To really understand the secrets, you've got to understand the background, so bear with me as I recount the family history before I get to the family secrets. Dad passed away years ago, killed while working on a construction job. He was literally hit by a ton of bricks that were dropped by a drunken crane operator. Mom got all of the Worker's Compensation b...
"Do these smell 'April Fresh' to you?" To be honest, I wasn't paying attention to my surroundings, because I had my nose buried in a History text book. The droning of washers and dryers in the laundry room had me in a trance, imagining what it must have been like in the post-Civil War Reconstruction era. "Excuse me," asked a husky feminine voice. I looked...
Chapter 3 - Feeding the fish Gary had said to Melanie that he had no plans to get another job. As far as he was concerned he was retired - after all he was nearly sixty. Occasionally he felt a little guilty about 'not contributing to society' but, to be fair, he had been working since he was seventeen. It seemed, however, the world was not going to leave hi...
Bailey surveyed the landscape he had tended for some 37 years. He had wandered into the Henderson Estate, a seventeen year old black kid going nowhere in particular, and asked for a job. Mr. Henderson put him to work with old Rawlings, the gardener, and the rest, as they say, is history. When Rawlings retired, Bailey just carried on by himself. He discovere...
My wife Helen and I moved to a beautiful new house last summer. It's one of three cottages, converted from a barn set around three sides of a courtyard. It wasn't cheap but we had a large family home to sell and ended up with a huge profit. I'm 52, retired last year from engineering work offshore and now work part time for a consultancy firm spending most ni...
Roses are related to strawberries. A strawberry (Fragaria x ananassa) isn't technically a berry, it's a receptable and has its fruits on the surface. They are called achenes, each a small, one seeded fruit with a hard covering that doesn't dehisce when ripe. I find that fascinating and wondered for ages how the plant supplied the achene with its nutrition. S...
Chapter 10: The Morning After Anna woke up to a hand on her shoulder, giving her body a light shake. "Wake up my sweet, stinky girl." Anna squinted her eyes, trying to adjust her eyes to the harsh sun streaming in the window. Chloe was hovering over the bed, already up and dressed. "Breakfast is almost ready, so get up," Chloe said, shaking Anna a little h...
Gardening is somewhat of a hobby for my wife Paula; she loves working in the yard tending to her flowers. Her typical attire is a sleeveless denim shirt tied at the midriff and maybe two buttons closed and short cutoff jeans. This, she says, lets her benefit from the sun and get some tanning. She usually braids her long blond hair in a ponytail to keep if fr...
The advert simply read, Garden Help wanted. I looked at the notice and wrote down the phone number. Seeing as I was between jobs it seemed like a good way to earn a few extra pennies. I rang the number and spoke to a softly spoken Scottish lady called Stella. She lived nearby in a bungalow and simply wanted her garden looking after as she didn't have time. I...
This is the 5th part of my series 'Sally – The Old Whore Next door'... You wake late as usual, its nearly midday already. You get out of bed, sitting on the edge rubbing your eyes, still trying to wake up. As you walk to your cupboard to get a change of clothes for the day, you get a glimpse of yourself in the mirror. You're naked! You don't usually sleep n...