Today was a reflective day. It was manky weather for driving, but I spent it travelling to Somerset and back, to share in the celebration of the life of a special elderly friend, who died at the grand age of 94, just before Christmas.

Vera, or Frankie as we knew her, was a real nature-loving, shotgun-owning, country woman and a big influence on a young me. A farmer’s daughter and land army girl during war years, Frankie had been a head gardener at local estates near Yeovil and in the 1970s owned a market garden and provided flowers to local florists and salads galore to the Rice family. Not only that, she provided cabbage plants to my dad for his veg patch. How my sisters and I hated heeling-in cabbage plants.  Not more Frankie!

Frankie and my dad had became friends when as a young police constable in the 1950s (his first stint in Yeovil) he would spend his time walking the beat, and receive a welcome cup of tea from the local florist. Having completed a cabinet makers apprenticeship, dad was handy with his hands and helped Frankie build wooden sheds on her newly acquired land (in fact years later, his tenon saw, with his name etched into the handle, was found on a roof!) Some of my summer holiday weeks  were spent working at that market garden, learning to weed and helping to push the enormous greenhouses into place on their rails. Work was rewarded with more salads and tomato plants.

Frankie loved dogs, wired hair fox terriers, who provided such entertainment when adults talked so o o much. Unwittingly, she even taught me about diversity, as Frankie’s partner, Phyllis Partridge, kept their home and made such wonderful cakes for Sunday teas. As far as a ten year old me was concerned, they were just two special old ladies, who shared a home for companionship. There was always laughter when we were at Frankie and Phylls house for tea.

So, why is Frankie mentioned in a beekeeping blog? It was Frankie who influenced my dad to start keeping bees and we housed our first bees at that market garden.

Thank you Frankie. You were a special friend to many.