- Clarrie wants to be worn out, Pat has a speedy potato harvest, and Susan’s cherry sank …
- Pat also isn’t getting on well with the bookclub book
- Doesn’t Joe have many “golden days” to go?
- A bit of Keats
- James and Leonie have annoyed Jim again
- Pat wants to run away
- Jim has a new pet project
- The Christmas birds are getting ready
- Bartleby for the glue factory?
Clarrie wants to be worn out, Pat has a speedy potato harvest, and Susan’s cherry sank …
I kid you not.
Clarrie would give anything to be worn out at the end of the day.
(she hasn’t got work to do)
Bridge Farm has got in the potato harvest in record time.
(well, they’re not busy elsewhere …)
And Pat got a cake from Susan as it was a reject from her Flower and Produce Show entries as the cherry had sunk to the bottom.
(Kathy can confirm that this often happens).
Pat also isn’t getting on well with the bookclub book
She’s stuck on page 20. And reckons it’s all “doom and gloom”
(must be a Scottish author then, I reckon).
[Pat] “The heroine spends her time sobbing in the milking parlour”
Doesn’t seem Susan’s choice is any better than the last one then.
Doesn’t Joe have many “golden days” to go?
Joe, Clarrie and Jim are out picking apples for Joe’s cider.
Joe starts talking about how there are not many golden days left.
Then Clarrie reckons he sounds a bit wheezy.
And when Jim checked Joe was okay about being squarely beaten by Bert entries to the Flower and produce Show.
[Joe] “ … no big deal is it eh, not in the great scheme of things”
Oh dear.
That’s not Joe at all.
A bit of Keats
[Jim] “Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness, close bosom-friend of the maturing son … I think Keats must have imagined a scene just like this”
[Joe] “I tell you what, he should have wrote a poem to the Borchester Beauty!”
(an apple)
James and Leonie have annoyed Jim again
Jim is happy that James and Leonie didn’t discover about them apple picking.
[Jim] “We’ll have to swear everyone to secrecy about the cider making or they’ll be down on us like bats out of hell”
Pat wants to run away
[Pat] “It all gets on top of me, I suppose. I just can’t think straight”
Seems Pat and Tony are at the point of having to ask the bank to reduce their mortgage payments, or extend the loan – and Pat hasn’t even begun to think about the £10,000 fine from Underwoods (which isn’t covered by insurance).
[Pat] “I just feel like running away sometimes”
But she doesn’t.
Cause she’s Pat.
Pat tells Kathy that Tom’s being “more cheerful” these days because of his and Brenda’s marketing plans. Which obviously included ditching the brand Pat and Tony have worked for decades to build.
Can anyone blame Pat for feeling a bit negative?
[Kathy] “Things have got to get better, though”
[Pat] “That’s what I keep telling myself”
Jim has a new pet project
Clarrie was telling Jim that there were more varieties of apple when the Grundy’s lived at Grange Farm.
As Oliver hasn’t got time (eh? I thought he was very bored), he’s not looking after the orchard properly.
On pondering it, Jim thinks that the Orchard could produce twice as much as it does.
Ahoy community project!
[Jim] “It would be such a wonderful opportunity to preserve the old varieties”
[Clarrie] “It’s a nice thought Jim, but it’d need a lot of people giving up their time, wouldn’t it”
Which reminds them both of the Village Shop volunteers.
And reminds Jim that running a project with volunteers isn’t as easy as it could seem.
The Christmas birds are getting ready
Blimey – it’s almost like the supermarkets having the Christmas chocolate boxes already out now.
Still, as Clarrie said, the Grundy’s needs their birds this year more than ever.
Bartleby for the glue factory?
Joe tells Clarrie he’d been thinking about how to earn more money.
He doesn’t reckon his pony and trap business will make much difference.
So:
[Joe] “why don't I sell Bartleby …”
[Clarrie] “That’s very kind, but I would let you”
[Joe] “He wouldn’t be worth very much I know … it’d save on his feed”
[Clarrie] “You are Bartleby comes as a pair”
[Joe] “Yeah, well you wouldn’t get much for me, come to that”
Good god!
It is very kind of Joe to put his family before himself – but none of it seems kind to poor Bartleby (and it would have broken Joe’s heart).
Why the severe sacrifice?
[Joe] “When I thought I’d never see you again …”
It’s only taken decades, but I think Joe (and Eddie) might finally appreciate Clarrie.
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