Week 13 Day 2: On the move

Last night Graica saw a ship passing their island, but she panicked and distracted Reynar, resulting in the ship passing without him noticing it. It was very selfish of Graica, causing them all not to be rescued, and today is a rather tough day on her.

But, before checking on her, let's stop by at 4 Black Heights, up north. Rebecka grew up, and was preparing to move out! She has been spending lots of time together with the much older LaShawn Gladiston, and she couldn't wait to join him at one of the smaller parts of Greench Farm.

So, it was time to leave. In case someone expected to see Rebecka's dad, Christopher, waving his oldest daughter off, he was working at the House of Law.

Rebecka had just one tiny worry. LaShawn never asked her to move in, she was just taking that for granted...

Also this morning, at 11 Rounder Lane which is in the southern region, Cody Mayor and Rosanne Redward were busy in the garden. Cody produces garden plants, and Rosanne is still learning. They are not yet married, but expect their first baby. Counting from Rosanne, it will be 4th generation, the first 4th generation resident on Maccaroni Island!

Cody was still on call as the judge representing the southern region.

Rosanne's mom, Corinne Y. Redward, had at least one good eye to Cody, for a very long time. She will probaby not be thrilled about the wedding, but Corinne is already an elder, and well... she has no choice but accepting.

In the same region, at 2 Greench Farm, Rebecka Black had finally arrived at LaShawn Gladiston's house...

It actually seems like Rebecka was about to cry. They sure belong together, and she is very much aware that LaShawn will turn elderly any day now.

Cody walked over to Greench Market, it's a grocery store and farmers market mostly run by the Greench Farm. Cody bought the pests serum from his brother Archie, and then their sister Beatrice entered the store. She was still trying to figure out a flower she recently grew, a weird thing she never saw before. She described it to the two others.

Their dad was Gabriel Greench. He was a dedicated farmer by heart, and when he and Greta went on their honeymoon, starting our story, he thought he would miss his little farm so much that he brought books for daydreaming. Those books now exists at 3 Greench Farm, the main house.

Archie's wife, Bridgette B. Greench, was taking a break in their garden. The farm is not just a home, or a job, but a lifestyle. They tend the garden for hours every day, and now that all 5 kids have reached teenage stage, both Archie and Bridgette reached their lifetime goals of raising 5 kids. 5 kids, but still none to take over the farm!

Bertil returned from a ride. The horse is old Pepper, originally bought by Bertil's granddad, Gabriel Greench. Bertil was asked to take over the farm, and begged for a day to consider it.

Both Archie and Bridgette are quite relaxed and understandable persons. If Bertil was their only kid, it would naturally have been a different matter...

Bertil saw the Unicorn only once. Being the only Equestrian on Maccaroni Island, he should be the one to befriend the shy animal.

Then Eileen, the youngest, popped up...

Eileen just grew up. She is the one finding her aunt Bella and granny Bianca in the Village Hall the other day.

Eileen's cousin, Blanca, lives across the road. They are same age, and they often hang out together.

Graica is Eileen's older sister. She is the one who moved up north to help granny Bianca and uncle Alfonso with the house.

They walked about for a while. Left the southern region, heading west.

The decided to pull a prank on the Redwards.

Well, they managed to hide, and for a few minutes life wasn't boring at all.

Up north, there are still only 2 houses. Lots of open land, but ground it's less fertile and not much grows up here. A group of wild dogs ran up towards the mountain. No wait, it's the 4 dogs of Constance R. Hamming's household. The first dog is Cairo, the puppy Constance found in the woods.

The 2nd dog must be Cairo's puppy, Brownie.

The blue house is the home of the Blumingtons. This is where Graica Greench lives, temporarily to help granny Bianca and uncle Alfonso. Some time ago Graica planted some strange seeds, one seed turned out to carry burning fruits! Graica never saw such a plant before... no wait, it was the plant that the Redwards grow and sell as lamps! Would this be a rescue to this very poor household? Producing lamps?

After a few minutes, Graica was back on track reflecting over the ship she saw last night. She had been looking for it hundreds of times today, but no ships out there. She felt bad for avoiding them all to be found, but she always thought of Maccaroni Island as her beloved home ground, no reason to get anywhere else.

She knew that others might want to get to the other world. She should have alarmed Reynar, they could have made contact with the boat, and Graica could still have chosen to stay here. Alone? Because Reynar would obviously have left the island without even looking back!

There he was!

Reynar lives with his parents, Dorothy and Alex Yea-Low, and his 3 siblings. But now his parents and siblings might move out, leaving the main residence to Reynar.

Well, no comments needed. The once so lovely and naive Bianca Blumington has really turned into a grumpy old crazy woman. She is the only one of the 8 original settlers still around. And turning 125 years old, she certainly seems to live forever.

Week 12 Day 7: Beach party

It's the last day of the week, and on Maccaroni Island there is already a tradition of arranging a weekly community event on the 7th day. It's referred to as Family Day, and some households do make a good day out of it at home, instead of joining everyone, but today there will be a beach party, and I think most households will be represented.

