Wheildon

patricia, my mother-in-law, still has the most wonderful lemon tree growing in her garden.  it is pretty ancient but bears the most wonderful fruit.  the lemons from her tree are large, beautifully formed and juicy.  i remember one day being sent to granny's house to pick some lemons for ginny to make syrup.  the tree was laden with lemons and i filled a packet to the top in no time.  back home, i was ticked off for picking so many and told to arrange the leftovers in a bowl to paint.

so i did, and found a frame that finished off the painting rather well.

this was about three years before we moved to hilton in natal.  just before the great trek, we sold anything we did not need including taking a selection of paintings to a gallery in franschhoek.

this is where the story really begins.

after we moved to hilton, one of my clients from zimbali on the coast announced that she and her family were moving to franschhoek in the cape, which they did.  some months later she phoned to say that there was a painting of lemons in a gallery in franschhoek which she would like to buy.  i phoned the gallery and arranged for her to collect it.

on our next visit to greyton, she and her husband drove over to collect a new batch of paintings from me, for her shop that she had opened in franschhoek.  it was a typical late autumn day in greyton: a sight to behold.  she and her husband were quite taken with the leiwater, the quaint cottages and their magnificent mountain backdrop.  after a wander round the village, they left and the visit was forgotten.

weeks later, during her daily call to report on village activity, granny patricia informed us that the cottage next to her had been sold to a family from franschhoek.  the estate agent mentioned the purchaser's name and i immediately knew who the new owners were.  a phone call confirmed this and we were invited to look them up on our next visit.

not long thereafter, we were back for a long weekend with granny and the franschhoek family were in residence next door.  we wandered over to say hello and were given a tour of their cottage.  the last room in the house was the kitchen, and there on the wall was my painting of lemons.  i beckoned to our hostess and pointed to the lemon tree in granny's garden next door.

“these lemons in the painting came off that tree,” i said, pointing at the tree.  she was astounded and full of disbelief.  i took the painting off the wall and showed her some faint writing in gold lettering that was part of the painting, almost hidden under a simple glazing technique.  the writing went something like this:

“these lemons were stolen off patricia morris's lemon tree.  they make the finest lemon syrup in the world.”

nice touch.