Telstales

Tag: choices

  • Shhhh…you woke me up

    So it was 3.20pm yesterday afternoon (or 15.20 in metric time!) and completing the initial strim round of two lawns in one of my customer’s gardens, I returned to my van to replace my ‘battery’ operated strimmer ( quite a quiet bit of kit) for my ‘petrol mower ( lot more noisier piece of kit!)

    I was greeted, as I was doing this turnaround, by the lady next door who suddenly decided to wipe over her window ledge (seemed to me like an excuse to be out there) as she turned to me and said…

    ” Do you know that you’ve just disturbed my afternoon nap with that thing?” ( I was hoping that she was talking to me and not my strimmer!)

    Now normally comments like like make me decide….

    -ignore it

    -comment back flatly

    -reply with an edge to it

    -engage in discussion mainly about the glorious weather day we were having

    -reply pleasantly

    …..I chose just to be pleasant.

    Then I thought, should I really have been pleasant?…. Well, yes if course I should, but it’s the middle of the afternoon not the middle of the night, I’m busy working and this neighbour has chosen to take a nap in the middle of the afternoon and just made me think, noise can be annoying to folk, yet things do need to get done at times (this garden takes half an hour once per fortnight!)

    In the end, in a light hearted manner, I just said, “oh, I’m sorry, it must be really nice to have an afternoon nap. And if my strimmer hadn’t woken you up then I’m sure my big mower would have!…. It’s really really noisy!

    Strimmed, mowed, brushed up (presumably my hand held, non motorised wooden brush would probably caused her distress too), quick chat with my customer and disappeared into the late afternoon returning home shortly after thinking, shall I grab some lunch or just take ‘my own’ afternoon nap, hoping no one disturbs me!

    now for a cup-of-T

    ( or maybe another nap later on!)

  • Happy Eater….

    Yes, I spelled Easter wrong but in reality, right!

    I don’t do Easter eggs, maybe I’m too old for that or they are just too expensively hyped up for that once a year gorging session whereby you feel really queasy after troughing through three and onto that fourth chocolate egg in 30 minutes as you realise the sell by date was 18th April!

    So, instead, I just eat, no, not the online ‘click-a-meal-delivery-in-ten-minutes’ thingy. I just over consume my way through the Bank holiday weekend.

    Because I can, and knowing fully, that all my consumptions will be burned off as I re-engage doing my favourite thing ‘gardening’ for my customers on Tuesday!

    Happy Eater!

    now for a cup-of-T….. (and some chokkie bikkies of course!)

  • Woah….Easter already?

    After crawling through January which seemed to last a few hundred days, suddenly we arrive at Easter!

    Where did February and March and the start of April go?… I think they should be renamed the ‘Blinkary’ months as to me they just disappear within a blink.

    Maybe as my gardening business for my customers builds up again after their November “no need to call now until March time thank you” is chanted to me time just speeds by as I bring back their Winter sleeping garden areas back into a lovely maintained condition bursting with life and vigour (their gardens, not me!)

    ‘No work Winter’ in gardens is a fallacy!

    I never tout for work, just explain that there are still gardening tasks to do over Winter yet most just stick to their “see you in March” chant.

    The Autumn leaves on lawns still hang around which are carefully removed as there’s always sleeping and slow moving insects beneath them so never wanting to destroy them, that takes some time.

    Yet borders and flower beds always seem to house a wealth of weeds growing within them, slowly growing even over the cooler Winter months ready to seize their opportunity to burst into flower and set seed ahead of the gardener arriving!

    Cutting back perennial plants which have ended their flowering displays for the year and a surface cultivation of borders and a lawn edging all helps to keep them looking at their best through the dreary Winter months.

    Maybe I need to learn to have my own ‘horti-chant’ back to sell my gardening wares to them…..I’ve got til late Summer to come up with one!

    now for a cup-of-T no

  • I was no ‘fool’

    It was ten years ago on 1st April 2015 that my long term and one and only employer made me redundant.

    This was after working at the Borough Council for over 36 years climbing the ladder from starting as a Landscape Technical Assistant in 1976 to becoming a Principal Parks Manager with this being my last titled post for over 20 years.

