Friday 29 October 2021

Changing Seasons, Winter V, part 2

Winter V, part 2 “Anyone want that last brownie?”
“Much as I hate to be turnin’ down your Georgie’s bakin’, iffen I’m goin’ up that ladder again, I’d better not!” “I’m with you on that,” Artie admitted. “Seeing as I’m going back up the other ladders to carry on putting up the wallpaper. Which is real pretty, I have to say. What made you choose it?”
“Annie and I, we had climbing roses round the house, front and back…”
“I remember them,” Old Tench broke in. “They was real pretty too.”
“Well, this time, I’ve a fancy to plant wisteria. I grew the roses because Annie loved them, and I’ll have a rosebush in the garden, to remember her by, but I’m putting wisteria up the house front and sides. So I chose the colours in here to go with it.” “Mind you,” Grandpa Geo went on, a bit ruefully, “I’m going to have to break it to Georgie that that red door’s going to have to be repainted.”
“Well make sure you break it to her after she’s done the next batch of bakin’ or she’ll not be doin’ any for you at all!” “I’ll finish paintin’ that covin’ ‘n picture rail.”
“I’ll carry on measuring and cutting the wallpaper.”
“And I’ll put it up once you’ve done that. Unstoppable, that’s us!” Artie finished, laughing.
“We’ll have this room done well before Christmas. I’m pleased about that. I want Georgie feel like this is a proper home for Christmas. And she’s real pleased that you two are going to join us! She’s planning some major cooking, I do know that.”
“An’ we’ll be entertainin’ her with tales of what you was like when you was young,” Old Tench said. Grandpa Geo groaned. “Do you need a hand with dinner, my love?”
“It’s mac and cheese tonight, Lachlan. Special request from Taylor – I’m fine. But thank you for asking. Let Georgie quiz you: she’s got her breath back from trying to outdo me on the treadmill.” “So the thing is, we have this ancient printing press in the newspaper offices – and I know it can be repaired, because there’s this guy up north who did just that. I read about it. I mean, it’s all mechanical, there’s no electronics at all, but I just wouldn’t know where to start…” “But someone told you that I might just have an idea or two, right?” Lachlan asked, smiling at her. It was hard to believe that Annette had said he was Mr Gloomy when he arrived. “It was more along the lines of, if Lachlan can’t, then nobody can, actually! Annette really likes the idea of us having a local newspaper again: she said she and Marcus would pay for the restoration of the press if it can be restored, seeing as the church is finished. And they’ll pay for you to have a look at it anyway. She said you could have cash, wine or a mixture of the two: whichever you wanted.” “What do you think, my lovely?”
“Mixture. Some nice wine wouldn’t go amiss at Christmas, and the children need new clothes. They will keep growing! Mason, you can have ten more minutes colouring, but then you need to clear up. Whose turn is it to lay the table?”
“Me and Taylor,” Harper said from where she was painting.
“Georgie, can I tempt you to stay? You can always give your Grandpa Geo a ring, now that Frank’s got you connected.” “Hey, Grandpa Geo, Marianna’s asked me if I’d like to stay for dinner. Will you be okay if I do?...You’ve still got Old Tench and Artie there?...Artie’s going to cook? Save a bit for my lunch tomorrow! I want to taste it!” “Good grief, Mason, you were hungry, weren’t you?” Mason’s spoon was scraping on the glaze of the bowl already.
“I really like this too. Can I learn to cook, please? Could you make me an oven of my own that really works, Dad? That’s what I’d really like for Christmas.”
“And what about the rest of you?” Marianna asked. “Paper. To write on,” Harper said.
“You like writing too?” Georgie asked. “I do. That’s why I’m a journalist.”
“I like writing stories. And drawing and painting pictures to go with them. Can I have some more painting paper as well, please?”
“I like painting too,” Mason pointed out, sliding down from his stool. “But I’d like to learn how to cook. Like Artie and Leo can.”
“You could be a painting chef,” Fletcher suggested to his brother. “I want to be an astronaut,” Taylor said. “And an engineer and a scientist, because they all go together. Can I have a science kit for Christmas?”
Lachlan smiled, and Marianna choked on her mac and cheese.
“We’ll have to think about that one, sweetheart. Science kits are expensive.”
“Dad could make one. He can make anything.” Lachlan’s smile got wider. “Books, please,” Fletcher said. “But a chess set would be fun. I like playing chess.”
“Well, we have a bookshop now. Do you want to choose for yourself or shall I choose for you?”
“Oooh. Can I choose? In order of want? And then you can decide how many you want to buy?”
