Remeber that I recently said it was 'clippy clippy time? Well thankfully this clippy clippy task is a once a year task. Every year I think I dread it more and more. Dread might be a little too strong, but it is not one of my garden chores I look forward to.
I even call it a chore! I don't regard gardening as a chore as I enjoy it. As the season starts to turn and the sedums start to get that little bit of pink that means they will soon be in flower, my mind starts thinking about trimming the pleached hornbeams. Trimming the pleached hornbeams is something that once I know it needs doing I start thinking of reasons why it isn't today. Its too hot, its too windy, I haven't enough time - the list of avoidance goes on.
Then the day arrives when I can put it off no longer: it is the Goldilocks day - not too rainy, not too hot - you get the picture. I know I have to get the ladder out and the tools and actually get on with it. So there I was the other day, all prepped and ready to go. Hedge trimmer, telescopic hedgetrimmer and chain saw on a stick laid out ready to go....
and I paused. I feel quite steady on my ladder, I am very fond of my ladder, but I do not enjoy going up ladders.
"Just pay someone to do it" started whispering around my mind.
"Just pay someone to do it"
"Just pay someone to do it"
"Just pay someone to do it" it was getting louder.... I ignored it and up the ladder I went for the first sweep of the hedge trimmers.
Back down the ladder I went to pick up the chainsaw on a stick,
"Just pay someone to do it"
"Just pay someone to do it"
"Just pay someone to do it"
"Just pay someone to do it" louder and louder.
No - I had to just get on with it and stop being a wimp.
Now there was actual progress, I could see where I had been. Yes I up, down, up down, move ladder, up, down and the voice was quieting in my head. Now enough was accomplished that I knew I had to finish the job.
I had to keep walking away a bit to see if I had missed a bit (I had) and was it straight enough (no, but close enough) and back up the ladder I would go again.
At the pond end of the hedge is a rather huge bamboo, it is a great plant but you can see there are tall hornbeam branches poking up behind it. I could not reach them not even with the chainsaw on a stick. I stood and pondered this for a bit, I walked around the pond trying to find a good angle but it was not going to happen. So the bamboo is going to have to have a bit of a trim, quite a drastic trim.
But not today, not this day, this will be another day and then hopefully I can finish the job.
and maybe next year I will pay someone to do it!
Take care and be kind.
