Towering vegetation

 After the experience of 2020 when we were away from our French house (reluctantly) for five months, arriving to a bewildering amount of garden clearance, in 2021 we found a man to cut the grass every fortnight from March until we were able to do it ourselves. This time the period of enforced absence was longer still - nine months. We arrived in August and stayed a month, and  even though the grass had been seen to there was still a huge backlog to tackle. Looming large, both in fact and in our minds, were our hedges. There are two of them - one runs the width of the back garden, the other forms one border of the potager, and both have their other side in our neighbour's property.

This neighbour is new to the place, and we don't know him. Our impression is that he has no wish to know us, unlike the previous people who were happy to chat when we coincided and were generous with their surplus produce. Our unpopularity may be something to do with the number of bonfires we lit when trying to clear the contents of the fallen boulangerie. As a result the far side of both hedges, always inaccessible by us, were still out of reach, because the hedges are about eight feet deep!  A few years ago a doughty visiting family member who happens to be very tall found an old door which he put on top of the hedge and then sat on it and wielded the chainsaw and hedge trimmer -  but even he couldn't reach the far side. So the hedges were a problem, and one we couldn't solve by ourselves. As has sometimes happened in the past, we consulted our long-term French neighbours who live half a mile down the lane. They are very helpful and know everybody. True to form they suggested we seek the help of someone they knew, who lived very close and who would welcome extra money. It was confusing as both these gentlemen had the same name and we had to refer to them as J1 and J2! After inspection and polite negotiation along came J2 and worked extremely hard over three days to take our hedges down to a manageable height so that once again we could deal with them ourselves. As a bonus he knew our neighbour and obtained permission to cut from his side. How, we wondered, would he get up there to do the job?

He brought his elderly tractor round to our back garden, and attached to its front forks three or four pallets which acted as a platform. He then scaled a ladder propped against the side and proceeded to wield his chainsaw with alarming insouciance. When I suggested it looked dangerous he waved away my cautious British objections with a very Gallic shrug, and it wasn't until after the job was completed that I asked myself who would have been liable if he'd had an accident. Happily, for him, for us, and for his two young children who found our garden a great place for riding their bikes, he didn't.

The finished hedges looked trim as never before.

Of course his efforts resulted in piles of clippings. Disposing of unwanted vegetation involves for us bootloads of stuff and many trips to the local dump. But here our wonderful neighbour - J1 - came to the rescue. With considerable skill he trundled down our drive in his tractor, turned it round and attached a large and antique-looking trailer. I commented, 'J, I think you have done this before,' and he just grinned.

With a few webbing straps in place, the swaying heap was taken away. We had no idea what they did with it - I suspect farmers have pits they burn stuff in - and we didn't much care. For the first time in years the hedges were down and a weight lifted from us. Not only that, but in J2 we may have found someone we can call on in the future.

Amazingly, very little was spilled!