The Flowers From My Gran’s House

The house that I still dream about

‘Glory of the Snow’ — Picture by the author

Even though it’s been more than two decades since I last set foot in her house (and sadly never will again), I still dream of my Gran’s house.

I always wake up feeling sad.

Sad because I know I’ll never visit there again and because I know it looks completely different now. The new owners made it their own and it looks nothing like how I remember it looking.

The house

She had a huge four-bedroom detached house in a posh area of town. Triple garage and front and back gardens big enough that my current house could fit into either of them!

I used to love visiting there as a child.

Space to run around and play outside. Big trees to push your way through and invent games. A shed, a concrete space where a greenhouse once stood. A fenced-in area at the back of the garden which we were never allowed to go in — where bonfires were lit!

And the house!

The whole house was full of curiosities.

Games from the 1970s in the cupboard under the stairs — Scrabble, Frustration, Yahtzee.

My uncle’s woodworking tools were in the garage. We used to play with offcuts of wood and sand down pieces. I can’t remember making anything useful, though!

The garage was big enough that I do remember putting up a giant sheet and doing a photo shoot with all of my teddies. This was with a disposable camera in the 1990s!

Those were the days — when you had to take your entire camera to get the film developed. Maybe a week later collect the printed-out pictures.

Photo by the author

The best part of the house?

There were two things I loved the most.

First was the huge kitchen with an actual kitchen table and an actual dishwasher. We never had a dishwasher as a child (still don’t!). There was enough space to create a meal for a whole army of people!