Never Too Late (39 page)

“It’s not that, Iain,” she assured him and sat next to him on the edge of the couch. Her hands fluttered as she tried to make sense of what was happening and her own reaction to it. “I’m just worried that Chloe seems to be getting a bit carried away with this idea of being a designer. She has no training, no experience. Just what have you said to her?”

Iain raised himself on one elbow so that he could rearrange the cushions, allowing him to sit in a more upright position. “Maggie, I wasn’t the instigator, but I am thrilled it’s happening.” He gently covered her mouth when she went to speak. “Please, love, hear me out,” he begged.

He took a sip of tea, gathering his thoughts. “I wanted Chloe to chauffeur me as I wanted time to talk with her, away from all the daily distractions we normally face. She’s not happy with her life, she needs a change and I wanted to help her feel her way towards what she might want to do. I wanted her to know I wouldn’t consider her a failure just because she changed her mind about her professional direction. I was even going to offer to help her financially if she decided she needed to go back to university. On the way we talked things over in very general terms but didn’t come to any conclusions, not that I expected any straight away.

“Then she met Marie, and Chloe’s ideas just came flooding out as we looked at the site and the plans. Marie was just blown away and it was Marie who assumed that I’d commissioned Chloe as the interior designer. When Chloe realised that, well, you should have seen the look of delight on her face. It was as though all her dreams and desires for her life, that had seemed so nebulous before, just came into focus. Her new world picture is now fully developed and I, for one, am not going to discourage her.”

Maggie chewed her bottom lip as she got up and went to the patio window. Deefor nudged her hand and she stroked his ears. Turning, she asked Iain, “What if she makes mistakes? What if Marie doesn’t like what she does? What if no-one else wants her work?”

Iain chuckled. “Don’t you remember how many mistakes I made at first? Life is all about making mistakes, and even more about learning how to deal with them. If this is the only commission she ever gets, at least she will have tried. She certainly can’t do worse than the celebrity designers you see on TV, who seem more interested in themselves than the awful environments they are forcing on their clients.”

“Besides, I’m not handing in my notice just yet,” Chloe added from the doorway. There was sparkle about her, plus a steely determination in her eyes that Maggie knew of old. There would be no dissuading her daughter now, whatever the outcome might be. “Not until the build’s much further on anyway.”

Maggie realised her only option was to give up her objections gracefully and support her daughter in any way she could. “Well, it looks as though we’ll be having a celebratory meal tonight, as another McTavish joins the family firm.” She went over to give Chloe a hug. “I’m sure we all wish you the very best of luck with it and it goes without saying we’ll help you any way we can.”

Deefor gave a single bark as though in agreement, and grinned hugely when Maggie laughed with the others and relaxed. What a year for changes it was turning out to be, she thought, as she went back to the kitchen with Chloe.

*

The following weekend James and Keela found Maggie in the vegetable garden discussing control of carrot fly with Ken. Deefor trotted over, plumed tail wagging, hoping for his usual fuss from Keela.

“Your best bet,” Ken told Maggie, “seeing as they like to fly in bright sunlight, is to only do your thinning out in the evening. And choose a calm day. It’s the smell of the bruised leaves that attracts the females to lay their eggs so you don’t want the smell being blown about.”

“Have you tried planting coriander and sage close by too?” Keela asked as they got close enough to join the conversation.

“I have – that’s what I was going to suggest next.” Ken nodded his approval. “Pennyroyal works well too. And don’t plant your parsnips so close next year as the flies love them too.”

“What a lovely surprise to see you today, Keela. Let’s all go and get a cold drink,” Maggie suggested, linking arms with Ken and leading him off before he could get into full flow about garden pests. “Thank you so much for your advice Ken. You must remind me next year when it’s time to plant my carrot seed so as to miss the main egg laying season.”

Maggie settled them on the patio under the shade of the parasols, then went in to ask Iain if he fancied taking a break from his drawing board to join them for a while. She was sure his growing irritability over the last few days was because he was over-tiring himself. When she took out the jug of iced fruit juices she found the three of them discussing crop rotation and using preferred types of sites for vegetables in helping in control of pests.

