Pruning

A couple of weeks ago the boy and I had built a great pile of dead wood from the orchard and the woods, to form the base for a grand bonfire on which to burn all this years green pruning. Although we had covered it, the cover had shifted and I was feared that it might not burn.

Today dawned a good day to try it and the boy went down and managed to get a good blaze going, he then swarmed up the large willow tree and started to cut out all this years growth. I joined him as it's my job to feed the fire and put on all the green stuff. We spent a very successful and knackering 2.5 hours, cutting, lugging and burning. We left a tidy blaze and struggled to the top of the slope to the back veranda, which today was sunny and nicely sheltered, to open a bottle of local red.

Working like this after an hours walk with the dog is my utter physical limit and quite frankly I was desperate for a drink and convinced myself that I couldn't possibly put a bit of lunch together without a long sit down and a good slurp. This does not bode too well for my slimming resolve perhaps I will have to make a choice between slimming and DIY.

I did in fact get a local gardener to prune the willow last year and it cost 400 euros; I was so impressed with the hard, uncomplaining effort the boy put in that I might slip him a 100.