Changing Seasons. Summer VI, part 1

Summer VI, part 1 “So if the three of us start on the garden,” Grandpa Geo said briskly. “And we’ll let those scruffs over there…”
“Hey, I heard that!” Old Tench called.
“…take a look round the inside, see what needs doing there.”
“Sounds good to me,” Bess agreed. May was looking over all the tools and plants that Bess and Grandpa Geo had brought with them. “Scruffy! Humph! I call our clothin’ real practical,” Old Tench said, but he was laughing too. “Did that Clara paint your mailbox?”
Ludo nodded. “She said everyone was doing it now that there’s a real postal delivery happening here.”
“Thought so. She’s real fond of that colour. Shall we take a look-see at the inside and find out what needs doin’? Bend our great brains to the task?”
“Great brains!” Bess muttered, quite audibly, as she, May and Grandpa Geo headed to the back of the house. “Looking at those holes, I think we’re going to be replacing the floor all through. I don’t want to be forever patching up.”
Old Tench nodded sagely. “Best to be doin’ a job properly once.”
“A stitch in time saves nine,” Artie said promptly.
“Many a battle were lost fer the want of a horse-shoe nail…” Old Tench and Artie were obviously set to go with ancient proverbs.
“Anyway…” Ludo said firmly, calling the meeting back to order. “So what do you want to do with the garden, May?”
“I’d like some soft fruit for bottling and jam making. And som herbs too, for cooking. No vegetables though – they’re hard work really. And flowers. I really want flowers.” “You are going to keep this though, aren’t you, May?” Bess was mounting the steps to the little summerhouse. “I’ve got so many good memories of summer afternoons here when we were young. Ludo’s mother made the most amazing scones, cookies, you name it. I still use some of her recipes.” “I don’t see why we can’t rescue those cupboards,” Artie was saying. “What do you think, Tom?”
“Lookin’ okay from the outside, but I’d need to put my head inside them. Reckon the fridge has had it though.” “Well, I’d say we’ve got a long way today,” Bess said with satisfaction.
“And we’ll get further tomorrow,” Grandpa Geo said, from where he was planting up the start of the fruit bed. “We’ll get this fenced, get a path laid and then think about where you want your fruit trees Georgie says that she’s going into Newborough with Blake day after tomorrow, so Blake can pick some out for you. He’s a good judge of plants by now. Now let’s go and see what those chatterboxes indoors have done.” The old house hadn’t sounded so lively for ages, with three conversations going on at once.
“So what’s happening with Vic, then?” Grandpa Geo asked Ludo.
“Well, he’s got a job in Newborough. He’s going to do that while they get the old bank manager’s house fixed up – they’ve bought it, and they’re moving here at the end of the girls’ school year – and he’ll go on working in Newborough until we get a clinic built here and a phone mast up, and then he’ll come and be our local doctor!” “So Lachlan spotted this stove in one of the junkyards in Newborough, while he was hunting for useful stuff for his sculptures. He reckons he can fix it up no problem, and it’s just what May wants for preserving and so on. Would you be willing to go with him to fetch it? Marcus says you can have the truck and Pierre as well: it’s old-fashioned and kind of heavy!” Bess smiled at Old Tench, confident that he would be willing to help if he could.
“Course I’ll be willin’. Long as there’s some home-made preserves in it for me!” “Artie, we’re so grateful to you for putting us up. Though I do feel a bit bad about putting your blue-haired lodger out!”
“No need to be,” Grandpa Geo chipped in from behind May. “Blake’s putting him up. And since my Georgie helped Blake civilise the house, he’s not sleeping in a barn any more. Not sure what the two of them make of each other though. Blake and Byron, I mean, not Blake and my Georgie…” “These are starting to look amazing!”
Artie beamed with pleasure. “We’ve done okay, haven’t we?”
“You’ve done fantastically! The kitchen’s going to look so nice soon.” A week’s hard work – “and hard talkin’ too” Old Tench pointed out – had made a huge difference to both garden and house. “That yellow paint’s real cheerful,” Bess said to Ludo.
“May wanted it. I wasn’t so sure at first, but it’s not bad, is it?” Ludo said as he worked on the sprinkler system that was going to save them lugging cans of water to the plants. “The mesh is here for that kitchen door, so I’ll get that fixed today.”
“And then we’ll get that kitchen fitted and up and running. How’s that bathroom doing?”
“Plumber’s coming tomorrow, and he'll do the kitchen plumbing at the same time.” “This room’s so different now!”
“Yes, isn’t it?” May laughed.
“I must say,” Bess said, getting a bit more serious now that they were just two women alone together. “I’m real glad you two are moving back here. It really makes this town feel like it’s coming alive again. Or maybe waking up again. Bit like Sleeping Beauty. New people moving in is great, but you need someone who remembers the stories, the people that came before as well.” “Speaking of which," May said, "I had Grandpa Geo’s Georgie round the other day, picking my brains until they were empty! She’s doing a great job with all those old newspapers, finding stories and sorting out who’s who. I think she’ll be settling here for sure. That’s a job for life! She’s talking about putting it all on line once we have a mast and an internet connection and a phone signal…” “Oh good, I’m not late. Just let me get changed and I’ll give you a hand.”
Georgie looked round Blake’s kitchen with no little satisfaction. They’d done a good (and economical!) job on this between them.
“No rush,” Blake said peaceably. “It’s a salad – it won’t go cold.” “So did you enjoy your dance session, then?” Blake asked. “Who else was there? Apart from you and Lucie and Amber and Honey?”