    Austerity was blamed, ha, maybe the ‘new’ regime that my section merged into didn’t like me and so as I reached the grand old, I mean young age of 55…woosh I was pushed.

    It was strange, as in the year before this happened I was quietly being sidelined. I felt something was coming. I was right. In November 2014 ( there had to be an agreed timeline to hit for my redundancy to kick in from 1st April 2015) my bosses boss ( gosh the Council’s hierarchy was gigantic!) I was informed face to face that my post was at risk (aka redundancy) but it was so strange as following those words I couldn’t hear anything else he said to me as he rambled on for what seemed like hours and hours (was just a few minutes really) all I could see above his head was the dark clouds of gloom ( which he brought with his management style) had parted and the sun popped out blazing away surrounded by clear blue sky.

    Nodding, I took his voice tone to be ‘positive’ for me, but I honestly haven’t to this day got a clue about what he said after he broke the (oh so positive) news to me.

    Funnily, representatives from the hierarchy and HR needed to communicate stuff to me, so I searched for and chose my email address as ‘teldetrop’, with detrop meaning ‘uneccesary’ or ‘unwanted’ as that’s how I felt. I’m sure with their low IQ they never worked that one out!

    Oh and through the timeline ‘consultation’ period my supportive Union representative who’s aim was for my job protection just told me to accept it, get out and do something else!…..which I did!

    …and a little poem I wrote after my redundancy kicked in….

    So here I walk away
    Redundant from today
    Tossed aside into the gutter
    As if it really didn’t matter
    Thrown into the brown wheelie bin
    All the work I had put in
    All the time, effort, expertise I’d got
    Just doesn’t seem to matter a jot
    From the people that manage and supposed to care
    Look straight through as if I wern’t there
    The bosses that reside at ‘archie brook
    Really did not give a fukk
    So head held high I journey on
    Lookin back over what has gone
    It was stripped away in front of all
    What a cheek what a gall
    As I drive away beyond a mile
    There’s one thing you wont take
    n that’s my smile!

    Oooh now for a cup-of-T

  • Eeek….ouchy 3 moment

    It was a simple task

    No need to gasp

    Pruning apples trees

    Up a ladder not on my knees

    Sun shining in the sky

    Everywhere was really dry

    One tree pruned

    I’m just so tuned

    Second one smaller tree

    Easier for me

    Final branch needed saw

    Hand held one makes an easy chore

    Found that branch was hard to saw

    But done this many times before

    Last pull back and branch is cut

    Felt stabbing pain, oh tut tut

    My other hand holding trunk

    Into my hand the saw had sunk

    Removing gloves it so did bleed

    Wrapping with towelling I so did need

    Packed up quickly homeward bound

    Cold sweats really did abound

    Lots of blood from my gardening chore

    Folk said “it’s a nick” don’t be a bore

    But it’s still my hand and hurt it does

    I don’t do pain, I make a fuss

    So ouchy 3 has come and gone

    I do wonder how long gardening I can carry on

    I love my work and the folk I meet

    But not much fun if I get buried down six feet!

    Yes, I’m a wimp when it comes to pain and blood and I work as careful as I can. Accidents are just that.

    Could I have planned the way I had worked on that second apple tree, of course…..but only after the event!

    So, off for a few days whilst my hand repairs itself…. Hopefully no more accidents please… My body can’t take it!

    now for a cup-of-T

  • My customers are always right?… aren’t they?

    Well, one of my customers wanted to control the moss growing on the lawns.

    So armed with appropriate equipment, aka watering can, lawn moss killer, canes to judge application areas, for the two tiny lawns of 60m2 in total, I thought, as I looked closely, that really the lawns are in good shape, few bits of moss growing, but mainly usual green coloured  grasses. Even after a cold, drab grey laden cloudy skies over the past few months of Winter has still kept these lawns looking good and healthy.

    So with my usual “Hi, how are you today? I’ll just put this Mosskiller onto your lawns,” she replied “Well, that’s fine, just to let you know that I’m selling my house and moving nearer into the middle of the Village.”

    And I replied “so when are you thinking of doing this?”…..”well, now!” she replied “the ‘For Sale’ board goes up next week.”

