Chapter 1

The drawing-room was a lovely room which had a small stage with a wooden edge and white tiles and a delightful ceiling with cherubs flying among clouds. Virginia creeper covered the big bay window looking onto the front garden and made a curtain in summer which kept the room cool. Another large window, which didn�t open, looked onto the greenhouse. The elegant furniture included a piano which was regularly tuned by a blind piano-tuner. A set of brass animals which Mother had collected when she visited India with her father was displayed, and also there was an Indian prayer wheel which we twirled as we recited � 0 mani padne hum� - I can�t remember the exact words of that highest of prayers. Mother�s wing chair was a feature, and in front of it was put up a gate-legged table for Sunday afternoon tea. There were other occasional chairs and side tables, with Persian rugs on the polished wooden floor. A hanging corner cupboard behind the sofa held some delicate eggshell china cups and saucers. An enormous beautifully enamelled bowl and various decorated vases and bowls were presents from Dad�s grateful Japanese consulate patients.

The greenhouse, in which Mother lovingly tended ferns, begonias and other plants, ran the length of the drawingroom and diningroom from a seldom-used heavy glass door in the front garden to the much lived-on long mosaic stoep which went round two sides of the back garden. The wooden struts of the pergola were supported by tall cement pillars, and on it grew crystal grape vines and, at the far end, an enormous bougainvillea. Steps led down to the lawn which was bordered by flowering beds, and to the pond in which goldfish and water-lilies flourished, and which was filled by two fountains and was overlooked by a stone cupid high up on the far side.

One stepped over a low foot-wide wall onto the roadway which led from the back entrance in Coronation Avenue to the double garage, which was initially a stable and coachhouse as Dad started with a horse and trap, but our first car, a De Dion, was bought I think in 1914. When we could all drive, we were good at reversing for a distance, as this long driveway gave us regular practice getting out the car.

Next to the garage, in the yard, was a bathroom and a lavatory for the servants� use. A high wall shut off part of the garden and tall pine trees grew in this corner. They were a source of fun to Russell and me - at one time we built ourselves a tree-house, and we spent hours getting donnepits (pine nuts) out of the pine cones and cracking them open to eat. A favourite sweet was tammeleitjie, crunchy and packed with donnepits.

Steep stone steps led up to the back door, but before going in one turned and went along a wooden balcony, past the pantry window, to an ironingroom and the two large servants� bedrooms which had been built over the garage roof.