The NNs have got bored of watching me reverse out of my drive and have turned their hand to gardening tips. They're pretty smug themselves, having made their own garden 'winterfest' sometime back in August. Clearly, it is too much for them that CG and I leave our gardening tasks until the very last minute. Or, we start something but are then forced to break off in the middle and resume activity a couple of days later. This is unthinkable for the NNs. Everything they do is purposeful, goal-oriented and quickly executed; they wouldn't dream of leaving a half-full sack of dead foliage sitting around on the patio, as we do. Or did, until today. I exaggerate not - over the last few days, Herr NN has asked me at least 5 times when I might finish filling the sack, and each time he tells me about the garden refuse collection point in the village and reminds me of the opening times thereof. Today he caught me again. He stuck his merry little white head, Bavarian working hat perched atop, over the fence and asked me about the sack. Then he said something pretty much unintelligible except for the word wheelbarrow. I smiled and nodded for lack of a suitable reply. (This usually does the trick.) When I next looked up from my weeding he'd gone - only to reappear a few minutes later trundling a large wheelbarrow round the corner. I watched warily as he stepped over our fence, picked up my sack and heaved it onto said barrow. Then he sauntered off down the street, whistling. I was confused. Had he stolen my sack and all our accumulated dead foliage? No! He couldn't bear waiting any longer - and had simply decided to take the stuff to his beloved collection point himself! I am still deciding whether this was interference in the extreme or charming, old worldly helpfulness. You know, that poor harrassed Englishwoman grafting away while her husband swans round the Balkan States collecting airmiles, go and give her a hand, Rudolf, says Frau NN. Or (and much more likely) they have no faith whatsoever in our green fingers and refuse to just stand by and watch while a formerly Eden-like garden turns to rack and ruin?
When all's said and done, though, he saved me a trip down the road, so I'm not complaining!
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