June 06, 2020
Review, Edit and Update
The Apiary is a light look into the easing of public health restrictions on the Beaufort Estate.
After yesterday’s major overhaul to Episode 30, thankfully there were few repairs for Episode 31 - The Apiary. Most fixes were to punctuation with some addition of detail.
The Apiary
Martha was inspecting the upstairs. It seemed quite topsy turvy. The dining room was in great need of a good clean and dusting. “I’ll have to contact Brigitte and see how soon she can get here.” She went into Mrs. Beaufort’s room first, wanting to make certain it was all in order, but what she found was compete disorder. No bed. No dressing table. Closet only half full - one or two pieces of clothing still with their tags on them. Most of Mrs. Beaufort’s shoes were still there. Martha opened the curtains and turned the lights on. She inspected every inch of the room. She immediately went to the spare bedrooms. They were like the dining room. Dusty and stagnant. Especially the bedroom at the end of the hall. Just outside that bedroom window was a beautiful old flowering Plum tree. It covered everything in pollen so you couldn’t tell whether the dark wood had been painted white or just needed a good dusting.
But Martha did love the show of pink blossoms that came each spring. ‘Pink snow’ her grandchildren called it. On a windy day, they would run and try to catch the dainty blossoms, their little hands outstretched. Laughing and playing. Laughing and playing. Martha missed them so but she had been assured this separation wouldn’t last forever. As a matter of fact, her daughter Joanie was planning a short visit on the weekend. But this first one wouldn’t have any hugs or kisses.
“Martha Haverstock, just stop it or you’re going to make yourself cry. Best get on with your inspection before Miss Emelina gets in from the garden. That’s what I’ll call her! Miss Emelina. Rolls right off my tongue! Now where has she moved herself to.”
Martha stood in the hallway, one finger to her lips. Shouldn’t be touching my face! So she folded her hands in front of her and looked up to the ceiling for inspiration. The den. “That has to be it. She can’t have moved all that furniture and the clothing by herself. Her sister must have helped her.” Martha bustled down the hall to the other end where Michael had planned his den. When she opened the door, sure enough, there was the missing furniture. Thank heavens that this is a big room! A moderately sized oak writing desk had been moved, from the middle of the room and was repositioned against one wall, with only enough room for the desk chair. Miss Emelina’s bed was against the wall next to the door so she would have a view out of the window, her chair and footstool on the opposite corner by the small fireplace. There wasn’t a lot of room to move around, but Martha was quite pleased with the arrangement of everything in the room. The room had been cleaned, vacuumed and dusted. Very neat and tidy. But where on earth had she put all her clothes. In the one corner of the room was a prized Beaufort family heirloom from a time before built in closets. Also constructed from oak, it was an antique clothes cupboard. In it were most of Miss Emelina’s clothes. Sweaters were folded and on the floor of the cupboard. The drawer at the bottom held her personal things. I’ll just have to ask Miss Emelina what she will be doing with the remainder of her clothes. I just can’t figure it out. We left a woman who barely knew how to get up in the morning or get dressed, and now here’s this other woman who moved her room and works in the garden. Martha shook her head.
She heard the back door close. Over that she could hear laughter and visiting! Previously, when it had been Mrs. Beaufort, that seldom happened and definitely not from the back door. She had always been a Front Door Lady.
“Dez, that’s just insane!”
“What’s insane about it, Emmie? Seems like a good idea to me.”
“It would. It’s your idea.”
“And besides that. They scare me. Buzzing around when I’m outside with my lunch. Landing on my plate and crawling into my food.”
“You’re talking about wasps. .. maybe a few bees…but, come on Emmie they’re only bees. You’ve got all those fruit trees and bees need a place to get pollen without flying hundreds of miles. There’s probably hundreds of bees in there anyway. You’re not getting any of their honey. It’s in someone else apiary or in a hollow tree for Pooh Bear. Remember those stories?”
“Winnie the Pooh. I loved Eeyore! That was one of my favourite stories. But, Dez, I’ve never been a bee keeper before.”
“No you haven’t. But in the last few weeks, you’ve been doing a lot of things differently. Getting bees on your property to develop things a bit more would be just one more thing.”
It had occurred to Emelina that she was almost pushing Dez away. Not on purpose, but she’d gotten so excited and so interested that she almost forgot about the ‘we’ they both kept talking about. Would this be something that would bring that back into focus? She really loved the idea of having the big white square ‘bee hotels’ in her own orchard but just couldn’t see how she could do it justice.
“Dez, Would you want to take on that project? I really, really don’t like any flying, buzzing thing. I really love your idea, but really don’t think I could take on anything else right now. I’m trying to organize my thoughts around how to really own this estate and at the same time do something for the community. ~ Oh, hello Martha. You’ve met my sister, Dez, haven’t you? It was over one of those video chat calls a couple of weeks ago.”
“Yes, Miss Emelina, I do remember that. It’s lovely to meet you face to face, Miss Dez. You have been such a big help to your sister. So sorry I can’t shake your hand. We must keep our distance. I’ve just inspected the house, Miss Emelina and see you’ve moved into the den. You have things arranged beautifully and it looks quite cosy in there. The rest of the upstairs needs a good cleaning. I know that Digby’s room, my room - really the whole downstairs - will need a thorough clean as well. I’ll be calling Brigitte to come in as soon as possible to get things back in shape up there. I think that she and I can manage to take care of all of that. Do you need me to do anything else while I’m here?”
“No, I think everything is just fine. As always you have everything in hand, Martha. Just let me know when Brigitte is coming. I’m learning how to do text messaging so would you please send that via text message? I’m on a real learning curve and Dez has been a marvellous teacher.”
Martha gathered her coat and purse. She smiled to herself as she went out the door. Miss Emelina really is a new person. I think we’ll all be on a big learning curve while we fit ourselves back into our lives.
“A careful beekeeper will not take more (honey)
than the colony can afford to miss.”
~ Paul Peacock, author of Keeping Bees ~
A Complete Practical Guide
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