Morning was Florrie’s favourite part of the day, and she wanted to capture the beauty of the place in the next reel. As she began recording, she used the same opening as yesterday’s reel. ‘Hi, I’m Florrie Appleton. Come and explore the beautiful gardens of Rose Cottage, where I grow the flowers that are sold from The Vintage Flower Van. This garden was first brought to life over sixty years ago by my great-aunt Ada. You could perhaps think you’re in France, but you’ll discover this utterly gorgeous garden in the beautiful village of Heartcross in the Scottish Highlands – and on August twenty-third it will be open to the public for one day only during the annual Flowers in Bloom competition. Why don’t you come and visit, take a look around? I’d love to see you.’
Florrie carried on walking and recording multiple reels, capturing all of her surroundings and plenty of content to use over the coming days. She took the path, along stepping stones laced with lavender, to the archway of grey-pink stone that led to a collection of white-painted furniture, placed to look down over gracious sloping lawns studded with perfectly spaced topiary. The lawns were edged with generous borders full of beautiful flowers. Everything looked spectacular in the early morning sun. Florrie filmed close-ups of the wonderful flowers, giving a quick description of each, whilst chatting about Ada’s vision and her transformation of the gardens, and her attention to detail. Florrie referred to Ada as a distinguished portrait painter, explaining how her endless passion for growing flowers had led to the creation of a picturesque garden that was still flourishing today.
As Florrie reviewed the footage, she couldn’t quite believe how magical the whole place looked. Taking a moment to enjoy the beauty of the garden, she sat in Aunt Ada’s bistro chair. Remembering how Isla had added soft focus to yesterday’s reel, she did the same, wanting to create a consistent visual style for The Vintage Flower Van’s account. If the followers kept growing, she knew they too, as well as the community, would be up in arms at learning all this was going to be destroyed for new-build houses. It was criminal.
Five minutes later, the reel had been uploaded to her social media channels and whilst she waited for responses to start coming in, she checked her diary, which was lying open on the kitchen table. She smiled. No matter how many times she’d tried to encourage Aunt Ada to use technology and switch from the old method of accounting to a computer, Florrie herself still loved an old-fashioned diary and preferred it to logging her appointments on her phone.
The community meeting needed to be held as quickly as possible, with objection letters splattering the council office desks soon after. Wednesday seemed as good a day as any so Florrie drafted a text to the community WhatsApp group, titling it ‘SAVE THE FLOWER VAN AND THE GARDEN OF ROSE COTTAGE’. Within minutes her friends in Heartcross began reaching out to her. First Flynn and Julia, then Molly and Cam, quickly followed by Grace and Andrew. This is what Florrie loved about the village of Heartcross: no matter how busy people were running their own businesses, everyone always pulled together in times of crisis. Those who didn’t know already were now on board, and the rest of the villagers were already beginning to confirm their attendance at Wednesday’s meeting.
There were two issues at stake: The Vintage Flower Van ceasing trading if Jaydon’s letter was unsuccessful, and the gardens being potentially flattened to build houses. With a day and time set for the meeting, and support already flooding in, Florrie was hopeful the village of Heartcross would have some impact on both.
For the next thirty minutes, Florrie prepared The Vintage Flower Van for the day. Checking her phone, she saw that this morning’s reel was already gaining traction and had over one hundred comments. Followers were also enquiring where they could buy tickets for Flowers in Bloom. Florrie couldn’t have hoped for a better response.
She quickly punched a text to Isla.
Next reel uploaded and WhatsApp message sent to the community group.
In addition to Rona offering to provide tea and coffee and homemade treats, Flynn had promised to supply a pile of picnic blankets, which had been used for a summer wedding, for everyone to sit on.
