EVEN if you're lucky enough to have a gardener who keeps the place shipshape, there is still much to be done coming into the winter months.
Hedges have a last cut, grass mowed and bushes shaped. But still the weeds appear. They are a bind; they just keep coming. I was given advice which I find to be excellent and that is to blast them with a flame thrower.
A long tube and a gas cylinder and, bingo, they shrivel up and die. You have to be careful not to roast little beasts who seem to feel the heat before it hits them and there’s a hasty exodus from this weapon of mass destruction.
I have two flower beds surrounded by pine sleepers – at least they were before they began to rot away and ended up in a heap of dust. So during the summer I began pricing replacements and ended up with John O’Connell in Portglenone, who offers reclaimed solid oak, originally treated with traditional coal tar creosote and with years of history.
“What railway track?” I asked.
“Co Antrim, Carrickfergus to York Street,” was the reply. And thereby hangs a tale.
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When I was about 12 I walked every morning from my granny’s home at Silverstream on Belfast's Shore Road, up the lane and along the railway path to Whiteabbey Station en route to York Street and school. By the way, there’s also a story about Silverstream, beside the high school near Whiteabbey, on the way to Carrick.
I used to play in Mr Haydock’s garden where there was a fairy house beside the stream and a huge pond encircled by bamboo. In those days when I lay watching the fish in the pool, the bats zoomed in and out of the bamboo and their squeaking filled the air.
The history behind the stream goes back to King William and his landing at Carrickfergus. He and his entourage rode up the sandy shore road, between the green fields, himself on his white horse. There were children playing by the stream and as he crossed over he threw down silver coins for them to gather before he moved on into history. Hence Silverstream, Greenisland, Co Antrim.
Anyway, back to the plot. Why the need to walk to the railway station when there was an old concrete bus stop at the door? I was in love.
Eddie played rugby for the school, he was in sixth form, he was tall and handsome, and didn’t know this insignificant first former existed.
My aim was to get in the same carriage and so sit and gaze upon his person. Only occasionally did I catch sight of him and that set me up for the day.
So memories of Eddie come flooding back as I look at the long magnificent sleepers, now with plants cascading over them, the beautiful dark wood framing the beds.
According to John there is still an abundance of oak railway sleepers available.
More information at Railway Sleepers NI 079 6862 4766.
Another Love Story Remembered
Later this week a tribute night will be held for a lady who made her mark on Belfast when she arrived here in 1962. Betty Scott was born in London to Cockney parents, her father managed Mr Teesey Weesey’s hairdressing salon for the rich and famous.
She was a talented singer who turned her back on a BBC contract for her own television show, travelling the world and appearing on the West End stage, all because she fell in love with entrepreneur Alf Scott. He was in the audience when she was performing in Blackpool. He made his way backstage, took her to dinner and that night she decided to give up everything to come to work with him in Belfast.
They were Mr and Mrs Showbiz, bringing all the greats of the day to entertain - Bill Haley and the Comets, Gerry and the Pacemakers, the Rolling Stones, Engelbert Humperdinck, Cliff Richard, Cilla Black and Roy Orbison amongst them. Little Richard rocked the famous Boom Boom Room and Jerry Lee Lewis brought his Great Balls of Fire to an ecstatic audience and PJ Proby remembered for ripping his trousers on stage.
She raised £200,000 for the cancer therapy unit at Belvoir Park Hospital, she was awarded for her work with RoSPA Tufty Clubs road safety for children, was a toy lady at Royal Victoria Hospital and chaired the Lady Taverners charity.
The love affair was total and the partnership memorable. She told me at the time: “I was sitting with Alf at the end. It was our anniversary that very afternoon, 30 years. In a lucid moment he just smiled at me, took my hand and whispered, 'It’s been good hasn’t it?'"
A special lady who gave so much and is remembered by many.
