Straight Edge; Well Not Quite.

Towards the end of last week I reached high and strained muscles in my back, which are causing my previously broken ribs to hurt in addition to the muscle pain. In consequence, I have not been doing much for the last couple of days and have spent much of today sitting on a hard-backed chair reading (bending my back hurts). While I was reading I heard a very loud smashing sound outside of the house and discovered a gentleman on a large John Deere tractor using a grass cutter mounted on an articulated arm, trimming the trees along our road; he had obviously been employed to trim the trees on the land opposite our house.

During the day our daughter, Nicola, came round asking if I could shorten the wristband on her watch, which I was able to do. At the end of her visit I walked with her the thirty or so metres to the station bridge, before turning to return indoors. At this point the chap on the John Deere tractor stopped almost opposite me, to clear up some of the cut branches and pass the time of day. I asked him exactly what he was doing and he told me he was clearing that side of the road to enable vehicles to pass more easily. I jokingly pointed out that as I had not cut my Leylandii this year they posed a greater obstruction than some of the trees and he could cut those if he liked. Much to my surprise he said “fine, would you like me to cut them level with the chain” to which I replied that “I would if it was no trouble for him”, as I would not be able to cut them for some while, I then went indoors. When I went out later he had indeed done a very good job of cutting my Leylandii in a straight line above the chain, however, the straight line did not last for long as when the wind blew some of the branches which had been previously bent, sprang out spoiling that nice line. Today’s blip shows this.