Write something which takes place in a: backyard.
More strawberries weeded, this time with a snake for company. So, you know, not too many more strawberry plants were weeded.
Max turned 2.5 years old today. That would be this guy:
I took that a couple of weeks ago while he was helping us mulch the flower garden in our backyard. I have more recent pictures (because of course I do) but that one sums him up best. Well, maybe other than the ones I have of him on the tractor.
But I'll save that for another day.
Mine:
Mikey was running his mouth while he worked the barbeque and the rest of us worked our beers. I don't think none of us were really listening to him, but that ain't unusual. In fact, I'd say that's pretty standard.
Anyway. The beer was cheap and cold and on a hot day a guy can't ask for much more than that. Well, maybe for Mikey to shut his trap for a minute or two so that maybe somebody else could get a word in edgewise, but I'm not a greedy man.
The smells coming out of that big barbeque of his weren't exactly mouthwatering, but there was enough meat on the grill to feed a small army. And his backyard was nice and private, what with all the hedges and tall fences he'd put in. That would have to do. It wasn't like we could all go out and hit up the nearest Denny's for lunch.
Not the way we were armed.
2 comments:
Mr. Wriggles is helping you with the strawberries now? That's fantastic news :) Although it sounds like you're not appreciating his help as much as you could be... is that gratitude?
That's a great picture of Max, he looks very happy to be helping out, though I suspect he can't carry quite as much on his spade.
Another neat story twisting nicely on the punchline, and I love the description of the suburban barbecue where the emphasis is more on quantity than quality. That rings fairly true :) So the question remains: what were they armed for?
[I'll confess that I was very tempted to copy your work word for word but then replace the last line with "Not with the numbers of legs we each had" but that doesn't feel original enough.]
Backyard
Honoré St-Decencé lifted his camera to his face and snapped a picture of the front of the house. The owners were keen to sell and had dropped the keys in at the office so that he could do in and get pictures for the estate-agency listing. There were five bedrooms, eight bathrooms (six ensuite; Honoré couldn't figure out why anyone would want a living room with an ensuite bathroom, but that was apparently what was here), two kitchens, three pantries (again, Honoré got a sense of something slightly amiss when he checked the room-list), a root-cellar, a wine-cellar and a Bierkeller; a rumpus room, three attics (the list here said 'nested' whatever that meant), a dressing room and an undressing room (Honoré had added a question mark there as well), a play-room, a wet-room and a board room.
Honoré decided that the mysteries of the house could wait until he'd got the exterior shots, and edged his way down a path overgrown by wisteria, rhododendrons and japanese bind-weed until he could get behind the house and see the backyard.
It stretched away to the horizon, where two suns were perched; one appeared to be rising and the other setting. The light seemed to bounce off the grasslands (it was probably the best way to describe the backyard) like off water, and it was hard to look at it for any length of time. There were trees off in the distance, and a scent of marigolds (the gloves, not the flowers) on the wind, and Honoré wondered where on earth he was. This wasn't any part of suburban Montréal that he knew.
He looked down at his checklist and saw that there was a note against the backyard: "a gardener may be required." He looked up again, staring off into the vast, mind-swallowing distance, and wondered if one gardener would ever be enough.
Greg - sigh. You and Mr. Wriggles.
Hah, no, I suppose that wouldn't be very original. It would still have made me laugh though!
That is one heck of a house. I am curious about all those attics and pantries. The view from the back of the house must be magnificent though!
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