Reasons to be Shearful: Path us the rake!

What better feeling is there than completing your first GoodGym mission, on an autumnal Saturday afternoon? How about completing your second the following morning, thereby doubling your mission tally in one fell (weekend-y) swoop? Well let’s not get ahead of ourselves, because hey this is still Saturday afternoon and who dares predict the future, but for Nik this may well have become a weekend of GoodGym firsts and seconds.

So, in pursuit of that maiden mission, Nik navigated the undulating hills of north Bristol on foot whilst somewhere in the south of the city, and following an earlier task at Windmill Hill City Farm in which mud was forthcoming, Fi made a quick (and in many ways, literal) pit-stop to swap out some mud-caked leggings, socks, and trainers before heading towards a rendezvous point near their mission destination.

A few buzzes of the doorbell failed to yield a response, so after some additional taps on the front door and allowing a bit of time for our host to appear, Fi decided it would be wise to give Mrs J a quick call to check that she was OK and happy for us to go ahead with the task. Fi was relieved to discover that all was well, aside from a rather flat doorbell battery!

On paper, the task was a familiar one (at least to mission veteran Fi): mow the lawn, tidy up the beds, all that jazz. Unfortunately, the heavens had opened earlier that day and the grass was soaked - not at all suitable for the electric lawnmower but what’s this? Clutching a pair of fabulous shears, Nik set to work on what can best be described as some ‘manual trimming’ of all that damp grass. Elsewhere, Mr and Mrs J’s front garden had made modest efforts to grow beyond it’s boundaries, so some trimming back of overhanging shrubs was needed. Some secateur-ing here, some shearing there, and the beds were looking ship sharp. A number of small and unidentified plants sprouted along the length of the path, and were plucked whole (mostly whole) and tossed into one of Mrs J’s three (!!) green garden waste bins. Still looking sharp from a previous GG-visit, the box hedge needed little more than a brief clearing of windswept litter that had accumulated under it.

Within minutes of us setting to work, Mrs J had set out a generous spread of biscuits and fruit squash, so once Nik and Fi had preened as many weeds and dead-heads as was humanly possible, and given the whole area a good treatment of Rakey Sweepey (err..), they tucked into some very thoughtful refreshments and bid Mrs J farewell.