Watching the reel again, Florrie smiled. ‘We’re going to cause a riot, Aunt Ada,’ she murmured. ‘We aren’t leaving here without a fight. Everyone is on board.’ Looking at the clock on the wall of the kitchen, she saw it was time to open up. After grabbing a bottle of water from the fridge, and her diary, she made her way outside. The bunting and the colourful milk churns had added something special, complementing the van and today’s flowers beautifully. Going back into the van and turning the pages of the order book to today’s date, she glanced up at her great-grandfather’s photograph. ‘I know it’s Friday. Don’t worry, I’ve not forgotten.’
Suddenly, she had an idea. After slipping her phone into the tripod that Isla had kindly left behind, she set it up to record in the corner of the van. ‘Hi, I’m Florrie Appleton, welcome to The Vintage Flower Van. Today I’m going to tell you a very special story that spans decades.’
Florrie held the camera over the historic entry in the order book, followed by the photograph of her great-grandfather, before she began to tell the romantic story of her great-grandparents, hoping it would capture the hearts of her followers. After that, she filmed another reel of herself choosing the best flowers for today’s bouquet from the garden. After she removed any leaves and thorns, Florrie used shears to strip the remaining foliage from the plant stems before choosing her favourite flower as the focal point of the bouquet and then adding the supporting flowers around it, with the flower heads at different angles. The next step was to add filler flowers – smaller flowers and greenery – giving the bouquet a more natural aesthetic. Then she added volume with myrtle and eucalyptus before firmly tying the stems together using floral wire. For a stunning finishing touch she added a decorative wrap and tied it with colourful ribbon that complemented the flowers.
With twenty minutes to go before opening time, Florrie prepared today’s flowers for the van and made up another bouquet for Aunt Ada then carried on filming as she placed the bouquets on Rose’s passenger seat and drove towards the church. After parking on the road outside, Florrie filmed up to the wrought-iron gates and along the path of the cemetery. She rested the flowers on her great-grandmother’s grave before ending the recording. After laying the second bunch of flowers on Aunt Ada’s grave and whispering, ‘Love you, miss you,’ she took a moment to remove the wilting flowers from the previous week that were resting against the headstone. As she was leaving, she walked over to the compost bin and laid them on top.
‘Florrie.’
She nearly jumped out of her skin. A second ago, there hadn’t been another soul in sight. With her hands on her heart, she turned around and came face to face with Tom. She was surprised to see him again and especially at this time in the morning.
‘Sorry, I didn’t mean to make you jump.’
‘You’re here again. Are you looking for another funeral to gatecrash?’ Seeing those old photographs yesterday had opened up some old wounds and sparked her barbed comment, but looking at Tom now, Florrie couldn’t help but notice he looked tired. In fact, he looked exhausted, as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. ‘I need to ask. What exactly were you doing at my great-aunt’s funeral?’
‘I was there on my grandfather’s instruction.’
Florrie was confused. ‘But your grandfather has passed away.’
‘Yes.’ Tom pointed to a grave a couple of rows back. ‘He’s buried here in Heartcross.’
‘What exactly do you mean, you were there on your grandfather’s instruction?’ Florrie pressed.
‘My grandfather and Ada were friends. In fact, from what I can gather, they were the best of friends.’
Florrie was amazed. She didn’t remember Aunt Ada ever mentioning William Houston, though if he had been friends with Dolores it would make sense that he had also known Ada. ‘Best of friends?’ Feeling her hackles rise, Florrie couldn’t hold back. ‘And that obviously means nothing to you as you’re destroying everything she ever worked for.’
A look of pure puzzlement crossed Tom’s face. ‘I have no clue what you’re going on about. I think we need a conversation to clear the air.’
‘Starting with an apology would have helped to clear the air.’
‘I don’t know what you mean. I’ve been nothing but polite and genuine towards you since arriving in Heartcross.’ He stared at her, waiting for an explanation.
‘You turn up here, after eight years, being disingenuous and pretending to be honourable—’
‘I’m not pretending to be anything but myself and I have to say I think I’m a decent person.’
Florrie scoffed. She hoped her voice sounded steadier than she felt. ‘We’re a decent and close-knit community in Heartcross, and you walk in with your agenda to make money…’
