poliphilo

Matthew arrived with two young people and set the garden to rights. They cut the lawns while he did the weeding.

When Julia says she's going to do the weeding she means she'll be picking her way daintily through the flower beds with a trowel. When Matthew says it he means he's going to lay into everything that doesn't move with a strimmer.

Sometimes I have dreams of doing artistic things with the garden. And then, after Julia has been absent for three weeks, Matthew shows up mob-handed and throws petrol at the problem.

But then gardening isn't really my thing. I get pleasure from the unplanned occurrences- like mint turning up in the flower beds and evening primrose colonising the crazy paving by the donkey shed.

"Oh, look," said Ailz, "One of his men is a girl."

They were a sweet young couple. "So, said Ailz, "Are you just friends or an item?"

""We're friends and an item" said the girl. "Best friends."

She had a new ring. A thick copper band. He's a blacksmith- and had made it for her. It was turning her finger green.

"Copper is good," said Ailz. "medicinal."

"I've worn a copper bangle for years," I said,. "For my arthritis."