Saturday 12 January 2013

January 10th

It was 10.10am, on Tuesday January 10th 1961. My father, previously a Messerschmidt pilot, and my mother, who worked on her fathers farm, had decided a few years previously to escape family prejudice and become hoteliers in Bournemouth, and it was on this date that they thought it might be a good idea to have me.





Here I am at 11 months old, and having my first visit to Father Christmas. It would have been in a large department store in Bournemouth Square called 'Bobby's', now Debenhams.


Being raised in a hotel in Bournemouth had many advantages for a young boy growing up. An endless supply of new friends via the guests being one of them, and a massive hotel with rooms and corridors and cellars to play in being another. This is me at 2 years old in the front garden.


Of course, school beckoned, and a private boys school at that. Homefield School was where I was sent, along with my older brother Ian who generally took care of me. It was also a boarding school, although we weren't boarders ourselves, and one had to jostle for some kind of power over other more troublesome pupils. The first stage here was Kindergarten, and this is me aged 5 having my first school photo taken. For some strange reason they had us sat at a desk holding a guinea pig...that's private schooling for you. Starting school was a terrifying experience for me, and it was here that I developed my phobia for cooked cheese, as eating all meals provided was compulsory. The hotel had a gardener called Derek, and I would move leaves for him in an old wooden wheelbarrow, and occasionally chatted to him when he had a cup of tea. I think that this must have been where the seed of gardening was first planted in my life.


I settled into school in the end, made friends, threatened enemies, and those that I couldn't, well, I had a big brother in the upper years. This is me aged 9, and it was just before this that Rheumatic fever hit me, and I was very ill indeed. At home for six months, it was while suffering from this illness that I also developed Scarlet Fever, and so not a good time at all. It was at ten years of age that my parents divorced, ripping the family apart in terribly.


My early teens were for me very difficult personally for a number of reasons. Another reason that I don't like looking back at that time is also the haircuts that were in fashion. This is me aged 15 at my brothers wedding, and my first 'styled' cut at a gent's hairstylist after years of cumpulsory haircuts. As brothers, we had shared a lot of time together, and suddenly not having him around hit me pretty hard.


I hit the pubs and clubs with my mates, playing hard most nights, and worked hard gardening for a landscape and maintenance company during the days. My stepfather was a tough cookie, and if I hadn't returned from these soiree's by 10.30pm, which let's face it wasn't going to happen, then the front door was locked. Needless to say, on returning most nights at 2 or 3am, I spent them roughing it in the garden shed with one or more mates who couldn't make it home themselves. We discovered girls, and late seventies music. 'I Will Survive', 'Tragedy' and 'Pop Musik', I danced to them all! This above is me aged 21.


This is me aged 24.
Life seemed ok. We bought a tiny flat, got a cat, a stereo, and things plodded on until I realised that although work was very enjoyable, it was going nowhere for me, and so it was during a lunch break that I walked into Compton Acres Gardens. It was while here that life changed totally for me. It was an amazing place to work, and a wonderful place to live. Life went on as usual for a number of years until my mother passed away, followed a couple of years later by my father, followed by job losses for all of the gardeners through 'restructuring' as it was called. This resulted in homelessness, then divorce and all the nice little psycho things that go with a combination like all of that being crammed into five years.
The gardens didn't survive very well under the new 'restructuring'. and a few months later I was approached to return and take over the gardening side of things on a practical level. Various college students came and went, but it was during one hot summer that I was given the task of overseeing the training of two gorgeous blonde young women looking for summer gardening work. Angie, a young Canadian, needed the money to finance world travel, and would work for six months and explore for six months. The other gorgeous gardener was called Amanda, recently back from a spell in Sweden, fed up with the corporate world and chasing a long standing gardening dream. Angie disappeared to Brazil at the end of the summer, whilst Amanda and I talked endlessly and after a number of years married!


Me at 37
I was by now completely fed up with the way in which Compton Acres was being managed. The damage done by the new owner through overdevelopment meant that the gardens were a shadow of their former selves, there was only myself and Amanda taking care of them, which was a far cry from the heady days of nine gardeners when I started. We had a big bust up with the management and walked out forever. Having only just bought our present house, we hadn't even made the first mortgage payment, and so shortly after started up Four Seasons. Well, it was either that or shelf stacking at Tesco!


Needless to say, grey hair came a little early for me, and by 43 (above) I had gone all 'Salt and Pepper'.
The following fifteen years running Four Seasons have been such a wonderful adventure, and far more successful than we had hoped. The first five or six years were incredibly tough in physical terms, and Claire and Rebecca were taught to have a strong work ethic from a very early age indeed. Whether the chosen day was blazing hot, or giving us torrential rain, they would come out and work as hard as any man or woman I had known do the job.

