The sun was high in the sky and the warm beams of light burned through the clouds. John and Veronica had driven the van; the same van that I had first ridden in to travel up north. The van was absolutely crammed full and full was no exaggeration. They had removed the seating in order to get two weeks of crap jammed inside. Something was bound to go falling out everywhere when they opened the doors. Brian, Chrissie and Freddie were following behind John and Veronica. Roger and I were trailing behind. We had gotten a half hour late start on the road. We had to stop for a fill up as Winston, my family driver, hadn’t filled the tank of the Ferrari after dropping it off to us. We got some pretty intense looks at the petrol station with Roger behind the wheel, rollin’ up in a Ferrari. Another factor that had made us late getting up the road was the fact that I had changed clothes three times. Roger and I had folded the top of the car back and tucked it away. This was perfect convertible weather.

 Ridge Farm was a picturesque estate of lush, rolling fields dotted with trees and an immense row of pines that shot up toward the sky and lining the back edge of the property. The farmhouse was the center focal point of the property; a sprawled out deep red brick and brown weatherboard two-story structure that sat on roughly 4000 square meters. It was a very large home and well maintained. There were two large barns constructed on the property. The red barn with its silver tin roof was situated to the left of the house a few meters away. It was the smaller of the two barns. It had a gravel roadway that ran up to it, ending in a concrete slab in the front of the barn. Black wooden fencing surrounded the property everywhere. There was a squared off area a few meters in front of the red barn and a few scattered trees on the right side of the barn.

 Sitting a piece back on the property and placed well to left of the red barn was the massive horse barn and stables, connected by the gravel road that led to the red barn. It was black and cream in color; a black-shingled roof and black trim surrounded the creamy off-white paint. More black fencing closed in what felt like eons of green pasture. There was a large pond in the middle of the field, the sunlight poundin’ down on the ripples in the water. A massive old oak tree stood near the stables, water troughs and hay bales near its shady, leafy branches. A large oval riding ring was constructed to the left of the horse barn and to the back right of the  barn was an area that was obviously set up for jumping obstacles: various places for oxers, chevrons, triple bars, rolltops, shark’s teeth, a couple stone walls and a real challenge, the skinny; which took some good riding skills. All various obstacles for jumping; some in closer proximity than others depending on how difficult a course one wished to jump. In the pastures this particular Monday, were twelve grazing horses. There were seven more in the barn.

 The back of the house had a spacious bricked patio with lots of furniture on it, a table with an umbrella perched in it and a grill. Behind the house was a pool, open and glistening in the afternoon sun and surrounded by tall shrubbery and a pool house that matched it. It was made out of the same material as the house.  Near the tree line on the right side of the property and close to the house was a lighted tennis court. They really had everything here.

 John, Veronica, Brian, Chrissie and Freddie hadn’t been on the property long. They had barely stepped inside the house, greeted warmly by the estate owners. Their names were Greg and Norma. Their daughter was nineteen and her name was Vivienne.

 “Hello! Welcome to Ridge Farm! I’m Norma, it’s very nice to have you here.” She greeted Brian first, shaking his hand happily.

 “Thank you, I’m Brian…Brian May. I play guitar. It’s good to be here at this beautiful place. We appreciate your hospitality very much. This is my girlfriend, Chrissie.” Brian put an arm around Chrissie and shoved her in front of him.

 “Hi there. I can’t believe I’m here. Thank you.” Chrissie gushed and shook Norma’s hand.

 “We are thrilled to have you, we mean that. It’s nice to meet you Chrissie. And you are?” Norma directed her attention to Veronica.

 “I’m Veronica. I’m John’s girlfriend and this is John.” Veronica motioned her hand over toward him.

 “Hi, I play bass.” John grinned all over and shook both Norma and Greg’s hand. Vivienne didn’t really introduce herself but seemed to be examining the demographic. Freddie laughed.

 “Hello, dears! I’m who you’ve waited your whole life to meet! I’m Freddie and I’m the voice of this operation. And how did you know I loved lemon scones!?” Freddie hugged Norma, who had made fresh lemonade and lemon scones for everyone. She had them sitting on the big, dark mahogany dinner table. Norma laughed at him.