“That sounds fair,” Lachlan agreed. “I’ll take you there as soon as maybe. Where did you learn to play chess, though?"”
"School," Fletcher said laconically. “Grandpa Geo sent these over for you all, but I figured you might not want the children having chocolate just before bedtime.”
“You are so right,” Marianna said. “Sugar just before bed does not work well! Especially with Taylor and Mason, for some reason. They can have some tomorrow when they get in from school. Do thank Grandpa Geo – did you know the children call him that? – for sending these.”
“I like your shirt, Lachlan. Am I imagining it, or are there a few like it?” “Patience made them as Christmas presents for those of us who were here, three Christmasses ago now. Back when she had fewer children and more spare time! Artie arrived after she’d made most of them, but she squeezed a short-sleeved one out of the remnants for him!” “So Annette said that Patience and Euan arrived a bit before you did?”
“Yes. They were here – with their three babies – when we arrived with our four toddlers. Their house was – probably – even worse than ours! Euan came to do the graveyard.” “And it was a disaster when he arrived! All the graves were totally overgrown – and mind you, maintaining the graveyard had been a condition of sale. Rafe and Leo found that out when they bought up all the factory buildings and went through the paperwork. Letting it get into that state had been totally illegal – no wonder the company decided to put Euan in as caretaker, what with a nosy journalist poking around a few years ago.” “Euan’s transformed it!” Marianna chimed in. “It looked like something out of a horror story. You should go and see it now. In fact, I’ll go with you if you like – I haven’t been for a while and each time I go, it looks better. And then we could go to the tea room together – I haven’t done that in ages either.” “I haven’t even been once. With just living over the road…”
“I know what you mean. But let’s go together. I’d love that. And now that the children are at school and I’ve finally finished the windows for church – I’ve got a bit of spare time and I’m overdue a treat.” “Wow! This is nothing like your description of how it used to look!”
“Amazing, isn’t it? We’re working out how to fund getting the fence restored – we don’t actually want to ask the Lee Popeman company at the moment, because we don’t want to draw their attention to what’s going on here until it’s unstoppable.” Marianna paused and looked at the restored and tended graves.
“You know, if you wanted some articles for your newspaper, you could do a really good history series based round these graves. Your Grandpa Geo will know some of the families, Clara knows a lot of local history…”
“That’s a great idea!” “This is lovely.”
“Nice, isn’t it? Hopefully, it’ll get busy when the gallery opens and everything else takes off too. For now, we all chip in a bit, clean a bit, wash up after ourselves…It is so good to have somewhere to go that feels – well, female, rather than like a building site. And now we’ve all got phones, we can even phone round and arrange to meet here.”
“This is a nice cup of tea! Do you think you’ll keep the local phone lines when we finally get cell phone coverage?”
“I think we will,” Marianna said thoughtfully. “It means the children can call each other for one thing. And anyway, it all adds to the charm of the place. And history buffs will like it.”
“When we’ve finished this lovely tea, do you want to come and see what the guys have done to Grandpa Geo’s house?” “They’ve done a fantastic job in here!”
“Haven’t they? They’ve started on the kitchen now, on the grounds that they can easily finish that before Christmas. And now we can choose colours for recovering those settees – I can do that, once I find a decent second-hand sewing machine to buy – and making curtains too. And that bookcase can be painted a different colour…I’m not sure how much I’ll get done before Christmas, but we’ll see…” “Let me guess,” Georgie said to Old Tench. “He’s going to say that this door won’t go with the new colour either, and it’s going to need re-painting.”
Old Tench looked a bit sheepish, but her grandfather definitely sniggered.
“Hey, Artie, you’ve got the new bookshop guy living with you, haven’t you? What’s he like?” Marianna asked. “Oh my,” Artie said. “I used to think artistic types were kind of weird, and then I met Rafe and Amber, Lucie and Leo. Talented, but actually quite sensible in bits. This guy! I mean, he’s nice enough, but…Horse-crazy. Took on the bookshop, and he does know about books, but Rafe had mentioned the stud Chas and Sal are building up, and that’s why he was so keen to come. Kinda suits me since he’s real keen to exercise Old Pete, groom him, mucks out his stable no problem. Have you seen him yet?”
“No, I’ve been too busy catching up on all the things that didn’t get done while I was working on the church windows.”
“Well, I’ll let you decide for yourself…” Grandpa Geo was looking at the paint samples on the wall, seeing how they looked next to the yellow. Georgie was right – a contrast colour would look good in that alcove. But not the red, much as Georgie liked it. He’d go with the green they’d used in the other room. And when the daffodils came up in spring, the room would echo them. And he knew what he was going to buy Georgie for Christmas now – something he’d just overheard had given him an idea.

