Lovely friends, there's one thing I've shied away from on this blog, and that's the people that my husband cares about. Part of me wants to respect his privacy and leave those things for him, personally, and part of me worries that I would never do justice to those whom Dus loves.

One of those people, is his mother, Penelope Jane Hussey (Neé Juby). She was known to everyone as Jane, in fact, I didn't even know her name was Penelope til we were nearly married! (ok, yes, yes, we had only known each other 7 months when we signed on the dotted line). I've mentioned her in brief before when we went to North Wales on our holiday and visited the bench in remembrance of her.

Sometimes I wish she was still here, just so I could know I was doing a good job of looking after her son...of course we all know that really, it's Dus who looks after me! I like to think we'd get on quite well, she was creative, liked homely things, brought Dus up to be possibly the most considerate, and neat man ever to walk the earth!

Well, anyway, to the point. I have the perfect excuse for talking about Jane today on my blog, because we've been so very blessed to receive a charcoal picture that she drew. It was in Dus' Granny's sewing room, and as she's moved now into a home, she invited me to avail myself of her fabric/notions stash. Oh readers, her stash! I was a very lucky lady and made sure to wash & press everything nicely before assimilating it into my stash. Thank you Granny! (I do owe her a miniature book bag backpack though in return!)

In Granny's sewing room sat this picture that I mentioned before, and it's so beautiful. It was drawn by Jane, I have no idea when. We requested it, because we didn't want to just take it, it's still Granny's house after all! This weekend when his sister came to visit, she brought the picture with her, for us, to have.

I'm so very, very grateful to have been given this gift of a picture that I know must have taken so much time and care, and not I've got the perfect excuse to share Jane with you all, by sharing this picture.

Isn't it beautiful? Every time I look at it I imagine some great famous five adventure just about to begin, or in progress! I wish I could have posted it larger, but you have to be able to see other things on your screen!

We're very lucky to also own a couple of other pieces of art from Jane. One is a pencil sketch of a house they lived in, when my husband was a young teenager. It's a home that has influenced him greatly, and his stories will often revolve around Huxloe lodge. So much so that it's got him a bit of a reputation at our church for being a bit posh. While we were all off building dens, Dus was building a bivouac, and shooting the air rifle at the cow in the next field!


Dus' sister gave this to him last Christmas, as it's a view of the back of the house, where Dus' bedroom was.

His room was in that sticky out bit in the middle, by the tree.


It's a beautiful drawing, and I'm so glad that it's dated. While I was only thinking about starting high school, Dus was leaning out of his window shooting cows & flying kites.

Jane wasn't just a skilled artist, she also took photographs and made them into cards. Here's a card she sent to Granny & Granddad from one she took.


We have a lot of things in this house that have meaning for me, and great significance, but until recently, we had very little for Dus to remember his mum, and now we've been gifted a few very important items, which mean so much to Dus, and I love to look at them, and imagine the person that Jane was.