28th November, 1915.
My dear Mother,
Got your letter 14th inst. This is the longest time without a letter lately, but it was reported some mail had come to grief by the barge carrying it from a sinking ship. Getting cld here now. We had our first snow last night. Everything was white this morning. It’s been falling steadily all day. It’s very slushy on the paths. The ground gets hard on the surface at dusk. It’s very pretty when everything is white but it’s pretty cold, especially for a mid Riverina ite. I got a nice warm sheepskin vest. It’s much longer than the ordinary vest. It came among socks, writing material, a wrapper that I think has been knitted by Mrs Wormall. There were some other nice warm goods too. They came just as the cold weather commenced, so I am a lucky boy.
When we came it was very hot and within a little over three months it’s got to freezing – a big change.
Mrs Winton’s son from Wagga is in the same signalling Section as I am. He is a nice young man and pretty smart, too – and Williams from the Commercial Bank in Lockhart is only a few hundred yards away from me, and in communication.
I haven’t been writing to the little ones lately. There are no Post Cards here and it wouldn’t be very interesting sending them “I am well” letters. They are not forgotten, though.
I have Amy’s photo with me and one of you and when I look at them I feel a few more wouldn’t be too much to carry. From the papers (Australian) we get at times I get very pleasing news about the season. I can picture the harvest commencing. It will be a treat to see the stacks of bags about. The papers are a bit old when we get them, but none the less interesting and sometimes we see English papers that are only about a fortnight old. They are the best for war news. We get our own news posted up at most Signal H.Q.
We live within about 100 yards of the Turk and our boys keep them well in hand. We keep a good watch on them. The enemy has a lot of respect for us and keeps well within his trench. Occasionally one of their scouts comes out at night and our men bring what is left of him into our lines.
I go on duty at the signal office 8-12 a.m. and p.m..
Love to all, Stid.
