It's Good To Talk...

The week has been damp & grey & chilly - the temperature is still dropping down to a degree or so below freezing at night, with the days at about 5 degrees. The good news, however, is that the evenings are now appreciably lighter - hurrah!

Dreary weather or not, I went off to the Hill yesterday to lay weed suppressant on the paths & get a whole heap of bark chippings down - which are available free to collect from the park.

Predictably there were very few people about - only potager Chrissie a little further up, & secretary Haydn calling by on his way home.

"I don't know if you can help, I'm looking for some french beans - a particular variety, begins with a G, but I can't remember the name," he said. "We aren't very keen on French beans generally, but I was given some last year & they were lovely, & I'd like to grow just a few this year myself."

"Well, I'm not sure what they are either, I'll have a look at what I have later & let you know if I have any 'G's'."

I gave this some thought without success as I rejigged the remains of the weed suppressant onto the paths, then popped some empty manure bags into the car & went over to the park to collect bark chippings.

An hour of hard shovelling later, I had loaded eight bags as full with chippings as I could (whilst still being able to lift them), jammed them in the back of the car & headed back to the Hill where I unloaded them & emptied them along the paths, then tried to work out how many more bags I would need.

I was going a bit of a funny colour by this time, so retired to the club house for a breather where I chatted to the regulars, saying what I'd been up to & that I'd be going off to the park for another load of chippings to finish the job.

At that point, one of the chaps piped up to say that he works for a landscaping company & a lot of his work involves tree lopping and chipping. "I'll get the grab wagon & pop a couple of scoops of chippings on the back of the truck for next weekend, if you like," he said casually.

Wow - blimey! Brilliant!

So instead of further bark shifting duties, I picked KALE, a couple of LEEKS & had the top off a BRUSSELS SPROUT (falstaff) & went home to try to see if I had anything matching Haydn's 'G' french bean. I found that he'd sent me an email. "Climbing beans beginning with letter 'G' is Cobra. Well it does look very similar!!'

I haven't got any, as it happens, but a quick SOS on the GYO Grapevine has turned up trumps & I hope to have a small handful in time to give to Haydn next weekend.

Pass a good turn on, eh?