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[PseudoBadger]

Chocolate Chip cookie anyone?

Glebe Cottage.
The Stables.
Lower Loxley.

Though I don't think Ruth meant that Jill should move out - just change rooms.

Yes, that's what I thought. So she's going to boot her out. I presume she's expecting her to come back every day to do the cooking and housework and to keep Heather company? Bloody hell, that woman's a cow!

How many bedrooms does Brookfield have and where is everyone sleeping?

At the moment it sounds like

Bedroom 1 David & Ruth

Bedroom 2 (overlooking orchard and near bathroom) Jill? Previously Pip's room, but Jill moved into it because Pip was away at college. Now to be Heather Pet's room?

Bedroom 3 Josh & Ben's room. Previously just Josh's room?

Bedroom 4 Bert's room

Bedroom 5 Pip's room. Presumably some kind of box room as David refers to her being squeezed into a corner.

So is Ruth's plan that HP has Jill's room and Jill moves into the cramped box room, leaving nowhere for Pip?

I can see why David isn't keen as it sounds like Jill is being moved from one of the nicest bedrooms in the house to the box room. And it's hard that in a five bedroomed house only one bedroom can be allocated to their three children due to three older relatives/friends moving in.

Josh is doing A levels next academic year isn't he? And Ben probably has a fair bit of homework, it's not really ideal them sharing.

On the other hand I do feel for Ruth. It's a bit unfair having both Jill and Bert (who are in good health and able to live independently) at Brookfield and saying there's no room for Heather who actually can't live on her own and has no other family.

Does anyone know how long Bert's going to be there? I'd actually forgotten he was there. We don't seem to hear him chatting to the rest of the family? Unless this happened when I was away on holiday?

Why can't Jill go and live with Shula, Lizzie or Kenton for a bit? I think both Shula and Lizzie offered to have her. Wasn't Lizzie a bit put out that Jill wasn't coming to her?

Or maybe David and Ruth should consider building a Granny flat / Redsidential home for all the older dependents they're accumulating.

I think Pip's room now Jill's room used to be Elizabeth's room with bathroom nearby on en suite? I remember her making a heck of a fuss about that back in the eighties even though she'd left home.

David seems to be a lot more bothered than Ruth about Pip moving away. I suspect that that it partly why he agreed to the Fairbrothers renting land for their geese, he wants to keep Pip happy. I wonder whether it is because he sees Pip as naturally taking over the running of the farm in due course. He seems to talk to her more than Ruth about farming decisions. Maybe he is already worried that she won't come back from South America and there being no bedroom for her to use when she comes back to visit makes this more likely.

Ruth annoys me. So much that I can hardly listen to her anymore. All this business about being the only child and being responsible for HP blah blah blah.
(1) Why is she falling over herself to be so nice to HP when there is nothing coming back. HP is being difficult and intransigent.
(2) Why does she consider only HP. She doesn't give a moment's thought to her husband, her children, the farm, finances...

I think that's unfair R4. (Although I agree that Rooth is annoying)

1. Because she's her mother. And she loves her. And she knows HP is ill and in distress
2. I think she has talked constantly about the conflict between her need to be with her mother and her life at Brookfield. Endlessly. She's gone on and on about it. So I don't know why you think she's not showing her life there any consideration

I do think David is trying to talk about it sensibly. And Ruth was incepredibky unfair tonight with that one rule for Archers and one for everyone else. It's not as if Jill doesn't "pay her way" in housework and cooking......

And WHY has no one suggested The Laurels??

I think Jill might move in with carol

As I said, I hope she's close enough to come in daily to be Brookfield's housekeeper/cook. Otherwise R and D are up shit creek, aren't they?

Team David here. I looked after my mother when she was in failing health and she lived one mile down the road in supported living accommodation. It was totally time consuming, emotionally and physically draining, and a massive responsibility. No way would I have had her to live in our house, and inflicted the problems that elderly care brings with it on my teenage children.

Miss you though, Mum.

I wear a tabard to do my housework & I have a choice of four As you were.

the conflict between her need to be with her mother and her life at Brookfield

Disagree BOOP. She doesn't need to be constantly running up and down the motorway. As others have said, most (i.e. employees) wouldn't have the chance to indulge like this. They would have to make pragmatic decisions. Decisions, not endless hand-wringing.
Did you not hear Pip saying how nice it would be to have her mum around to celebrate her graduation and to have a bit of quality time before she goes off to the other side of the world? Ruth hasn't given her a thought.
And there was that chat the other day about Josh and his hair gel. Again: totally oblivious to what's going on in his life.
And what does Ruth do when she gets back to the loving bosom of Brookfield? - she snaps at David, who is dog-tired because he's picking up her slack. Not the cleverest negotiation stance.

Gill could live with peggoi and Chris. They could make up a coven to rival Carol and friend.

I can't think of anything worse than having my mother or my MIL living under our roof. However, if we are looking at who is more 'deserving' then clearly HP pips (ha ha) Jill. No other children to call on, actually v. frail and can't live alone etc. Jill just likes baking cakes for people and wants company. She had other offers too. Less than ideal situation, obviously, but Team Ruth all the way on this one.

No problem, brookfield is going to be renamed Tardis field.

But R4 Ruth is dog tired because she is regularly driving the length of the country to see her unwell mother, near to whom she would now be living had David's perfectly well mother not emotionally manipulated them into living near her in case three children in the village wasn't enough to keep her happy! Of course she is snapping - it's a horrible situation and I don't see what she's really meant to do now that she's been unilaterally told she cannot move! Which I think, to be fair, she has taken quite well in the end!

Agree Nit! I am still fuming on her behalf over that unilateral change of heart by David following Mummy's intervention.

I still don't see it. In what universe was it sensible for the whole clan to move to Prudhoe for a HP who might SOTMC within a nano-second of the move? Why did the needs of HP trump the needs of the rest of the family? (especially angry on behalf of the boys and the effect on their education).
If HP had agreed to move to Brookfield last year then they wouldn't be in this pickle now. She has been very selfish throughout this.

R4, I agree that the idea of moving was bonkers. Totally. My point is simply that having made that decision together/as a family - it was a bit rich of him to do a mega dairy u-turn on everyone's behalf without even consulting his wife.

I find it hilarious how invested we all get..

David was ready to move because the road was going to go through Brookfield. Which it still might. The fact that this coincided with Ruth's mother potentially benefiting from having her one child near her, whilst David's mother had a mere extra three, was another reason it made sense.

At the time, heather didn't want to move: perhaps now she's seeing things differently (a contingency you might think david would be able to sympathise with...).

I always thought the move was improbable, but if we accept that it was very much going to happen and then David decided otherwise because he's an archer and he always will be and also: toy farm, etc etc.... Then Ruth has been put in a very unfair position.

My point is simply that having made that decision together/as a family...

I don't think that they did. Ruth railroaded him into it.