Kim and I had surprised our friends Jo & Simon by agreeing to help tidy their garden, which had got the better of them in the last few months. Not kidding!
Our sign clearly stated that our hours were strictly 11am to 3pm and that payment was via the provision of a long lunch… I had something along the lines of 12pm to 2pm in mind. In retrospect that was clearly very optimistic!
By shortening my run, we managed to arrive slightly early and but an initial survey of the task ahead suggested it might have been better to have arrived earlier still… like the morning before! It was a jungle!
Out came the hedge-trimmer and all our assorted favourite tools and in we waded. Jo had been very sensible in outsourcing their two young girls for the day, which meant we could get stuck right in, and very soon it was raining off-cuts. Which did not particularly amuse Kim as she patiently worked her way along the garden weeding and clearing the beds.
Oh, and it was raining too, my running weather finally having caught up with us. I put my faith in the RCD and soldiered on, pausing only for the heaviest of showers or when my arms occasionally complained about the weight of the trimmer held out at shoulder height!
Despite the rain, which was pretty much continuous, it turned out to be a really fun day, though we felt shortchanged by a fifteen minute lunch-break around three-o’clock. Jo had managed one car-load to the tip before it closed, but thanks to Simon removing most of a tree and my insistence that we cleared the pavement outside too, they still had a garage load of garden waste to take. We finally stopped after eight hours of hard work… and we hadn’t even touched the rear garden!
The transformation was profound though, particularly as Kim had cleared the edges of the lawn to show it’s flowing design.
After a sublime hot shower soothed away the muscle strain and banished that damp feeling that you get from working in the rain, we were properly rewarded with a cold glass of Chablis and a truly delicious meal.
There really is very little in life that beats good honest manual work, fine food and great friends!