“Chas,” Georgie said. “Trying to get fit enough to run faster than Frank! Honey told him he hadn’t a hope and he growled at her.” “What is it with that Chas guy and his growling?” Byron asked plaintively. “I mean I’d love to see the stud, see how Old Pete’s offspring are doing. Heck, I’d be happy to muck out for free. And all I get from him is black looks and stay away from here, and keep away from my sister, like I’m some kind of…”
“Blue haired monster?” Georgie finished sweetly. Byron was fun to tease and took it in very good part. “Nice one, Georgie! But you’re right. Monster it is. Or ogre.”
And I really did like Chas’s sister, that one time I met her, Byron thought. She was so intriguing. And I haven’t seen her since – Chas must have told her to stay away from the bookshop.
“His sister doesn’t look much like him, does she?” he said aloud.
“Sal?” Blake said, surprised. “I think they look very alike. Same dark hair…”
“She was blonde,” Byron said. “Blonde, and one of those spiky, fascinating personalities…”
“That’s not Sal,” Georgie said. “That sounds like Clara.”
Byron paused with his fork halfway to his mouth. “That wasn’t Chas’s sister?”
“Sal’s small, as dark as Chas, just about to turn eighteen. Does that sound like the girl you met?” Blake’s tone was carefully neutral. “He’s fallen for Clara?” Blake said incredulously, putting his arm round Georgie after Byron had gone upstairs. “What dreadful thing has he done in his past to deserve that fate?” “Someone should tell Chas and he can quit the scowling and muttering,” Georgie said, and just as quickly corrected herself. “No, we can’t do that, can we?”
She leant back against Blake, enjoying is closeness. The friendship that had started with helping him to turn his barn into a home had ripened and deepened into something much more. Blake kissed her. “Shall we tell Grandpa Geo about us then?”
“Yes. Yes, I think we’re ready to do that.” They’d not told anyone about their feelings for each other yet, both wanting to be sure that this wasn’t just some flash in the pan thing. “He’ll be very happy," Georgie went on. "He was worried that me coming here with him was going to spoil my life, limit it. And instead I’ve found a job I love – and you.”
“And you’re not worried about moving out of that house anymore?”
“No. He’s so much better. This climate has made all the difference. And he’s happy – he’s got old friends around him. And I will be close enough to drop in every day. There’s going to be a doctor in the town and we have our amazing telephone system…” I came in here in search of – well, it was a fantasy really, thought Blake. A fantasy of finding my grandparents’ farm waiting for me, just as it was in the old photographs in that album. But instead I’ve found something real, and she’s right next to me. So Georgie’s engaged to Blake! Which sort of surprises me, because I really like Georgie and she’s got plenty of get up and go. Whereas Blake’s a bit – well, romantic. As in over-romantic. All that stuff about finding his grandparents’ farm just as it used to be. And then he fell for Maddie Hatter’s lies, the sob story she spun him, and nearly dropped me right in it.
Actually, maybe Georgie’s just who he needs on second thoughts. Someone to keep him anchored to reality a bit. And it is nice to see her so happy.
Talking of needing someone – there’s someone I really don’t need! But I can’t find any good reason to push him away. And here he comes again.
Well, okay, it is useful having another pair of hands around when I’ve got Patience’s three here. They are one person’s work and then some, and I totally get why Patience needs a break. Especially when she’s got a load of sewing to do. And he is good with the children. Justin really likes him. And I can’t help being curious…
“How come you’re so good with children?”
“Cousins. I have a lot of them, of all ages. And I spent a lot of time at their houses.”
No wonder he’s so self-confident. He obviously grew up in one of these big extended families, where they all lived near each other and ran in and out of each other’s houses. They probably had family picnics and big family Christmas get-togethers, and looked out for each other… “There you are, Justin! You did it! You sat on the potty and did a wee-wee. Who’s the hero, then? Who’s the potty-hero now?” I have to say, he hits the right note with Justin. Who is scarily like his older brother, Barnabas. Mercy likes it a bit quieter: I just said, “Well done, darling.” And gazed right into her eyes, so she could see how much I loved her. “By the way,” Byron said over his shoulder as he entertained Justin some more. “I’m doing a discount on books for local businesses – art books for the art gallery and recipe books for the bakery so far – so you’d qualify for one on pre-school picture books.”
My instincts to refuse anything he was offering me – I do not want to be indebted to him – clashed head-on with my business instincts, and I was at a loss as to what to say. Which is a rarity for me, in case you didn’t know or hadn’t noticed. There was a sticky silence.
“Well, let me know,” he said pleasantly after a moment or two.
“Er, yes. Um, thanks.” And that made me mad with him too, for wrong-footing me so. Come on, Clara. Get your act together. Be professional.
“Yes. Thank you. I’ll have to look at my spreadsheets, my financial forecasting. And thank you for dropping by as well. Patience was saying how much she appreciates Justin having male role models in his life too.”
What Patience had also said was “…as long as Justin doesn’t end up wanting to paint his hair blue in imitation of his hero.” And actually, I did appreciate his end-of-day drop in: this was always the hardest bit of the day.
“No problem,” Byron said easily.



The Meithers’ Place was made for me by LMC6254 for the Summerfest Gift Exchange.
Link here: https://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=9394596

Blake and his house were made by Jessabeans. Link here for Blake
https://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=9352926
and here for the house
https://www.thesims3.com/assetDetail.html?assetId=9352888
which I tweaked slightly to fit in with the landscape and the story.