All Roads Lead to Swatragh - Chapter 3

After Donovan left Grace realized that the growling in her stomach had been ignored for too long. All she had packed to bring with her were some granola bars for snacking on while driving up here. She had totally forgotten about bringing some food with her. And now that the fridge was working she could actually buy some groceries for the week. She had passed a small market down the road a ways from the B&B and decided to head back there to pick up a few things. After looking in the cupboards she realized that other than some old dry goods, there was nothing to salvage.

The Spar market was small and closer to Maghera than Swatragh, but it had the necessary items for Grace to stock up on for a few days. She decided she might have to go south into Magherafelt or north into Coleraine to get some things that the Spar Market didn't carry. But tea, sugar, milk and bread were staples along with some ingredients for quick meals. It was into the evening when Grace returned and even though it was summer and light out, the weather was getting a bit cool. She found some peat logs and set the fire in her grandmother's small sitting room where she settled down to work on her list of things to do and snack on her toasted cheese sandwich and cup of Barry's Tea.

As far as she could tell the inside of the cottage just needed a good cleaning. Grace wanted to focus on the outside to make it more presentable to prospective buyers. her funds were limited so she planned to do some of the work herself during these two weeks, and hire out what she could not handle. It really was in need of a coat of paint and the windows needed a good washing. Then there was the garden. Grace decided to hire out the painting and window washing since she really didn't want to tackle windows on the upstairs rooms. She would attempt to redo the garden on her own. Grace knew her grandmother loved gardening and this front garden had been a place of pride.

Sitting in front of the peat fire with a blanket pulled over her knees she knew she had a big job on her hands and worried about getting everything done. She wanted to make her grandmother proud of her for taking care of this special cottage. As the embers glowed, Grace relaxed and fell asleep in the over sized chair that she knew was her grandmother's favorite. She dreamed of her grandmother wandering around the cottage taking care of all her clients and spending days cooking delicious meals in the kitchen. The early morning sun was just peaking through the cloudy window when she realized she had slept through the night.