Thursday 15 October 2009

The perils of gardening

Who'd of thought that gardening could be such a dangerous occupation? In the space of a week I've so far managed to stab myself viciously in the thumb putting a hole in it and nearly cut the tip of my finger off, again, and that's before one takes into account the usual aches and pains of a gardeners body oh and of course all the day to day thorns and scratches.

Now I'm not saying that I'm particularly accident prone and certainly it's rare to have two such injuries within the space of a week but it does seem that the life of a daily gardener is filled with constant minor damage. I have many a memory of getting home tired and muddy, looking forward to a good hot wash only to discover a myriad of little scratches on hands and arms that hot soapy water really brings to your attention.

The thing is you have to take them not only as part of the job but also with quite a large dose of humour, the hole in the thumb thing was done by a broom handle less than a minute after starting work! A broom handle for crying out loud. I won't go into the actual explanation of quite what happened as it's not the most pleasant of stories so I'll just say the the handle was a hollow metal pipe and my thumb met it with force.
I've also seen the hilariously classic rake in the face situation, made all the more special as I could sadly empathise having done it myself: and don't get me started on secateurs snipping a little to close to the fingers (feeling queasy just thinking about it).

Then there's the clearing fallen leaves and weeds not realising there are also rose thorns or brambles in the mix; and why do Holly leaves become so vicious once they've fallen from the tree and dried? I've had Holly quite happily pierce thick gardening gloves before.Rose thorns that stick so deeply into the skin that you need to grip and pull a lot harder than originally thought.

But of course it's not just the tools and plants out to get you there's the creatures too, from cat poo hidden under leaves to Horseflies biting and hanging on, wasps, mosquitoes, ants and earwigs it's amazing the variety of punctures and bites one can accrue after one day in the garden.

So feel a little sorry for the gardener, yes it may be a beautiful job in the sun some days, but on a cold damp morning when the drizzle is soaking into the skin, a bramble has snagged itself to the back of your knee and there's a waft of cat poo we really do need that cuppa tea and a rest.

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