page 33 The flowers are blooming, Grass needs cutting, And the sheep are doing what sheep do best.

Page 33

The flowers are blooming,

Grass needs cutting,

And the sheep are doing what sheep do best.

I am back in the garden today, the spring flowers are finished now so the areas in the lawn where they were growing needs cutting.

“Mother have you got a strimmer” might as well ask you never know.

“Yes, but what do you want it for” why doesn’t she just say yes it’s in…..

“To cut the daffodils know they have finished flowering and the long grass in the lawn”

“Oh yes it’s in the garage, might need some petrol in it”

What! Where’s the, that’s man’s work and the inevitable argument.

baffled I go to find the strimmer, yes it’s in the garage, there is plenty of wire showing so I top it up with two-stroke and off I go. Brilliant so much easier I had a great time going round the garden slicing through nettles, brambles, dock leafs and of course the daffs and grass on the lawn. (I do like being destructive)

By the time I finally ran out of things to chop down, the wire had run out. Might as well replace it while I have the strimmer out I thought. Easier said than done, the head was jammed on tight, no way could I take it off. So I put the strimmer back in the garage and carried on with the garden.

When I went in to see mother later I mentioned the strimmer.

“Mother I cannot remove the head on the strimmer to replace the wire”

“Oh it hasn’t been used for ages so the whole thing probably needs a service” was all mother said. (Now I am really worried about the lack of opposition)

“Where do you take it for a service? Because we could take it up now”  

“I always take it to the place I brought it” says mother.

Not only am I getting her out the house, but mother is agreeing to everything. Now I know it might seem as if I portray my mother as a cantankerous person, but she always argues the point, that is the way she is and now she isn’t arguing.

Off we go mother giving directions and doing the passenger driver thing she loves to do, to get the strimmer serviced. Mother came in with me to oversee the operation. We explained the problem and the chap there had a look.

“This strimmer is unsafe to use” was the announcement.

“What do you mean I was using it earlier” I was shocked mother looked horrified and the bloke said,

“The shaft is cracked, you it’s beyond repair you were lucky not to be hurt”

Well mother and I just looked at each other and both asked how it could have happened.

“Someone has given it a hard bang to do this damage” the chap said.

“The gardener I had was always breaking things, never told me, I would go into the shed and notice” mother sounded completely fed up.

“We need a strimmer it’s easier for you, so I will have to buy a new one” mother is right, this also explains all the broken bits of tools and quite possibly the lawn mower not working.

We left with a nice new strimmer and on the way back I asked mother about the gardener.

“That one stopped coming when the lawn mower stopped working, which is why the other chap used his own mower.”

Well that explains why the garden, tools and everything else is such a mess.

Well now I had a strimmer that worked and was safe so I thought I would take advantage of it and do the topping (cutting the dead grass that grows in clumps) down the paddock. Off I went strimming away until, splat, yes the sheep had been in there and I ended up covered in their bi- product, to put it nicely.

Oh well a bit of sheep muck never hurt anyone, made mother laugh though.

Till next time