Guttering slowly to its end
The
flame was extinguished
A
fire once white hot
Headed
toward extinction
As
passions cool
In
the diminishing heat
Of
the sombre ashes
Red
fades to grey
To
leave despairingly
Loves
dying embers
Its
flame long extinguished
My proposal was rehearsed
I
felt quietly confident
I
maintained composure
Tinged
with excitement
And
I was quite shocked
To
find her ambivalent
I look back through silent tears
To
those long-forgotten years
When
love was young, as were we
And
you were to shy to speak to me
And
I was too scared to speak to you
But
some how we muddled through
And
by some kind of strange detente
We
spoke whispers full of loving want
And together spent a very happy life
A very happy husband and wife
Yes, we certainly muddled through
Until I had to say goodbye to you
But soon we’ll be together dear
And I won’t have to shed another tear
From the sight of the first swallow
To
the moment of the last fall of snow
More
than a short romantic interlude
But
nonetheless it was bound to conclude
A
love born beneath a swallow’s wing
Perished
on the very eve of spring
The beautiful Downshire village of Clerembeax St Giles was situated to the west of Abbeyvale located between Grace Hill and Bushy Down and on the outskirts was the Clerembeax Palace Hotel and Spa.
It was once the home The Clerembeax’s, who arrived in Downshire
following the Norman conquests and stayed for a thousand years before the name
died out following the death of the reclusive Marcus Clerembeax at the age of
96.
The current owner was Yvonne Labuschagne, who
decided to open it as a Hotel and Spa.
The Spa was a good attraction, but it was crucial for them to maintain
a high occupancy rate, however things were tough in the Hotel trade with the
success of Travelodge, Premier Inn and Holiday Inn Express and so places like
the Palace needed to offer something extra to attract the guests, apart from
the Spa.
So, they put on novelty weekends, such as “Murder Mysteries” and in
addition, they had a sizable Ballroom which was used for special occasions,
high days and holidays, which boosted occupancy and Spa numbers at the same
time.
But it was necessary
to offer guests as wide a range of activities as possible during their stay, to
attract them in the first place, and hopefully to come back, which was why they
bought and stabled horses up at Stevens Farm, in order to offer riding.
The Stevens farm
bordered the Clerembeax Estate, so it was a natural choice and they it was a
large farm which had at its center a large farmhouse,
parts of which dated back six centuries, which had been added to over the years
to accommodate the changing needs of the family.
There were also a
significant number of out buildings, including a stable block.
The farm was run by
Russ Stevens and his three sisters, Mary, Rose and Muriel.
However, they had
plenty of farm work to keep them busy, so they had little or nothing to do with
the horses, so Hotel Manager Hannah Morgan employed the Storey Brothers, Adam
and Craig to do the job.
But having the stables
so close to the Hotel was a definite bonus but that was only half the battle,
because they also needed somewhere interesting to ride, somewhere secluded and
peaceful which was not initially available to them.
About 30 percent of
the land on the farm was unsuitable for farming, primarily because of a rocky
uneven terrain but also because of the sparse unmanage woodland that covered
it.
Tackling the latter in
order to provide a riding trail through it was beneficial for the Hotel and the
farm, because the Hotel were prepared to fund the work, to ultimately please
their guests, whereas the was money to be made from the cut timber would go to
the Stevens and the farm could always use extra money.
The Stevens girls were
all good looking, with red hair and striking Celtic green eyes, twenty-one-year-old
Rosie and her older sister Mary,
although three years apart, could easily have passed for twins.
They were smaller than their other siblings, leaner and wiry.
Where they differed
however was that Rosie was a girlie girl and
Mary had always been a
tomboy, and when they were younger Rosie always had painted nails and Mary
always had grazed knees.
Because Rosie didn’t like getting her hands dirty, she had always
focussed on her strengths, which were her organizational skills.
So, she was the obvious choice in the family to address the woodland
problem.
So, the first thing Rosie did before the work could commence was to
persuade a local tree surgeon called Phil Tucker to work with her.
