No 164

Major GS Andrews, RCE

2 May 43

HQ First Cdn Army O/S

Dear Jean:

Your airgraph of 18 Apr and a parcel of tobac, klim, tomato juice cookies, etc came last week. You are very good to your husband. You must not send things that are hard to come by there. Don't send choc bars, I'd rather you and Mary had whatever you can get in that line. I wish I could send you some of the fresh ground coffee we get here, and some to Frank Swannell too. It is excellent and the Klim from you makes it just right. We brew up at least one pot every day in the office. A friend of mine here is very anxious to get a Cowichan sweater, he is a big fellow, about same build as Frank Swannell. If you should see one at a reasonable price, you could send it, and let me know how much. I quite expect they are scarce, as there must be a big demand for them with so many people from all over in Victoria. If you cant get one don't worry about it. Mine has been a treasure, and I finally brok down and washed it last Sunday. It was beginning to have quite an aroma of the back woods etc there in BC, which although a stimulant of fond memories, was just a bit too much for polite society, especially at Sunday afternoon tea, Anyway it looks quite posh now, and also there is hardly a silhouette of the good old woodsy smell. The weather has been decidedly moist and cold all week, and not a nice day today at all. However, after an early cold supper, I went up to Morris and spent a couple of hours on the wood pile. Am afraid there is no more wood now, have cut everything that I legitimately can. The last item to fall into my clutches was a dry old dead pine tree, off in a wild corner of their ground, it was all covered with ivy, and I hadn't noticed it before. There was a lot of pitch in it, so I have carefully cut all the pitchy pieces and put them to one side for kindling. It made me quite homesick, which I thought of how I used to do that at home, and hide them so my good spouse wouldn't burn them up. Won't it be wonderful when I can do these chores again for my own family. When I work away at that sort of thing at Shoelands, I pretend I am back in Victoria and find myself looking around to see if you are near, and perhaps to see Mary's little head peaking around from behind a tree, like Peter Pan. It is a great antidote to the kind of official work I do, and keeps me from getting a too much of a corporation, and otherwise fit and healthy. I haven't had cold for over a year, and often take my shirt off when saving. Guess people think I'm crazy and perhaps I am, but it's a good healthy way to be crazy, much better than sitting in a foul fugged up pub all evening. Glad you had a visit from from Alice Fife. She is really a good sort, my father's cousin. We always thought her frightfully prim & proper, as children. But she is OK. Things are humming along and someday there will be some results.

LOVE TO YOU BOTH

----GER.