Every so often I am reminded of the infamous Seminal Moments speech that I made at my 60th birthday party. I’m not going to reveal what they were but I blotted my copybook in a big way because not one of them involved our children, either their births or indeed any mention of them at all. Easy enough to understand why I’m not allowed to forget it. That’s no reason, of course, why past musings so often contain pictures of daughter Sophie and granddaughter Bay but poor old son Sebastian (Bash to all and sundry) and his lovely wife Gemma rarely get a mention. So, to do a bit of settling of old sores, this is about them. And here they are:
And this is where they live, in Axbridge, Somerset:
And this is what they do: Bash is a carpenter and makes bespoke plywood furniture (very fashionable) and Gemma, according to her Instagram profile, is a lino and woodcut printer, furniture maker and community cinema host. Here’s just some of their work:
Maybe I should explain the ‘cinema host’ bit. Their house was once a Georgian coaching inn & then the Red Lion pub for over 250 years until it closed and was bought about twenty years ago by a couple who found the public bar complete with full ashtrays and pints of beer left over from its last night of trading two years earlier. The story goes that they were inspired by the slope of the Mendip Hills to install a cinema on part of the ground floor - it sounds bonkers to me but the Lottery Fund fell for it and coughed up the money - and now an audience of 36 sit regularly, at least till Covid, to happily watch art house films there. Gemma and Bash inherited the cinema when they bought the house and have taken on the running of it. Luckily they enjoy choosing the films and, well, they’re young and full of vigour.
And they need to be because the house requires one heck of a lot of work done to it. Already they’ve ripped out an old bathroom and installed a new one, repointed one of the outside walls, remade a window frame or two, repaired part of the roof, updated plumbing and lighting and that’s not all…there’s a half acre of garden to look after too. And Gemma wants chickens and they’ve already got two cats running their lives.
Do find the time to visit their websites (themoderncarpenter.com and gemmatrickey.com): not only to see their work but to get a glimpse into their talented, inventive, humorous, quirky, energetic and quite mad minds. But what do I know…I can’t even remember my own children.