The paint-in-progress wallpaper was made for me by Sandy at ATS3. And the decorating things like paint and paper and the ladders, rollers and brushes are on her website too. She also made all the food oddments and the gardening equipment in the graveyard – this story wouldn’t look the same without her talents and Cyclone Sue’s gift for grunge.

Wednesday 20 October 2021

Changing Seasons: Winter V, part 1.

Winter V, part 1 “I can see as how you’re plannin’ for spring already.”
“Spring, summer and beyond.” Grandpa Geo followed his old classmate into the room.
“Might take me a bit longer than it used to, but I’m aiming to make this garden lovely again. And mebbe a few others as well. I don’t think anyone’ll be objecting…” “How you been keepin’? Georgie said as you’d not been too well…”
“Have to admit, I’ve been feeling my age a bit. Now you look as fit as a flea on a butcher’s dog…”
“Better’n I was five years ago, and I wasn’t complainin’ none then. But meetin’ new people – ‘n old friends comin’ back as well – watchin’ this place come back to life, well, it’s kinder given me a whole new int’rest in things that’s been kinda livenin’, if you know what I mean.”
Geo nodded. “After my Annie died, it was being needed by my daughter-in-law and the grandchildren, when Alan was so sick…Didn’t stop me missing her, but I sure as heck knew I still had something to do.” “Well, they look ‘bout as good as Bess Preston’s cookies to me. Smell mighty good too.”
“Thanks,” Georgie said, smiling back at Old Tench. “Eat them up while they’re still warm.” “So what you plannin’ to do with yourself?” Old Tench went on. “Geo here, he’s got his gardenin’ under way ‘n I know he’ll have you on with the heavy diggin’, but that ain’t goin’ to take up all your time. Got any ideas yet?”
“Funny you should ask that…” Georgie said. After Georgie had gone out to pursue her ideas, Grandpa Geo sighed. “I do worry about her some,” he confessed. “About what she’ll find to do here, I mean.”
Old Tench pushed his chair back, ready to pick up the plates and mugs. “Don’t reckon as you need to worry any,” he said. “She’s a smart one, that Georgie, and what ain’t happenin’ for her, she’ll make happen. Artie‘ll be over real soon, ‘n then we can think about what you want doing with all these white walls.” “So what do you think?” Artie asked Geo. “What colour do you want in here?”
“Well now, that’s hard. I mean, we’ve picked up bits of furniture, Georgie and I, but there isn’t really a theme is there? I can see it doesn’t look right, but I’m blowed if I know what to do about it. And I kind of don’t want to go back to the way it looked when I used to live here…” Old Tench nodded sympathetically. “It ain’t the same. You can’t be goin’ back.”
“No. Annie and I, we chose things together for this house, and there’s a few things I’ll be putting back up when we’re done decorating, but I’m not trying to turn back the clock.” “You’ve got plans and ideas for the garden though.” Artie had already admired the seedlings and heard those plans. “So why not think of this room as an extension to the garden? Plan the colours to go with what you’re putting outside?” Geo’s face lit up.
“Now that’s a really good idea!” “Thanks for the compliment! I’m glad you think this feels really homely and welcoming. But it didn’t look like this when we first arrived…Like Old Tench was telling you, we were the first people to come here after everyone had left and there was just him stopping that company from being able to wriggle out of their compensation agreement. Gosh, when I look back at it, I can’t quite believe how young and innocent we were. And optimistic too…” “But why are you interested in our story? I can tell there’s a reason…”
“Well,” Georgie said. “One, I love hearing people’s stories. Two, I love telling them – that’s what drew me to journalism in the first place. Three…we’re going to need publicity for this place. And everyone loves reading a bring-things-back-to-life story. I want to get a series of articles written and ready to coincide with the gallery opening, to release in the nearby local papers, The Newborough Times, the Hillside Telegraph – get local people coming to see what’s happened, and coming back again to see the ongoing changes. So tell me your story!”
Annette cast her mind back… “I remember when we arrived, sleeping in the old cattle shed because at least that gave us a roof in case it rained! It was where the wine presses are all standing now.
Marcus had inherited the place and we decided to sell up what we had (which was not much!) and go there. We were just friends then – had been for ages, and we’d always been up for trying the crazy together. Total enthusiasm of youth!”
“Oh come on,” Georgie said. “You’re still young now!”
