Juliet and Lindsay at the Big Gay Out this year A crew of bank staff and various volunteers are packing up their cars and heading north from Auckland this weekend for a queer-ish version of Mucking In. The Blooming Bulbs Working Bee is an initiative of ANZ staff, who offered arson-hit lesbian couple Lindsay Curnow and Juliet Leigh a day's work under their volunteer scheme. Members of the Gay Auckland Business Association are also heading up north to lend a hand. They will find a vastly changed Mangawhai Heads property. Gone are the burnt-out remnants of the much-adored shed which was once filled with the lovingly manicured efforts of years of work, which went up in smoke in January when an unknown hate-filled arsonist decided to send it all up in smoke, in an utterly pointless crime which appalled everyone from close gay friends to straight strangers living kilometres away. The loss of the irreplaceable things the couple spent so many years gathering and creating for the Blooming Bulbs business is what still hurts, months on from the attack. "So much stuff we had was like absolute rubbish, but we'd created it," Curnow says. "We bought old doors and put holes in them and cut them down and Juliet made trestle tables and everything was fitted. And everything we'd gone and got, that was all custom-made. It was something you had to do yourselves. And six years on ... just the thought of redoing all that ..." she trails off. "It was a very personal business." The burnt-out shed, which has since been pulled down The couple is yet to decide on the future of the business, just taking it a day at a time. "The nasty feeling hasn't really gone away," Curnow says. "We know there's thousands and thousands of wonderful people out there but it's just, as Juliet said the other day, she's scared that if we start up again they're just going to come back. Which is pretty rough on the neighbours as well." Whether they eventually reopen or not, for now the couple wants to clean up, plant and grow, whether for the love of it or for customers. All the "gunk and debris" has been cleared from the property, Curnow says, while her hardy partner has levelled fresh soil, mostly on her own, but with a help from some overseas visitors. They have put in concrete edging and the volunteer crew will help put in a kit set single garage, a kit set potting shed, plus help with replacement fences and fence repairs and put in some stepping stones and gravel, plus plant some trees. Saturday's work will be supervised by the man Curnow calls the "friendly singing builder" Frank Checketts, a member of GALS (Gay and Lesbian Singers) who lovingly built the original shed. Hard at work getting the place tidied up "Oh shit yes," is the response when Curnow is asked whether the money that has been raised has already been helpful. "It certainly has, it certainly has." The Gay Auckland Business Association's appeal raised $4,500, while a GALS concert last month also raised $4,500. A number of people couldn't actually attend the concert as they were at the Outgames in Wellington, but paid for tickets anyway. The GALS committee covered all the costs, and didn't even take the costs of hiring a hall out of the proceeds. With the GALS proceeds they have scoured Trade Me and bought everything from a rover mower to a water tank, while there have also been contributions from the likes of the Wellington Young Feminists' Collective, which ran a bake stall at the Aro Valley Fair and made $370 for the couple. The money has gone to getting the property tidied up and the women are in raptures about the support, saying physical help at the property is also much-appreciated. Anyone who can spare a day or an afternoon to get their hands dirty would be welcomed by the Curnow and Leigh. "We'll be keeping pretty busy," Curnow says. "We've got quite a few other bits and pieces because the trouble is we've spent so much time [on the clean up] that everything else has got a bit neglected around the place. So there's always plenty of work if people want to come." Curnow sounds lighter than the last time GayNZ.com spoke to her, which was just a few weeks after the arson. "I think we're a lot better. There's something to be said about not having any signs of fire ... you can see the light at the end of the tunnel, to use a good cliche." Leigh has planted a tree and a number of bulbs in a corner bit of garden, where a small shed used to be, which has become a type of memorial garden. The police still have no leads, none that they have passed on to the couple anyway, which Curnow says makes them feel a bit sick if they hear a bump or bang in the night, or a noisy car goes past. "It freaks us a bit. But every day things are getting better." Jacqui Stanford - 8th April 2011