She hadn’t worked with him before, but she knew him from agricultural
college she knew that he had all the necessary skills to get the job done no
matter what problems might arise, and besides that she fancied the pants off
him.
He was a couple of years older than her, six-foot-tall with dark curly
hair and crystal blue eyes and with her undoubted organizational skills she might
manage to organize him into her arms.
Phil and Rosie worked well as a team, she was a great planner and time
manager and Phil knew how to get the best out of people.
When she approached him about the job he said he was off to Shallowfield
for a few months to work in the Dancingdean Forest.
This was the worst news she could have imagined, she feared that once he
got settled in Shallowfield he would never come back.
“It’s three months guaranteed work and its good money too,” he said
“Well I know I can’t match the money, but I can guarantee a year’s work
at least” Rosie said
“Only if the Hotel keep funding it” Phil said
“They will,” she said resolutely
The truth was he didn’t want to go to Shallowfield any more than she did,
but he had to know that she wanted him to stay, he really liked her, but he’d
been hurt before and he wasn’t keen for it to happen again.
He looked at her and the earnest expression on her face and said
“Ok, I’ll give you a year and we’ll see how it goes”
And when her expression instantly changed he had his answer.
Over the following months they tackled each problem as it presented
itself with their combined wits and they solved them one by one.
But the one problem neither of them could solve was how to make the
transition from work mates to lovers.
Everyone else in the family and crew knew the disposition of their
hearts, and knew they were a couple in waiting.
Phil had tried to ask her out countless times but always bottled out at
the last minute.
There was always that niggling doubt in the back of his mind that if he
asked her out and she said no then it would, at best, create an awkwardness
between them, and at worse, force him to leave.
The same thought had crossed her mind as well, but she had decided it was
worth the risk but every time she was about to broach the subject they were
interrupted either by one of her siblings or a labourer or the phone.
Things were getting desperate, it was obvious to her that he was never
going to ask her, and it seemed that fate was conspiring to prevent her from
asking him.
But it all came to a head at a progress meeting up at Blackdog Wood in
March, all the Stevens family were present as was Phil Tucker, his Foreman and
Hotel Manager Hannah Morgan.
At the end of it, Hannah gave a short address praising everyone’s
efforts, especially Rosie and Phil.
There were mutterings of approval and then Hannah added
“So, in recognition of your efforts there is a table booked at the Palace
restaurant for you two to celebrate together”
“And when she says “together” she mean’s as a couple” Mary added “Understood?”
“Yes” he replied
“Good” Rosie said “You are now going on a date”
“Ok” he said
“Hooray” Muriel said as Phil smiled at Rosie who returned his smile and
blushed
“Result” Russel said
The Pepperstock Hills
National Park stretched from the bare, and often barren crags of Oxley Ridge in
the North to the dense wooded southern slopes on the fringe of the Finchbottom
Vale and from Quarry Hill, and the Pits in the West to Pepperstock Bay in the
East.
It is an area of stark
contrasts and attracted a variety of visitors.
The
quarry hill side of the park to the west, as the name suggests, was heavily
Quarried over several hundred years, though more extensively during the
industrial revolution, the Quarries had been un-worked for over fifty years and
nature had reclaimed them and former pits had become lakes and were very
popular with anglers and the sparse shrubbery and woodland made it popular spot
with courting couples whereas the
northern crags and fells were popular with climbers and more hardy folk.
To the south and east
was an extensive tract of magnificent mixed forestry and was rivalled only by
the ancient woodland of the Dancingdean Forest.
Renowned Downshire
Poet, James Willard and his older brother John were
staying at the White Hart pub in the village of Springwater for a few days, it
was his brother’s idea, a short break in the Pepperstock Hills, a change of
pace and some R&R, but it was John who needed it most as he was a TV News
Reader and needed to go somewhere where he might be able to take a walk without
being pestered by people want to take a selfie.
