As I went for my daily walk , two kilometers out as far as the Bush Fire Brigade Shed , with its surrounding park like meeting area and then back , I often caught a glimpse of , waved to and even made time to chat with Glenys . She , her husband and their two daughters lived on the left hand side of the road at the top of a mildly sloping section , round a bend and a bit out of sight from our place .

Although I did now and then trade home brews with her husband , I never really got to know him . He was a somewhat taciturn man , who worked in town : a pleasant bloke , but not often available to natter with . Glenys on the other hand was a bright and bird like creature , and like one of the small wrens that lived around there , was always busy fluttering about on various of her projects .

She was in fact , almost the first person with whom I made any acquaintance , when she stopped at our front gate and trotted down to the house where I was working , to proffer greetings , extend an offer of hospitality , and to generally offer help if it was needed . From then on we got to know each other quite well .

She had a pretty well established garden , and I was able to get samples of plant cuttings from her . I returned the favours with some of my marmalades and bottled citrus juices . Their brick built house of which she was very proud was much larger than our modest one , and it was the bane of Glenys' life that the dust from the cars that passed on our unsealed ridge road would blow across into their house with the westerly winds. She always claimed that there was more dust over their block than there ever was on the road .

I never quite worked out why the dust blew from west to east at her place , but just as much from east to west at our place !

We had another problem in common , at least until I managed to get mine fixed by the same workman who excavated our dam . He cut a driveway for us , and gravel - filled it . The drainage for it was good as it was sloping , and my only problem thenceforth was to keep it sprayed now and then with weedkiller . However since their drive was at the top of the rise , it was flatter , and being used much more than ours with heavier vehicles , it was more easily rutted , and often had to be resurfaced , much to the couple's annoyance.

The funniest , though in itself quite trivial , thing that happened during our acquaintance occurred when I had dropped in to leave a book for one of the daughters , with whom I was conversing in their lounge room . Apparently Glenys did not know I was there , and our conversation was interrupted by a short shriek , as she appeared in the doorway dressed only in a petticoat after coming from the shower.

She was , in fact , perfectly decent , but her embarrassment was high . Maybe it was because she was, underneath her general chirpiness , quite a shy and staid English lady . But we never mentioned the happening ever again.

The two daughters were in their early years at Newcastle University , boarding a long way from home and like any student children , expensive to keep . Glenys kept a lot of minor projects on the boil , to supplement their income. I came across the first one when a large , agriculturally scripted sign appeared at their gate advertising cast iron bedsteads for sale . They were not all that hard to obtain in the area, and she then renovated them and sold them on. My son and daughter-in-law bought one .

Since their house was fairly large , with a section cut off from the rest , she was able to rent out the separate section. There was not all that much demand for rental accommodation that far out of town but there were takers .Most of the renters that I met were pleasant enough people , but there was one mad psychic among them . Not to me an impressive lady !

Just outside Kempsey there is the minor township of Gladstone , which had quite a few outlets for antiques . The wife and I , taking a break from the chores of the block , drove out there one afternoon , to discover a craft fair in progress. And there in the main hall was Glenys , surrounded by another of her projects , hand made candles in all colours shapes and sizes . We bought one or two , one of which was very useful once when we were struck with a blackout after a big storm, but I still have the other one.

I keep it in memory of Glenys , who died within six weeks of being diagnosed with cancer , during one of the periods when we were away from the block , back in Sydney .