Pepys business dealings – some inappropriate behaviour with women but all is made up. Pepys worried about time discipline and management matters.

A garden client of mine rang me complaining that when she woke up there were two cows in her garden (on her lawn more specifically). This is a reminder as if we needed one that we are living in the country not a town. Cows are not familiar with the niceties of land ownership and will therefore go wherever they think they can find food. My customer thought they had jumped a fence. Sure enough I found the source of the problem, a barely fenced section with barbed wire only 4′ high. The grass must have looked greener on the other side.

easy for bored and/or enthusiastic cows to jump over – and they did

Now, cows are heavy beasts and they have to support all their weight on four hoofs. Some idea of the pressure can be seen in the following photo. The hooves had gone into the ground about 9″ making a merry mess of any lawn or dug area.

messing up a lawn good and proper

The moral of the story, dear reader, is not to underestimate the ability of cows and deer to jump to get what they want. Deer will devour anything with a green shoot. Cows prefer grass.

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Monaluna

Today we have a new member of the family. I was taking some garden rubbish to the recycle (ex tip or dump) when I spied with my little eye (remember the original I spy books recently rejuvenated?) a stuffed deer right by the covered area in the middle of the skips. My other half has a ‘thing’ about deer so I saw this as an unexpected present. I asked one of the staff if I could have it and she said yes. It now joins a stuffed tiger, a smaller teddy bear, and a stone sheep called Lola.

It is worth looking at some of the subtleties of the recycle – what you can and cannot do. You CAN come in by car and put your rubbish in the appropriate bins. You canNOT walk in and do the same unless accompanied by one of the staff, from whom you have to get permission. If you want an item that someone else is bringing in, there is nothing to stop you intercepting them and asking if you can have it. However, the moment it goes into the skip it becomes the property and the responsibility of the council. If you want something that has been deposited you need to ask them and they are entitled to say no. If you drop something in by mistake which belongs to you they will fish it out. If you are uncertain where to put something don’t be shy – ask away.

PS I did see someone being told off for bringing some breeze blocks for recycling. There were evidently ‘too many’. We need to remember that the staff have to follow so many rules and regulations which probably change on a regular basis. They try their best but do get abuse.

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