Now Easter is over I have reverted to my guilty pleasure of playing solitaire – known to this family and, I suspect, to many more, as patience.

I used to tell myself it was a useful exercise to get my fingers working on the keyboard prior to any real work. But in reality it was because I wanted something to do before real work set in.

Since my unwellness I have watched a fair bit of daytime television which, for some reason, has very bad publicity.

Probably it is associated with viewers who are not really interested in what the screen is showing but just want the companionship of a voice.

Even if it is some well past its sell-by date panel game where constants are now as geriatric as some of the viewers who are possibly shouting at the screen – “He's dead, isn't he?”

It can be anodyne – not likely to cause offence or disagreement – and thus somewhat dull.

It conjures up pictures of large television sets in public places, such as care homes, with the sound off, because someone complained about the sound being full up as someone couldn't hear it, leaving subtitles which can only be read by those near the set.

But for those of us home alone and not having to think about volume control, daytime television is a boon. There are fascinating documentaries which you may not have bothered to watch first time around because they would not have been of interest to the entire family.

Now it is just you and you had not realised the fascination of what goes into the crafting of an expensive watch, or the pros and cons of farming sheep in the hills. And once you are on to BBC iPlayer you can watch what you like, when you like, and even halt the evening news mid sentence – and start it up again without missing a word.

I am, indeed, an iPlayer convert – all that power in that small remote control.

Lord Reith, remembered as the founder of the BBC, suggested broadcasts should inform, educate, and entertain – three things I try to jam into this page if I can.

Evidently there were some more lax suggestions for daytime television: it should have peak-time values, humour, originality and diversity. Does that exclude all those old panel games, and sit-coms, or is there still some value to be wrung from them?

I admit to noticing a new series of Death in Paradise and pressing the button but I found I had gone right back to series 1, episode 1.

So I watched the whole lot up to date. Not all in one go, of course. And I was surprised at what I had forgotten. And I enjoyed the series as though I was viewing it for the first time . So yes: play it again, Sam!

My attention has been drawn to the fact that Ethel Caterham, who lives in a care home in Lightwater, had become the oldest person in the world, at the age of 115 years and 252 days – and counting.

This followed the death of Brazilian nun Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas age 116.

Ethel says she never argues with anyone: “I listen and do what I like!” So I presume she has control of the remote and watches whatever she pleases whenever she pleases.

Yes, I did get a shawl for my last birthday. And slippers – I had requested them – but I also got several bottles of gin, and a goodly supply of chocolate. Old age is not all bad.

I shall shortly be helping to celebrate the 100th birthday of a neighbour, the ever-sprightly Marjorie Inglis, on 27 May. She is an example that old age is not all bad.

Brookwood Cemetery Society's current programme of walks sounds interesting. There are three scheduled for Sunday, 1 June starting at 2pm.

South Side Notables – Plots 82 & 83, new walk – Barry Devonshire leads a walk to a specific area of the cemetery to reveal the very different lives and stories of those who lie there. An area I have explored for many years. Connections include those to academia, the clergy, and colonial history.

Military Walk: Mike Dawson will lead this tour, talking about the military involvement of various men and women from a number of various conflicts.

Introductory Walk – North Side: Kim Lowe will lead a walk in the North Cemetery telling you the history of the cemetery, formerly the Nonconformist Section. Kim will show you her choice of interesting monuments, and people who chose Brookwood as their final resting place.

Booking is essential to keep the average group size to about 15 people in order to hear the guides. Meet at The Lodge inside the gates off Cemetery Pales.

Booking may be done by e-mail: [email protected] or mobile 07714 289375. A donation of £7.50 per person includes refreshments afterwards at the Lodge and, once received, confirmation of a place on the walk will be given.

I was sorry to learn that Hannah Lane had died on 1 April.

She was an historian to her fingertips despite twice failing Latin, which finished her hope of becoming an archaeologist, an idea which came from having an excellent history teacher and her father taking her on local excavations on Roman sites around Bath.

