End of the rose

When I bought the house in 2000, it needed a lot of working doing to it. Although I was earning good money at the time, I couldn't afford to spend a penny on the house - in fact, I was amazed I'd been given a mortgage - as I was paying off all the debts whose provenance we needn't go into.

Eventually, though, I could afford to start the renovations, which were largely carried out by an excellent chap called Graham, who appeared to be able to turn his hand to anything. At this time, I was working on a project in New York, although based at home, which was a very satisfactory arrangement, not least for the periodic trips out to the Big Apple.

On one occasion, Graham and I were chatting about the work and I was lamenting the garden, which consisted largely of a steep slope, with a flat bit at the bottom. I asked Graham if he knew any good landscape gardeners who might be able to terrace the slope. After a brief pause, Graham suggested he wouldn't mind having a pop at the job himself. And so it was that we hired a little JCB digger and Graham got to work on converting the unusable incline into some terraces, resembling, I've just realised, the ones I grew up seeing in Hong Kong. 

One afternoon, I was at my desk, which I'd set up in a bedroom at the back of the house, working whilst watching Graham's activities. He'd ended up with a steep track in one corner, which he used to get the JCB in and out of the garden, but as the earth compressed, it seemed to be getting steeper. Finally, negotiating his way back onto the lawn on one occasion, the JCB tipped suddenly forward, and my heart leapt into my mouth! But with lightening reflexes Graham managed to put the digging arm out in front and stop the whole contraption from toppling over. It was very impressive.

He was undeterred by the incident, thankfully, and I ended up with a lovely terraced garden with steps down the middle, on which I hosted an annual summer barbecue for everyone on the street for the next eight years, until I moved out. The bottom terraces had rose bushes all along the front but over the years they have become overgrown and unmanageable, so yesterday we cut them down (although we still need to get the roots out). 

There were just a few roses to be harvested, which the Minx put into vases in the kitchen window.