First of all, a lovely picture of poppies which which remind me of the First World War. They sit in our front garden.

Yesterday, we did a very hard days work dealing with a real wilderness of a customer garden.  This is not the prettiest of pictures but shows the left-hand of my partner Francoise. We were involved in a freak accident. I was mowing a fairly rough area with my trusty petrol mower. Francoise was about 4 m away, to the rear of my work, removing weeds from a small bank. She was wearing leather gloves.

Suddenly she shouted saying that she had been hit. I realise that a stone from the mower had flown and hit her hand directly. I must say I was very confused and did not know what to do. She went to sit down and nearly fainted from shock. The concerned house owner drove her to the nearest hospital where the ever kindly and gentle nurse said that she had probably not broken something but was severely bruised and should try to hold her hand upwards to minimise blood flow and pressure She should come back if there was any sign of infection. Her left hand cannot be used for the moment.

It is very difficult to see how this could have been avoided. I can be thankful it wasn’t her eye otherwise she would have definitely lost her sight. It does make me reconsider whether I should wear goggles when I’m working but having said that the chances of stones bouncing up as opposed to along would be infinitesimal.