A really vine time!

I was a slightly apprehensive at 14.59 when the heavens opened and I stood shivering being beaten by the wind, but no sooner did Shawn turn up, the rain thankfully moved on and we rang the bell to Mr L’s house. “Yes!” a loud, seemingly angry voice resonated through the closed front door. Quizzical looks between us, we assumed Mr L was just slowly making his way to open the door. We waited another few minutes, maybe he’s in the loo or turning off the hob or...maybe he just wants us to go away! We tried again, “Yes! Who is it?” After explaining who we were through the narrow letterbox, he shouted back, “I’m just washing my hair”. Not the response we were expecting!! Finally we were invited in and Mr L quite the jolly gentleman with his newly washed hair apologised and handed us some cutters so we could get to work on his overgrown front garden. The vines were wound all around the wire fencing, so whilst they were easy to pull up, it was a bit fiddly to remove the tightly twisted stems. I tackled the path leading to the front door whilst Shawn unknowingly got himself into a sticky situation with some cleavers (? need to work on my plant knowledge) which left him covered with sticky buds on his gloves, shoes and socks. We managed to save a curled up caterpillar and left the abundance of giant slugs, snails and woodlice alone, but apart from those we managed to de-vine and de-weed Mr L’s garden with great success. Before saying our goodbyes, Mr L told us a few fascinating stories about his love of planes, with his flying certificate proudly displayed in the hallway. He then waved us goodbye and we both ran our separate ways home. Nice to meet you Shawn - see you on another mission or Ally Pally park run soon!