She got a place on a one-year course on the conservation of most types of objects, attached to the Institute of Archaeology, London University.

Her first job, in 1959, was for Winchester Museum, and she was accepted as a junior conservator at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. There she met her husband, Ray, a motor racing mechanic, and she took a job in the research laboratory of the British Museum.

The British Museum was among the first to recognise that in-house scientific and conservation expertise was essential, both for the care of its collections and the proper interpretation.

Hannah was the first trained conservator to actually work with the scientists in the research laboratory. Hannah wrote: “Knowing what an object is made from, when and where it was produced and how it was made is central to the understanding of the object and interpretation of the collection.

“I worked on many wonderful items both for the museum and for other international museums: to name but two, the Ardagh Chalice, thought to have been made in the 8th century AD, and the Tara Brooch, thought to have been made about 700AD, both from the National Museum of Ireland.”

She became head of metals, responsible for the conservation of any metal object in the collections. By 1982 she had been promoted to deputy head of the Conservation Section.

By 1975 the Lanes had moved from under one of Heathrow's flight paths in Hanworth to Ottershaw, near Foxhills golf course, for Ray's hobby. But nothing would keep Hannah from researching and volunteering.

Taking early retirement to nurse her sick husband and having taken the decision not to get involved in the conservation of objects any more she reverted to her interest in history and thus spent two years on Ottershaw History Research, producing quantities of written, photographic, and other archival material.

All of this large archive has been deposited in the Surrey History Centre.

After Ray's death in 1997 she volunteered for Surrey Wildlife Trust at the headquarters in Pirbright for some 16 years and was a trustee for Horsell Common Preservation Society and continued to have close ties to the Ottershaw Society.

It is from her own “My Story” in the Ottershaw Society Newsletter that I compiled this piece about a charming, industrious and very clever lady.

The words “war graves” tend to conjure up the serried ranks of identical grave markers commemorating the death of a protector of this country, often in the “Corner of a foreign field” of which Rupert Brooke wrote so movingly. Brooke does continue with “hearts at peace, under an English heaven”.

There are many reasons for a warrior to be laid at rest alongside his comrades and many reasons that his remains should be brought back to his homeland.

In Horsell churchyard, as in many other village churchyards, there are Commonwealth war graves among those of local residents.

Local residents whom these soldiers may well have known during their lifetime in England. I like that idea.

There are eight or nine Commonwealth war graves in Horsell churchyard and on 2 May – a beautiful day – a group set off to tidy not only those graves but those of some others who had died on active service.

To mark the 80th anniversary of VE Day attention to those graves was called for. On Thursday 8 May, VE Day, we will put a red rose on these graves.

Caroline Hughes, who headed the operation, wrote: “Hearts at peace, under an English heaven. A small way to say thank you from us all and also to reminisce about our own fathers, who were of that generation.”

Some had to stay in their jobs as civil servants, others were in the forces but maybe stayed in the UK. One of my father's responsibilities was to be in charge of Italian PoWs in the Orkney Islands.

Hardly enemies but men who got caught up in the conflict and whom my father came to respect deeply. I still have a letter from one of these men as my dad and he exchanged cards and letters each Christmas.

When the Italian got home, he saw for the first time his six-year-old son, who was born after he had left.

Sue told the story of her father, caught up in the months after VE Day in Burma. His regiment was surrounded by the Japanese for a whole month, when there was great desperation and hardship.

How did these men, our fathers, adapt to civvy street and " normality" once back home? Most had very little money and somehow had to find a job and money, especially as in 1946 there were lots of extra little mouths to feed. How did husbands and wives, who had become almost strangers, manage?

Woking Borough Council has replaced Serco with Krinkels UK as contractor for green spaces, including St Mary's Churchyard.

I noticed that they have carefully mown around the many wild flower groups in the area , allowing them to reproduce. They have obviously taken to heart the fact that we are now in No Mow May, during which it is suggested that you don't keep your lawn looking like a bowling green but give the flowers – and the pollinators – a chance.