planted earlier. On our drive into Nairobi the African huts are gradually sinking into the maize and will disappear soon – they must be quite noisy as the maize leaves are stiff and rustle in the wind. I am trying to get enough ripe fruit to make loquat jam but the birds are dreadful at stealing it before it’s quite ripe. The worst offenders are the mouse birds which have long tails and crests and are about the size of magpies but brown and weavers which are plump and bright yellow birds – the ones we get here are Speke’s Weavers with black heads named after Speke the explorer I suppose.

Letter from Judy to Jane & Malcolm 18 July 1975 –

It seems that local gardeners think Europeans mainly want clipped hedges, smooth lawns and tidy beds. We’ve left our hedges unclipped and have a lovely show of blossom – an orange flower which is very prolific and also lots of highly scented white jasmine. I’m sure cleaning every scrap of vegetation off the beds only encourages the soil to dry out – it is so loose and friable anyway. One can easily dig several feet down into the soil without any effort, just like loose sand.