Sunday 13th June 1943

Yesterday some fool switched on all the fans suddenly, at full pressure and the ward was filled with eddies of wind. I fled out into the groves and sat down under a tree in the shade, regardless of the ants and spiders and other insects. After a couple of hours I fell asleep. The roar of an English plane flying low above the groves, awoke me suddenly. The shadows had shifted and my legs exposed to the sun, felt hot and sticky. My mouth was dry too, and for the fraction of an instant I felt I was in the desert again with hostile aircraft swooping down... But then I saw the orange trees around me, and knew.

Looking back I'm not sure which brought the more unpleasant emotion – the thought that I was in the desert, but sane, or the realisation that I was safe in hospital, but crazy!

Fortnightly weighing, and today, for the first time since coming here, my weight showed no decrease. It was the same as it was two weeks ago – 10 stone 10 pounds.

This morning I secured a hose and sprayed water on the flowers around ward 37. It did not fall on the leaves and petals roughly as it does when we use buckets. This water showered down like “the gentle rain from heaven”; how fresh the garden smelt, afterwards! That unmistakable smell of wet earth!