Autumn Story

 The Smith's and the Black's

This is a story about two families who both loved autumn but not each other.

The head of the Smith family of course was Granny. Her pies were to die for. Granny was very fond of Bramley. She thought the name sounded quite regal. "Lord Bramley perhaps or Lord and Lady Bramley",  she mused. Then there was Pink Lady, Granny's favourite granddaughter,  so called because she loved ballet dancing and always wore a pink tutu. She had danced at the Royal Gala as Granny was frequently heard boasting. She had fallen in love with Pippin who had coxed for Oxford. Granny didn't warm to him.  She was suspicious of him because of his middle name.  How could he belong to the Smith's. Orange indeed. It wasn't right.  

Then there was the Black's.  Granny was very suspicious of them. Well",  she said when Pink Lady asked her what her problem was, "They are very prickly and I have heard that they are a bit on the wild side." Granny didn't know what that meant but she didn't like the sound of it.

Pink Lady was determined to get to know them and she befriended Prince who was one of the Black's. She was quite attracted to his title being a Lady herself. Through him she made friends with Navaho whom she thought perhaps he was from Canada or America. One day she was introduced to Lodous. She wondered if he was from Scotland. 

"What an interesting family," thought Pink Lady. "They seem to have come from all over the world." The astonishment continued as she met more and more of the family.  There was Polar Berry, from the North Pole perhaps and even more exciting Japanese Winter Berry.

Pink Lady's best friends in the Black family were Fantasia and Helen. They both raved about their family's favourite dessert, blackberry crumble. They said it was quite famous and suspected that it rivalled Granny Smith's apple pie.

Pink Lady said to her friends that she had noted that her family seemed to be quite international. "That's because, "said Fantasia, we include and accept all the biggest and sweetest berries into our family. That is why we are able to make our world renowned blackberry crumble."

This gave Pink Lady an idea. she took some berries home and secretly made an apple and blackberry pie .Next she took some apples, Bramleys of  course, and secretly made a crumble. A blackberry and apple crumble. 

When the pie and the crumble were ready she hid them.  She sent invitations to both the Black's and the Smiths to a competition, a pie and a crumble competition.

Everyone is invited to a

DESSERT TASTING COMPETION

Who makes the best dessert in the world?

Enter your best and tastiest.

Granny was very suspicious and refused to enter but Pink Lady said that perhaps it would be held at the Royal Gala. So Granny got busy and baked her biggest and best ever pie.

It was easy to persuade the Black's to enter. They were all enthusiastic and they too baked their biggest and best ever crumble,

There was great excitement on the day of the competition and not a little trepidation on the part of Pink Lady who was praying that her plan would work.

Granny's pie was placed on the table first of all and then Fantasia and Helen carried their huge crumble and placed that next to the pie.  

Next everybody tasted both desserts and  entered their votes into the  ballot box. When everyone had voted  Pink Lady took the stage and announced that there were two more entries from a secret competitor.  Lots of shouts of " not fair" and "too late" rang out. Pink Lady challenged them all. 

"What are you afraid off?"  It is a competition and these desserts have been entered fairly.

So the two desserts were uncovered and all were invited to taste them.

Everybody crowded around to try them. There was much pushing and shoving and also much mmmming, and smacking of lips.  Next all posted their votes in the  box provided. 

Guess what?  A draw was declared. There were equal votes for the blackberry and apple crumble and the apple and blackberry pie.

Everybody was aghast. No-one in either family had thought of combining apples and blackberries before.   

So the winners were declared 

Joint 1ST  Apple and Blackberry pie and Blackberry and Apple Crumble.

Of course the animosity between the families ceased and a great friendship began.

The Smith's and the Black's lived happily ever after.