 “Well, Freddie. I can’t help but notice you don’t have a lady friend with you. I thought you were bringin’ someone, yes?” Greg asked.

 “She’ll be here in a two days. She had some commitments in London but she’ll be arriving promptly on Wednesday!” Freddie’s face lit up when he told Greg. He shook his head in understanding.

 “Sounds great.” Greg answered. Vivienne had a concerned look on her face.

 “Could I get you all anythin’? Some tea, water? Lemonade? I want you to make ya’selves at home, okay? Our home is your home. We want you to be comfortable and…” Norma was interrupted by her daughter.

 “Um…where’s the drummer?” Vivienne asked, biting her lower lip and tugging on her fingers.

 “Vivienne!” her mother scolded her and rolled her eyes. “That’s all we’ve heard about.

 “Oh, don’t worry, love. He’ll be here. They got a late start.” Freddie explained. He wasn’t thinking and pulled a cigarette out of his pocket. “Oh dear…do you allow smokin’ in here?”

 “They?” Greg questioned. Before Greg could be answered, his wife assured Freddie it was okay to smoke in their home.

 “Goodness yes! Don’t worry ‘bout that.” Norma assured him. She flipped her hand at Freddie. “Come on, we’ll show you around the house. As you can see, this is the hallway.” She said jokingly commenting on the short, wallpaper covered hallway that separated the entry from the rest of the house. This is the main floor of the house. To the right here is our dinin’ room, it seats about twelve to fifteen. This is the family room, the couch here, lots of chairs around. The telly works fine. Back this way is the kitchen, the sunroom and there’s a door to the outside patio through the sunroom. That little table in the kitchen seats four and there’s some wicker furniture in the sunroom as you can see. It’s very pleasant back there in the mornings. Come this way, I’ll take you upstairs.” Norma motioned for everyone to follow her.

 “This is just a lovely home! It has such country charm!” Freddie remarked taking a drag on his cigarette and filing upstairs.

 “Oh, thank you. Now, I don’t know where you all want to sleep. I’ll leave that up to you all. There are six bedrooms up here. The one at the end on the hall has two double beds and is Vivienne’s room. However, she’ll gladly go to the basement to sleep on the pull out if someone wants it. Three of the bedroom have baths and Greg and I stay in the master suite through that set of double doors. When you unpack feel free to take whatever you wish. Greg will show you all around the outside grounds later including the bar where you will be doing the recording. The photographer will be here on Thursday. We will be in and out throughout the two weeks so don’t mind us. I work in town, Greg works with the groundskeepers here. Vivienne will assist you with anythin’ you want. She smiled pleasantly.

 The eight of them filed back downstairs and into the spacious family room of the house. It had a massive picture window behind where the telly sat.

 “Come on, let’s head outside. I’ll show you the farm.” Greg spoke up, leading everyone outside into the warm summer air. The entrance to the farm was long and winding. Blooming Bartlett pear trees lined the concrete entrance for the entire way in, the black fencing on both sides. It was a gorgeous, welcoming entrance to the farm.

 “Oh goodness…it’s so very nice out here.” Chrissie said to Brian. He shook his head.

 “Boys and girls that was divine timing.” Freddie said nodding to the winding entrance.

 “I can’t believe they made it in one piece! I figured Roger would have had wrecked that beauty in twenty minutes.” John said to Brian. Brian shook his head.

 “No…Lydia, yes. He could wreck that beauty in twenty minutes. But, he’s surprisingly tender with cars.” Brian answered him. John laughed at him.

 “Oh my god…ooooooh my god. Roger Taylor has a red Ferrari!” Vivienne grabbed her mother’s arm and her mouth hung open.

 “Vivienne!” her mother scolded. “I’m sorry…she’s been doin’ this for three days. I blame her father for showin’ her a group shot a’ the four of you. I don’t know who took it. Looked like an amateur shot maybe?” Norma explained.