“Strong healthy plants can fight off most things without use of all these chemicals,” Ken maintained.

“Absolutely,” Keela agreed. “The organic method is much the best.” She glanced behind Maggie. “Is Iain not coming out?”

“No,” she confirmed as she slid the tray onto the table. “He’s busy on modifications to the main bedroom and en suite – wanted to finish it off before taking a break.”

She handed round full glasses, the ice clinking invitingly.

“Oh lovely, thanks Maggie.” Ken took the glass and downed most of it in one.

“I don’t want you overdoing things in this heat, Ken,” Maggie told him. “I’ll give you and your bike a lift back to the village later.”

“No, no,” he protested. “I’ll just take it steady, don’t fret.”

Deefor settled in the shade under the table and enjoyed bare foot rubs from both Maggie and Keela.

The conversation turned to the latest chat from the village. News of the October wedding was already causing a bit of a stir and excitement. Everyone was expecting a very grand affair by all accounts. Maggie was not so sure. Somehow a ‘grand affair’ didn’t seem the type of wedding she could imagine Schez enjoying. As Schez had the last word on any decisions, as long as Adam kept Chloe under control, she was sure it would be a rather quieter affair than expected.

“Well, I’ll make tracks,” Ken said as he finished his second glass of juice. “No doubt you’ve family things to discuss and I don’t want to make a nuisance of myself.”

James made to shake his hand in farewell, but Keela stopped him with a hand on his arm. “No wait, please,” she said. “I think you may be able to advise us.”

James hesitated then nodded agreement and sat back down. Maggie and Ken looked at each other in surprise.

“Maggie,” Keela continued, “what we’ve come here to tell you and Iain is that we’re making a fresh start. As soon as we find the right site we’re both leaving our jobs to start a market garden.”

Her words were initially met with a stunned silence. James laughed nervously. “Will someone please say something?”

“Well, I don’t quite know what to say,” Maggie admitted. “Have you really thought this through? How will you manage financially, apart from anything else? You want to start a family and children are not cheap propositions.”

“You’re asking an accountant if we can do it?” James asked with a gleam in eye. “Yes, Mum, we have fully costed it out. Adam and I have found a new partner who will buy me out. They will also employ me part time instead of taking on a junior partner, which will give us hard cash income while we get up and running. Keela will take the voluntary redundancy that is on offer on very generous terms since the merger, and our house sale will also bring in a tidy sum.”

“If you don’t mind me saying,” Ken interrupted, “this all sounds rather too personal for me to be here listening, don’t you think?”

“Oh no,” Keela said, “we do need your advice. You see, what we don’t have yet is a location in mind for where to buy. You know land and plants. What should we be looking for? We need somewhere we can bring into productivity within the first year but won’t be too pricey to begin with. We also want to stay close to the family and obviously we’ll need accommodation on the land we buy. That means we’ve got to think about not just location, but land prices, planning permission and all that, before we even start to think about what is needed to run a market garden in terms of equipment and supplies.

“You know this area for many miles around, having lived here all your life, plus you keep abreast through your friends of what’s happening. Do you know of anywhere suitable you think might possibly be coming on the market soon? Would you and your friends be able to advise us on what we need to buy in the way of equipment to get started and where would be best to buy it?”

Ken sat back in his chair and tugged on his ear lobe while he thought it through carefully. Slowly a big grin spread across his face. “Well, I reckon you start by asking your Mum if you can be her new tenant.”

“What?” came from all three of them.

“Well, your private garden area is what, about two acres?” Maggie nodded. “And the grazing rights to, oh, about ten acres of adjoining land is on six monthly contract?” Maggie nodded again. “And from what I’ve heard that runs October to March and April to September?” Again Maggie nodded. “Well make the next tenancy agreement with these two.”

“And there’s enough left of the old farmhouse to make it a renovation job, not a complete rebuild,” James added with growing excitement.

Maggie clapped her hands in delight. “And you can live here once you’ve sold your house until it’s ready to move into.”

“What’s all the noise in aid of?” Iain asked as he joined them on the patio.

Deefor moved to Maggie’s other side, a protective barrier between her and Iain.