At 4 Greench Farm, Carie G. Peel had something to discuss with her partner Albert Blumington. They just had their 3rd kid, Gerda, actually named after Greta Greench. So, they have now a total of 3 daughters.

Albert never was a dedicated Sculptor, but he still thought of his attempts as their speciality. There are currently no other Sculptors on the island, and he even sold a sculptor to decorate the Village Hall entrance. (a clay gnome which seems to have walked away, but that's another story...)

They do have nearly §10.000 at the moment, from the time Carie's parents Greta and Gabriel lived here and helped with the garden. In addition they can get a bank loan of additional §10.000. There's still a long run for §50.000 though.

Seems like the Peel family has a new plan. But will the Maccaroni Bank approve on Carie buying the bakery?

Down at the bakery, 2 Yvonne Drive, little Eileen was bored. She is the daughter of Bridgette and Archie on the Greench farm. When she noticed that her aunt, Bella Black, left the bakery with a hotdog, Eileen got curious and decided to play detective. What was going on? She followed her aunt Bella up the road.

Aunt Bella walked on with the dish in her hand, up to the Village Hall. Eileen noticed lots of locals standing there, shouting and waving protest signs. But aunt Bella did not stop there...

On a distance, Eileen followed her aunt through the front door, and saw her walk into the meeting room with the hotdog. Why? Wouldn't it be much easier just to eat it in the café where she bought it? Or was it for some secret prisoner? Eileen had to find out!

In the room there was an old woman, also waving a sign, and shouting. It was old granny Bianca Blumington, she rarely got to this central part of the island, and Eileen hardly saw her. Aunt Bella placed the hotdog on the table.

Old Bianca was quite angry, and she had been protesting for the full day already, and outside the building several locals had joined the protest. Bella worried for her mom's health, but the old woman was too stubborn to take anyone's advice.

Then Bianca noticed Eileen was in the room.

Eileen didn't know if this was good. It sounded fun to learn about a secret, but if the secret involved her, she hesitated visiting granny Bianca alone. But I think she will!

Over at 3 Greench Farm, days go by with regular farm duties. Now that both Bridgette and Archie turned elderly, and the two oldest kids are adults, it's time to decide on who will take over the Greench Farm.

Archie knows that to secure the farm and the coming generations, it's needed to prepare early. The one taking over will need to focus on gardening, register as a farmer at the Villaga Hall, and put some efforts into building skills and knowledge. Neither of the kids have shown this interest, yet.

Archie and Bridgette don't plan to move out, and there are still 4 kids residing on the farm. Godrian and Boletta will reach adulthood in about 5 simdays and until then, there won't be much room to build a new family.

Pepper is the old horse that Archie and his late dad Gabriel Greench, once bought from Randal Redward. Bertil loves the horse, and has also paid interest in finding the Unicorn that some locals have observed on rare occasions!

A little later most of the crops were harvested, and Bertil saddled up Pepper for an evening ride.

Finally, the sun set, and locals from all over the island flocked to the Maccaroni Beach, which is located on the border between the western and southern regions. It was a warm night, no wind and it all looked to be a nice community event.

Amadeus is the Hawk boy that so many locals had debated lately. Nobody can remember ever seeing him, but Evita Hedgewall keeps referring to him.

Carie was of course whispering. She prepared food for all, she didn't mind doing this, but it was also part of the new plan, building some community goodwill, might better the chance of becoming the new owner of the café.

Rebecka Black and Graica Greench are cousins. Some days ago they made a deal to have a boyfriend before this event was over. Rebecka had already visited the much older LaShawn G. Gladiston, while Graica had no clue who to mate up with.

Evita Hedgewall doesn't quite come across as a nice girl...

Graica heard a new voice debating taxes...

The guy was Reynar Yea-Low. He is the oldest child of Dorothy and Alex Yea-Low, and now had grown up!

If he is that focused on money, would the idealistic Graica find him worthwhile?

It's not just that LaShawn is older than Rebecka, but in fact he is pushing elderhood. It annoys him that Rebecka wasn't born much earlier, because they have such a good time whenever they meet. If he can only stay adult until she grows up, then the community might accept their relation after all? For the record, they are not a couple yet, but both are aware that they might soon be...

So Rebecka and LaShawn danced. And Graica danced with Reynar, they hardly knew each other from earlier, but there was a certain buzz, wasn't there? And Cody and Rosanne danced, they feel so close after they moved together.

Cody and Rosanne were also the reason Corinne Redward chose not to attend the event. she couldn't take seeing Cody with her daughter, and she figured it was better to stay home. In fact she grew elderly tonight, sealing all hope, making everything worse.

Then, Alex Yea-Low had brought a surprise for everybody...

The event came to an end. It was a fantastic night, bringing new relations and new hopes to so many of them.

In a short week, there will be more :-)