 I reached my hand up and gave Freddie a wave as we slowed to a stop. Roger didn’t immediately turn the car off. “I swear, Lyd. I could listen to this engine sing all day.”

 “I know you could.” I answered him, reaching my hands up to my head and pulling the pins out of my hair that I had keeping it all in a big wad so the open air of our drive wouldn’t whip me to pieces. Roger unfastened his seatbelt and got out first.

 “So, this is Ridge Farm. This is…Oh!” Vivienne rushing over and throwing her arms around him interrupted his sentence.

 “Welcome to Ridge Farm!! I live here! Your car is beautiful! Oh, it’s the most beautiful car I’ve ever seen in my life! I can’t believe it’s a convertible! Oh, would you take me in it, please!?” Vivienne begged. Yes, she was nineteen but her hormones were out of control. She stepped back from Roger as if to just take him all in.

 “Oh good god…” Veronica mumbled, hiding her face in her hand. I unfastened my seatbelt and got out, brushing the wrinkles out of my pinstriped skirt. I wore my white high-heeled pumps today, with their lipstick red soles. I was feelin’ very classy. Maybe it was because I knew I would be around horses or perhaps the Ferrari did it.

 “Hi guys.” I said all smiles. “Hello, you are obviously the home owners. I’m…” Lydia was cut off by Greg.

 “Lydia Campbell. My god, your name has been at the top of every great equestrian show for the past eleven years. Your parents are damn fine horse breeders ad they aren’t bad trainers either.” Greg shook Lydia’s hand and laughed. “But seriously, it’s an honor for you to join us here and to be willin’ to work with Vivienne.

 I nodded my head briefly at Greg. “Roger and I brought you something; a house warmin’ if you will.” I walked to the back of the trunk and popped it open. It was only now that reality had set in with Vivienne and she realized who else was standing in her driveway.

 “Lydia Campbell!? Oh my god, Lydia Campbell! I can’t believe you’re at my house! Oh…oh just look at your beautiful clothes! I’m Vivienne and it’s so very wonderful to meet you!” Vivienne grabbed anxiously at my hand before I could open up the trunk. “Oh, can I take your stuff!? Is there something I can get you!?” I shook my head at Vivienne as Roger came to the back of the trunk with me, opening it. This young lady beamed when she saw what Roger and I had packed. That was the thing about the trunk of the Ferrari; it was so very small. You couldn’t fit hardly anything back here. Where was all of our luggage? Roger and I did what any free-loading, good friends would do: we had crammed it all in the van the night before we left and John and Veronica ended up haulin’ it. I handed a bag over to Vivienne and Roger took a bag to Greg, handing over a bouquet of flowers to Norma along the way. Roger shook Greg’s hand.

 “Lyd picked out the wine. She knows what she’s doin’ moreso than me. It’s from all of us those. There’s fourteen bottles in there, one for each day we’re here.” Roger explained.

 “Roger, we could drink all of those today if we wanted; no questions asked!” Freddie said. Norma laughed.

 ‘Well, this is just lovely and these flowers will go nicely on the table. Thank you. Listen, why don’t we take these things inside. I forgot to show you the downstairs of the house. We do have a bar and rec room in the basement and we can chill this wine. We’ll open a bottle at dinner tonight.”

 “That really is quite a machine you got there. I’ve got about nineteen horses on my farm. How many do you have?” Greg asked Roger, walking him over to the Ferrari.

 “At what point do we tell those two that Roger doesn’t own that car?” John whispered to Brian.

 “The same time that the girl figures out Lydia is with Roger.” Brian answered softly. John laughed.

 “Oh, so you want to have some fun with this?” Brian grinned all over and shook his head enthusiastically at John.

 “I’m Norma and it is so nice to meet you, Lydia. You look amazing! Come on, in we all go.” Norma had introduced herself as we filed inside the house. Roger, Greg and Vivienne were still standin’ outside as I followed Norma into the home, keeping close to Veronica and Chrissie. We were all ready to get this fabulous week started.