A GOOD JOB DONE!

Our garden isn’t that deep, but it's very wide, so around the perimeter is a fence that is about 100 feet long and it takes a lot of painting!  It backs on to Council-owned land with a grassy bank leading down to a fairly busy road and there are several very large trees on the bank.  

Over the years the branches of the sycamore trees have been hanging over our fence and shedding their seed pods into our garden, making at least four of Mr. HCB’s raised beds unusable because not only do the seedpods sprout into little sycamore trees, but the roots of the trees have invaded the garden.  You can imagine that he is not a happy bunny about this state of affairs.

Anyway, today was the day Mr. HCB decided that he would go out and lop off some of the branches and tidy up the hedgerow that appears to be growing outside the fence.  Obviously, before the houses were built, this hedgerow was prolific and it has now become a nuisance to us.  We have asked the Council about trimming the trees, but this request has fallen on deaf ears, although we realise they have much more important things to do with their money.  I knew it would be hard work and didn’t want Mr. HCB to be out there on his own, so decided that painful knee or not, I had to get out there with him.

We started at one end of the fence and got on very well - and it’s always much better when you can work with someone else, isn’t it?  After three hours, we had made great strides and as is legal, we have left the detritus outside the fence, but far enough away from the fence so that we can walk along and if necessary paint the fence, although that hasn’t been done for many a long year.  We have created a two feet wide barrier with all that we have cut down, so you can tell how much it was - but the man who mows the grass for the Parish Council will still be able to do his job beyond that.

The “blue corner” in our garden will benefit greatly as we have trimmed the blackthorn bushes right back and taken them down a good two feet, and there is now so much more light there.  I think the next job for me will be to paint the bench in that corner, so that we can sit up there and enjoy the vista along our herbaceous border.  

We have always been troubled by “Council” ivy and at the far end, on the other side of the fence behind our “blue corner” there was so much, not only growing up the fence, but also up all the trees and blackthorn bushes, so much of that has been taken down now.  There were several different species of ivy, and I rather liked both these in the collage - but would prefer that it was outside our fence, not inside!  It was very satisfying getting rid of it - and I couldn’t help but sing this song, made famous in the late 1950s by Bernard Bresslaw of the “Carry On” films fame.  Guess I will be humming this all day now, and maybe  you will do the same.  I don't think we will be going walking today - we both ache, so a sit and possibly a little "nod" in the conservatory will do us both very nicely, before Afternoon Tea with our neighbours.  Interestingly, I never thought about the CV situation once and we never even mentioned it!  Amazing how putting your heart and soul into something takes your mind off other things!

"Alone we can do so little; 
     together we can do so much." 
Helen Keller