From: Biological Stn. Pearl Beach
Via Woy Woy
NSW

To: Miss M. C. Sadler
"White Lodge"
101 Northcourt Rd.
Abingdon, Berkshire
England

July 28, 1954

My dearest Margaret,

I have not heard from you for such a long time, I'm so afraid you may be ill after that nasty fall you had from your bicycle - when you wrote last. If you are not able to write yourself, would you ask someone else to send me a few lines? I am well myself now but have had sciatica and bronchial trouble which put my work all behind, and there has been a great deal to do. Perhaps as we grow older we tire easily, and so the day becomes shortened. I have a rest after the midday meal which is usually eaten upon my return from the village with the mail and supplies. It has become necessary now, but it does seem to waste a lot of good time!

We have had such a strange season - unusually wet in January and February and very dry in March & April, May & June (the time when our heavy rains are expected). This month we have had very cold wet weather and gusty squalls - particularly from the South, and lately hundreds and hundreds of Arctic birds were washed up on our beaches - dead - and without a scrap of food in their bodies. With the birds came some sea-snakes and these were alive but also empty and they died in a couple of days. It must have been some unusual and terrific force which drove them so far afield. They were such beautiful birds - all sorts of petrels and gulls and albatross. I love the colours of our sea birds. They are so soft and beautiful.

I am enclosing a newspaper cutting I thought you might like to see. One of our well-known magazines has promised to publish something of mine early in September and I am having a copy posted to you directly. It is "Walkabout". I hope you will like it. I expect it will be almost Christmas before you receive it and I hope it shows you some pictures of our lovely scenery that I am trying to preserve.

No word yet from the Bedford lawyers, and not even an acknowledgement from the Duke himself. I often wonder if some clerk in the office burned the letters for the sake of the stamps (some of them scarce now) which I put on the envelopes. I see by the papers that one village was sold to pay the death duties. Poor man. I do feel sorry for him if he loves his country, as I expect he does with all his heart. It must be dreadful for him to have to give up a beloved home. But even that should not account for bad manners.

I am expecting a big party from the University early next month. Then others in quick succession, and early in September two American women scientists to study our small mammals. I am looking forward to having them because I am anxious for some work on our animals to be started. So far they have only done invertebrates - the tiny things in the water and the soil. Very interesting no doubt, but I am more interested in the things I can see without a microscope! Much love, dear Margaret, and I do hope you are both well and happy. Minard