“Not like that, though. Not that invincible we-can-do-anything sort of young any more.” “Anyway, we arrived to discover a total lack of amenities. We cycled over to the far side but found nothing but deserted factory buildings and an eerie empty silence. A sadness, almost.” Hard to believe, now, that the art-gallery-to-be had once looked like that. “There was one dried-up lake and one that had diminished to just a watering hole and acres of dusty, sandy soil. Which reminds me, have you seen the changes over there yet?”
“No, I’ve not been down to the lake bed. Amber said something about it to Rafe – that he must go to the top of some building or another and have a look at what’s happened now. But there’s so many bits of this place I haven’t had time to see yet, what with getting Grandpa Geo settled and sorted as well.”
“Get her to show you. In fact, I might try and go myself, when I can get a bit of child-free time that isn’t full up with other work!” “And then we met Old Tench, when we were exploring another bit of the town. Well, the ex-town as it was then. He was all set to run us out of the place at first because he thought that we were reporters…”
“He nearly threw a blue fit when I told him that was what I was,” Georgie said, laughing.
“But then he found out that Marcus was James Winter’s great-nephew and suddenly transformed into the Old Tench we all know and love so well.” “He gave us the keys to the library – such as it was, back then – and we both studied like mad and just experimented to see what would grow and sell, those first few months. The fact that there was plenty of fish in the river definitely helped! Food and also fertilizer – worked wonders on the soil. And we found out what grew and decided to give winemaking a go. If we’d known then what we know now, we’d never have done it – and never have succeeded either.”
“Just as well you didn’t know, then!” “And then more people appeared. Well, one to start with – Clara just turned up from nowhere, researching her family history, camping out in the old church. She knows loads about a certain period – apparently her great-great aunt came from round here, and wrote loads of letters, like people did back then. And Clara found them and thought she’d come and see the place. I don’t think her home life was any too good, though she won’t talk about it. Anyway, she just sort of stayed and we all took care of her. And she talked us all into restoring the church.”
“I saw the scaffolding coming down the other week. Is it finished now?”
“Outside, anyway. We commissioned Marianna to make new stained glass windows for it, and she’s been doing that for the last couple of years: Marcus and I, we decided our spare profits could go into restoring the church. I had this dream of Mary getting married there one day – and maybe Clara Anne and Sarah Jane too.” “So who came next?”
“Patience and Euan arrived next, and their triplets – the first set – arrived pretty soon afterwards.”
“What brought them here? Did they inherit property too?”
“No. You’ll have heard of the Lee Popeman company by now? The one that ruined the town? Anyway, one of “them danged journalists” wrote an article about how the company graveyard was being neglected, so they decided to send Euan here to be the graveyard caretaker. I don’t think they treated him any too fairly over that: you’ll have to ask Patience for their story.”
“Sounds interesting. I want to do a series on the back story of how the town died, as well as how it’s coming back to life.” “It was fun having more people around. And their babies were so cute! We’d go over and babysit sometimes so that they could go for a walk together – which was about all the entertainment there was! We’d swop our not-much-more-than-a-shack for their grotty house for the evening, and enjoy the contrast.” “And then Marianna and Lachlan arrived – gosh, he was Mr Gloomy to start with! – and suddenly Two Lakes was feeling so different. Seven children made the place feel alive. Old Tench, two couples, one resident Troubled Teen, four toddlers, three babies – and Marcus and myself.”
“But you and Marcus were still Just Good Friends?”
“To be honest, I think we’d been working too hard, were too exhausted, to have the energy to think about being anything else in those early seasons. But then…” “Go on! But then…”
“But then Marcus proposed! Proposed we got married. And also proposed that we took on a seasonal worker, because we were just totally at our limits.”
“I thought you had two people working for you?” “We hired Blake first of all. That was really funny, because from the ad he was expecting an old couple and he started off by asking if my grandparents were around! We were the first people here to employ someone! And now he’s running Smallcott Honey and making a living from that. We hired Chris and Caleb on a two year contract, and their time is nearly up – we’ll miss them. And we’re advertising again for new hands: we can’t run this place on our own. Now that we’re beginning to make a name for ourselves, we’re getting more applicants.” “That is quite a story! I’ll let you see what I write: I’m not going to publish anything that people aren’t happy with. One, it’s not kind and two, it’s dumb.”
“Especially in a place as small as this! Tell you what, Georgie, could you write a sort of story that we could put in a leaflet for the wine tours? And use for publicity as well?”
“Sure. Tell me what size you want the leaflet to be, and I’ll work from that word count.”
“I guess this town must have had a newspaper once – I mean, the offices are still there.”
“It did. The Two Lakes Chronicle, it was called.”
“It’s a pity we don’t still have one,” Annette said idly.
“It’s funny you should say that. Because there’s an old printing press in those offices that could probably be fixed by the right person…