And here we are now, and I am fifty two years old. Where in the world has time gone? It's kind of crept up on me and kicked me in the backside. When I reached forty I got the mid-life blues, but that was cleared up by Amanda giving me a Triumph Trophy 1200 for my birthday, and I realised that I wasn't so old after all. But 52.....wow! And all those years of gardening left ahead.


TTFN!

21 comments:

  1. I enjoyed the auto biography. You are braver than me.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hello Gary:
    What a wonderful snapshot this is of your life in words and pictures. Things have clearly not always been easy for you and so we are especially pleased to learn of the success of 'Four Seasons'. You are blessed to have Amanda, and she you, and we wish you both much happiness and prosperity in 2013 and beyond.

    ReplyDelete
  3. This was a fantastic post, I think my favorite post I've read since I started blogging.

    Loved seeing your life unfold, you were so darn cute in kindergarten and at 9! Your ears are absolutely killer in those shots.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Now now firstly I love your mums coat
    It's more Bette Davis than soddin Anything I have seen recently
    Secondly, did you know you looked like a young Simon mccorkindale when you were a wee young man ?
    It's the 80s tash
    Yours was a corker!
    Great post

    ReplyDelete
  5. Your mom and dad were terribly fashionable and attractive weren't they?Pictures at all ages were great, you and my husband looked similar at the age 24 picture, where your eyes look like you have been 'hurt' in life. It is always interesting to hear another's life story, and finding Amanda was the icing on the cake( besides your children of course).Thanks for sharing, Gina

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hi Adrian,
    Sometimes one has to shake it up a little I think. Besides, the gardening will start in earnest soon and I will bore you all with plants!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hello Jane and Lance,
    Life has certainly thrown it's fair share of muck at me, but I do always remember the blessings that have come my way also. Amanda being the biggest.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Hi Cherl,
    Thanks for your lovely comments, and high praise indeed! I have far worse pictures that I am totally ashamed of, and there is no way they will enter the public domain. Those ears...yep....'wingnut' comes to mind!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Hello there John,
    My mum had several mink coats, and they are one of the things I remember about her in particular. That and the smell of Eucalyptus and Menthol sweets which were her weapon of choice. She would have been very flattered to be compared with Bette Davis in such a way. Simon McCorkindale...is that a good thing? As for the aeroplane wings under my nose, they have been the butt of family jokes ever since...why do we do such things eh?

    ReplyDelete
  10. Hi Gina,
    They certainly knew how to dress, and in this photo my dad has filled out somewhat since working as a pow on my grandparents farm (see sidebar). I am not always sure whether or not to get personal on a blog, but what with it's title, and the fact that work is quiet for a spell, I think it pack it out a little, and I miss a lot out anyway to leave a bit of mystery. Take care.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Hi Gary....wow, very cool track you're on....keep going. You look content in each shot. I think you are a good observer of life....that's the impression I get from your writes and work you do. I don't know how life flies like it does...but I will say, it is surely a fun ride. And the 70's? Well those pics will NEVER surface....butterfly collars, cordoroy jeans, bad hair choices......but the music was fun:)

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Chris,
    Thanks for the kind comments. There are some pictures we just like to keep burie! aren't there!

    ReplyDelete
  13. Aww. .loved the story!! It is so fun getting to know people. .thank you for allowing us the opportunity!! Hope your return to work was not too stressful!

    ReplyDelete
  14. Hi there Melanie,
    I do feel that it makes this blogging world a little more interesting. Work...well...slow going there I am afraid.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Gary I love the pictures you've chosen of yourself. I think we're the real us at 2 years old and just look at that picture of you! Big smile, twinkling eyes and if you look, you can find that in the rest of the pictures up till today. You've lived a lot of life, and just the way it's supposed to go, lived some, lost some, loved lots!

    ReplyDelete
  16. What a story that has moved me to tears. I am so glad things have worked out for you. May you and Amanda have many more wonderful years together. Love is priceless.

    FlowerLady Lorraine

    ReplyDelete
  17. Hi Rosemary,
    Life has taken it's toll on me I suppose, and the smiles don't come quite so easily now, but there are many blessings that I am truly grateful for.

    ReplyDelete
  18. Hello Lorraine, and nice to see you following.
    We both know just how lucky we are to have each oth. Our only regret is that we didn't meet earlier in life, as time flies by in the later years. Take care.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Look at you! Seems life is improving as you age. So fun to see all your photos and the autobiography. Hope your birthday was fun!

    ReplyDelete