When I walked through Ms D's kitchen to the back garden, at first I couldn't see what today's ivy removing challenge was, as her patio area seemed quite clear...she then pointed to a very high wall at the end of her garden (accessible through a small "mind your head" shed), at which point my eyes widened..."I'm not that tall" I said.

At the end of her garden is a tall building, and the ivy had grown all the way to the top and encroached onto a small open area at the top, preventing (apparently...Ms D was somewhat sceptical) a door being opened, hence the request for the ivy to be removed.

Unfortunately to do that job required a decent length ladder, which wasn't something that Ms D had in her tiny shed (or elsewhere), so we did what we could from ground level using a step ladder, secateurs and a very useful pair of elbow length gauntlets to protect against the rosebush that was growing amongst the ivy - there was something quite satisfying about pulling at a strand and watching quite a few leaves fall down, but in reality we weren't going to solve the problem today with the tools that we had.

I agreed with Ms D that if she could get access to the building next door, it would be easier to attack everything from the top and let gravity do it's thing...