By lunchtime Bonny had been and gone and Joe had the table in the kitchen taken over with graph paper. He was busy putting the final touches to the plan for Damson Cottage. The photo album from the Naval Observatory was lying open on the kitchen counter and Jill was scribbling furiously on a large notepad closeby.
'Can you remember the layout of the garden, Joe?' she asked him without looking away from her notepad.
'Yeah, sure. You want me to do you a quick sketch?' he asked.
'That'd be great, honey', she replied, now tapping her pencil against the paper.
Joe looked up as he reached for a fresh page of graph paper. He grinned at the sight presented to him. His gorgeous wife was sitting with one leg tucked under her, the sole of one of her bare feet peeping back at him. He longed to tickle it. To hear her laugh. Her black jeans clung to the swell of her fabulous ass and her white knitted sweater was stretched deliciously across her muscular shoulders. Her blond hair was piled up in a ponytail and he spied another pencil propped behind her ear. He raised his hand to his own ear where he also had a pencil tucked safely away.
Quickly he sketched the layout of the garden, the proximity of the house, the driveway leading up. He added the features as he remembered them, Victorian seat, wooden gazebo, paving, Adrionadck chairs in one space, high hedges enclosing the other. Only now did he realize they didn't have any idea what the remainder of the garden looked like. Were there other pockets of space, more hidden areas? He made a mental note to ask Lloyd to get the corps of engineers to begin training for the Joining Forces team to do detailed surveys of each property.
'Here ya go', he said, slipping the page in front of his wife, resting his other hand along her exposed neck and gently massaging her skin. She turned, eyes bright, happy, full of fun, of ideas and aspirations and plans.
'Thank you, baby', she said, her eyes falling closed at his touch, savoring the contact of his hand. She leaned closer to him and searched for a kiss which he so gladly gave her. He slipped his arm around her shoulder, his height standing was a perfect match for her semi seated position. Together they looked at the plan of the garden and the photo of the house along with it.
'We really need to get an aerial photograph of the property', Joe said, reaching across for Jill's phone.
She watched as he scrolled. 'What are you doing', she asked.
He grinned 'googling it', as a beautiful woman I know is fond of saying', he replied. 'I'm just wondering if ... hmm, look at this', he said holding the phone for her to see the image.
'What am I looking at?' she asked.
With his fingers he zoomed out, making the image larger. 'There, you see it?'
'Umm, I'm not sure. It's like a square in the ground?' she said, her voice raised in question.
He grinned. 'I bet it's a walled garden. The name of the house has been bugging me; Damson Cottage. Why call it that? Then I wondered if it was because of fruit trees. I looked it up and damson's were introduced to North America by the English settlers. By the late 19th century they were growing wild in some of the Eastern States but now they're considered rare. Maybe it's an orchard or a fruit garden', he said.
'Gosh, that would be so exciting. We could do so much. I already thought about introducing some heritage seeds but if we do have a walled garden then that opens up a new world of possibilities', she exclaimed.
'Let's get someone to take a look and let us know before Tuesday. Knowing would change what you're doing, wouldn't it?' Joe asked, gesturing to the list of plants she had carefully listed and the plant books open across the counter.