“Well, Dad,” James said, “if all goes to plan I’ll have to start tugging the old forelock to you as ‘the maister’. I hope you treat your tenants well.”

They quickly brought Iain up to speed as he sat down, wincing as his knee was playing him up. Maggie poured him a drink.

“So, you can afford to get it up and running,” Iain agreed, “but what comes next?”

“Next? Well, I suppose if we wanted to we could save to buy somewhere else too and start a small chain under our brand…”

“No, no, no,” Iain interrupted. “You’re getting ahead of yourself. What I mean is you need to know who your buyers will be. Even to make the first stage work you need to generate an income. What, in particular, are you intending to grow? Who are you intending to sell it to? Have you done your market research? Have you done a proper business plan?”

“Yes and no,” James admitted. “It’s early days yet but I’m in discussion with an old uni friend of mine, Mike. He’s a brilliant chef and has just opened his own restaurant in Little Venice called Tread Lightly.”

“Hmmph! One of these eco freaks then,” Iain said dismissively.

“Careful what you say, Iain,” Keela warned him, her eyes flashing. “We happen to share the same ethos.”

James and Keela between them described how great the interest was growing in trying to live with a zero carbon footprint. People were interested to the point where they would happily pay more for a product with the right credentials. It was important that food was grown locally, that it hadn’t been packaged with masses of plastic, that it hadn’t been contaminated with chemicals. They planned to grow food organically, which would command a premium price. They would specialise in the older vegetable varieties that had so much flavour but were not best suited to mass production. They were going to concentrate on the more unusual vegetables, and in traditional British, but increasingly rare, fruits like quince and mulberry. They were also considering free range chickens, duck and quail for the meat and eggs.

“On top of that, we’ll be aiming for zero non-renewable energy usage. We’ll have heat exchangers, hopefully a windmill, maybe solar power.”

“You get a lot of heat from manure if you’re going to have glass houses,” Ken suggested. “The Victorians used to manage keeping the big houses supplied with grapes and melons for a big chunk of the year. OK, they used mainly coal to heat the flues, but I use manure to pipe enough heat into the greenhouse for my early crops. You might be able to adapt that kind of idea.”

“I can see we’ll have to employ you for advice,” Keela said, placing a hand on Ken’s arm. “That recipe of yours for comfrey and nettle fertilizer is excellent. You have encyclopaedic knowledge of varieties, best sowing times, companion planting, everything we need to learn actually.”

“You’ve picked up a lot already,” Ken assured her.

“And I still have a way to go to catch up with you!”

“Well here’s another idea for you – get a few sows. They’ll rootle up the pasture for you very nicely, clear out all the weeds, and give you cash income from the piglets before your first crops are ready.”

Keela took a notepad out of her bag and started scribbling furiously as one idea triggered another.

“Don’t forget there’s the river, too,” Ken suggested, warming to the theme. “You could dam it to make a small lake, stock it with some carp and get income from the local anglers.”

“We’d need an impedance licence from the Environment Agency for that,” James said. “I saw that in some accounts I did recently. There shouldn’t be any problem with that, though, as it wouldn’t involve extraction of water. Maybe we could combine the scheme with a reed bed sewage treatment system, and maybe hydro power. Make a note that we need to contact them for their advice,” he instructed Keela.

“You’d need to provide safe access, parking and toilets for the anglers,” Iain added. “That would have to costed out, and I believe stocking with decent sized carp that would attract the anglers would not be cheap.”

“Doesn’t have to be carp, though. There’s rudd, perch, tench, bream – I’ll have to ask Frank. He likes to go fishing when he gets chance.” Ken nodded as he mulled it over. “I’ll ask the lads when I see them in the Royal Oak on Sunday.”

Maggie had her own suggestion. “If you have young animals – the piglets, ducklings, chicks and so on, plus you’re providing access for anglers, why not use those assets more by attracting families in? It would need supervising, but you could let the children go and see the animals, collect eggs, that sort of thing, and provide something for all the family like a small tea shop and farm shop? I can keep you supplied with cakes and so on, maybe even organise part time employees from the village to help run it.”