    So the ‘good gardener’ in me said ” so why are you spending money on trying to make a good lawn look ‘gooder’ when you will have moved out and someone else will enjoy what you’ve paid out for?”

    And she thought a short while, smiled  and said ” oh, hadn’t thought of that and you’re right of course!” and agreed that there was no need to do this gardening task and apologised, to which I felt one wasn’t needed!

    To me, if there’s no point doing a gardening task for a genuine reason then I always explain why it shouldn’t be done.

    At the end of the day, the customer is always, often, sometimes, now and again can be right, but never wrong as things just need explaining as to options or alternatives or just putting an explanation as to why something should be or not be, that is the question!

    now for a cup-of-T

  • 2pm snooze..my body chose it

    There’s nothing really wrong in just snoozing for fifteen minutes in the afternoon is there?

    I mean, tomorrow I’m going out to play working in folk’s gardens so I’m entitled to charge up my batteries before hand!…

    Well, that’s my excuse anyways.

    Now for some biscuits and cups of T!

  • It’s ending..it’s starting

    The end of 2024 brings with it the start of 2025.

    Spent some time this morning quietly thinking about the year of 2024 and all it brought, the good, the bad and the in-between. More good than bad which is good rather than bad!

    And as I look forwards into what 2025 may bring (more of the same hopefully) I won’t make any New Year’s resolutions, I never do, more because I can never stick to them, even after two hours of making one, they are usually broken!

    So it will be just to continue, enjoy each day and it arrives, try to be positive, be happy and not to be wasteful in all aspects of my life, including recycling as that’s important🤣

  • My route 66 turning point

    Ok so heading towards two weeks into 66hood and just pondering.

    I’ve been told it’s a milestone in my years, progressing from adulthood into OAPhood, yet in the visible turning of say leaves of tree which change from their colourful Summer hues into their Autumn leaf fall colours, which may I add are at time’s spectacular and dramatic colours to behold, yet, for me, nothing has changed.

    Not that I was really expecting any change. But maybe it’s just a significant point in my life to recognise and to just be thankful to have got to this point fairly unscathed. And that doesn’t take away any of my thoughts for others who have struggled and sadly not with us anymore. I’m just thankful for the life I have and even though my conveyor belt has been shaky almost like a rollercoaster at times. I’m just grateful for what I’ve got!

    My changes will come one day, maybe slowly, maybe quickly, for now though I carry on trying to make the most of what I have!

  • Life is just a conveyor belt!

    Life and all it contains, I see it just like a conveyor belt, you’re put on at the start as a baby and then you trundle along to the end and drop off as an oldie. Although sometimes the conveyor belt gets shaky and you fall off along its route. Hoping though along its route you can grab things to enjoy and experience and make memories you can hold onto.

    I say ‘conveyor belt’ as to me it rings true. Going back to my younger days as an early teenager working and helping the gardener at Bodrhyddan Hall near Dyserth, North Wales, there was a very overgrown woodland area to the side of the Hall. One day whilst tidying away fallen leaves adjacent to a service roadway and around St Mary’s Well, we uncovered a row of cobblestones about three feet wide which when scraping back again exposed more. We continued to hack back Rhododendron, Sycamore self seeded trees, fern/bracken, a mish mash of entangled bramble and scraping away years and years of deposited and decomposing leaf litter covered with mosses and aglae we exposed even more cobblestones which evidently exposed a path!

    It took a while to fit in the revealing of the cobbled path whilst undertaking all the usual gardening tasks needed to be carried out within the gardens around the Hall. This uncovered cobblestone path had junctions and circles at two locations and at the end was a stone structure which would have housed a bell. Now telling Lord Langford (9th) of our discovery he was delighted as he had totally forgotten about it being there and told us of the path’s significance. It was as he explained the journey of life, starting at St Mary’s well as a baby, proceeding and journeying along the path to the first circle which as the Lord explained was where the marriage took place and arriving at the second circle representing a point in time where children were born. Finally after journeying along the cobbled path to reach the bell to signify death!

    Not sure if this path still exists from it’s discovery in 1972, must make an effort to revisit before the ‘bell’ rings for me!

    However I can relate to this and my own analogy of life being like a conveyor belt!