James
wasn’t particularly sympathetic and paraphrased Oscar Wilde and said “The only thing worse than being asked to take a selfie
is not being asked to take a selfie”
They were
both from the quaint
country village of Applesford, with adjoining Cottages which backed on to a
quiet stretch of the Downshire Navigation, part of the canal network which ran
between Nettlefield in the north, down through Millmoor and the Oakhams to
Northchapel, Abbeyvale and then to its most southerly point, Abbottsford, where
it again headed north, this time to Childean, Purplemere and Finchbottom where
it joined the River Finch.
James
did sugest that a barge trip would have been eqally relaxing but thankfully he
didn’t listen, and that was something that would later on prove to be a very
significance decision in their lives, because on their first night at the White
Hart they met sisters Eugenia and Maria
Marquez, who it turned out were also from Applesford, and the irony of that
first meeting was that they asked John if they could have a selfie.
The four
of them hit it off right from the start and decided as they were all there to
enjoy the wonderful scenery they might just as well do it together.
So after breakfast the
next day they set off and got their first proper look of the delights of the
village and its environs and then they climbed up into the foot hills, and
everything was proceeding nicely until the weather closed in and they were
forced back down to the safety of the White Hart where they remained for the
rest of the day and the day after.
Perhaps because they were all around the thirty mark the four of them got
on well and as a result they had enjoyed their confinement at the White Hart
but James in particular enjoyed the time he spent with Maria, the problem was
that he struggled to verbalise his thoughts, he would have thought that a Poet
at least would have been able to find the words he needed to woo a woman, but
apparently not.
But the next day the
weather was set fare and was forecast to remain so for the rest of the day, so
the walk began on the same path they had taken up into the foothills but
instead of having to turn back they turned west and followed the path as it
climbed high above the valley.
After about an hour
following the twisting craggy path they reached a high wooded hill top and
followed the path into the wood and welcomed the shelter from the breeze
beneath the pine canopy and when they emerged on the other side they were
rewarded with the view of the next valley, below.
“Wow” Eugenia said
“That’s impressive” John
added
“Distance lends enchantment to the view” Maria said poetically
“Oh, I wouldn’t say that” James said, which surprised her, but when she
turned towards him to argue the point she found he had eyes only for her.
“Oh” she exclaimed
John and Eugenia said
nothing, they just looked at each other and nodded before he took hold of her
arm and steered her away quietly back into the woods and when they looked back
their younger siblings were kissing.
“Love Affair” is a classic romantic drama Directed by Leo McCarey based on the co-written story by Mildred Cram and Leo McCarey.
A French playboy Michel Marnay (Charles Boyer)
full of continental charm and an American, former nightclub singer, Terry McKay
(Irene Dunne) meet aboard a ship.
She sees him as just another playboy and he
sees her as stand-offish, but inevitably they fall in love.
After visiting his Grandmother (Maria
Ouspenskaya) on the island of Madeira he planned to travel to New York to marry
a rich heiress, which has been well publicized, as have his many antics and
affairs, and Terry was returning home to her long-time boyfriend Kenneth
Bradley (Lee Bowman).
However on the crossing their plans change,
but he has a poor track record relationship wise and no history of working for
a living so in order to give him the chance to earn an honest living and prove
himself, which would also give them time to deal with their current
relationships.
So, they agree to distance themselves but
arrange to reunite six months later on top of the Empire State building.
In the meantime, he returns to painting and is
reasonably successful at it and she becomes a music teacher.
On the agreed date, Michel is waiting
patiently for Terry, who is racing to join him however fate intervenes
resulting in misunderstanding and heartbreak and only fate can correct its
intervention to save their relationship.
In addition to the fine performances from the
stars and the wonderful story telling, the film is also blessed by a number of
excellent mini cameo performances, Maurice Moscovitch (Maurice Cobert) as
Michel’s agent, Ferike Boros as Terry's Landlady and Tom Dugan as the Drunk
with the Christmas Tree, and the Robert Mitchell choir are an absolute delight
