The Ridge Farm Summer

Greg, Norma and Vivienne

The sun was high in the sky and the warm beams of light burned through the clouds. John and Veronica had driven the van; the same van that I had first ridden in to travel up north. The van was absolutely crammed full and full was no exaggeration. They had removed the seating in order to get two weeks of crap jammed inside. Something was bound to go falling out everywhere when they opened the doors. Brian, Chrissie and Freddie were following behind John and Veronica. Roger and I were trailing behind. We had gotten a half hour late start on the road. We had to stop for a fill up as Winston, my family driver, hadn’t filled the tank of the Ferrari after dropping it off to us. We got some pretty intense looks at the petrol station with Roger behind the wheel, rollin’ up in a Ferrari. Another factor that had made us late getting up the road was the fact that I had changed clothes three times. Roger and I had folded the top of the car back and tucked it away. This was perfect convertible weather.

 Ridge Farm was a picturesque estate of lush, rolling fields dotted with trees and an immense row of pines that shot up toward the sky and lining the back edge of the property. The farmhouse was the center focal point of the property; a sprawled out deep red brick and brown weatherboard two-story structure that sat on roughly 4000 square meters. It was a very large home and well maintained. There were two large barns constructed on the property. The red barn with its silver tin roof was situated to the left of the house a few meters away. It was the smaller of the two barns. It had a gravel roadway that ran up to it, ending in a concrete slab in the front of the barn. Black wooden fencing surrounded the property everywhere. There was a squared off area a few meters in front of the red barn and a few scattered trees on the right side of the barn.

 Sitting a piece back on the property and placed well to left of the red barn was the massive horse barn and stables, connected by the gravel road that led to the red barn. It was black and cream in color; a black-shingled roof and black trim surrounded the creamy off-white paint. More black fencing closed in what felt like eons of green pasture. There was a large pond in the middle of the field, the sunlight poundin’ down on the ripples in the water. A massive old oak tree stood near the stables, water troughs and hay bales near its shady, leafy branches. A large oval riding ring was constructed to the left of the horse barn and to the back right of the  barn was an area that was obviously set up for jumping obstacles: various places for oxers, chevrons, triple bars, rolltops, shark’s teeth, a couple stone walls and a real challenge, the skinny; which took some good riding skills. All various obstacles for jumping; some in closer proximity than others depending on how difficult a course one wished to jump. In the pastures this particular Monday, were twelve grazing horses. There were seven more in the barn.

 The back of the house had a spacious bricked patio with lots of furniture on it, a table with an umbrella perched in it and a grill. Behind the house was a pool, open and glistening in the afternoon sun and surrounded by tall shrubbery and a pool house that matched it. It was made out of the same material as the house.  Near the tree line on the right side of the property and close to the house was a lighted tennis court. They really had everything here.

 John, Veronica, Brian, Chrissie and Freddie hadn’t been on the property long. They had barely stepped inside the house, greeted warmly by the estate owners. Their names were Greg and Norma. Their daughter was nineteen and her name was Vivienne.

 “Hello! Welcome to Ridge Farm! I’m Norma, it’s very nice to have you here.” She greeted Brian first, shaking his hand happily.

 “Thank you, I’m Brian…Brian May. I play guitar. It’s good to be here at this beautiful place. We appreciate your hospitality very much. This is my girlfriend, Chrissie.” Brian put an arm around Chrissie and shoved her in front of him.