She was a friend of a friend of a friend.
She was a sole parent, living in a tidy looking suburban house in a rural town.
I'd been introduced to her at a gathering of friends a week before and we discovered we lived only a mile from each other, and for some reason the conversation turned to gardening.
Her front lawn was manageable I remember her saying, but the back was overgrown and the tool she'd bought just wasn't up to the job.
So I offered to lend her mine.
My strimmer was a year old and very versatile with regard to what it could quite thoroughly cut away from the thickest grass to nettles and brambles.
Her's was, by her account, a bit weak and just about able to cut a little grass round the edges of the lawn, which as I found was barely visible thanks to the vegetation that had sprung up where nicely cut grass should have been.
So I set out on a Sunday morning carrying the strimmer a mile up a quiet road to her house.
The day felt fresh, and the sun rays lent a great, steady green to the foliage swaying in the late spring breeze.
Her house, from the outside, looked immaculate.
I knocked on the door, to be greeted by an array of children, and what looked like a fairly chaotic household.
She made me a cup of tea first, before going on to list a load of issues she had with the waste management system of the town, giving examples of extortionate prices for collecting garden waste.
I nodded, not necessarily in agreement, but to indicate agreement and a need to get on with the job for I had a whole load of other things to do that day and I had hoped this would be a five minute job.
As it happened it was more of an hour job.
But the strimmer was up to it.
It cut away everything that she did not want to be there.
I offered afterwards to get my lawnmower for the grass, but this was an offer I didn't whole-heartedly want to her to take up - more an act of courtesy.
Thankfully she said she had her own, with a trace of defensiveness as if I was implying she had no idea about garden tools.
I felt a bit embarrassed because I had not considered she might just have wanted to save a bit of cash by getting a second hand, and rather inadequate strimmer.
She showed it to me in the garden shed.
It was evidence enough that she really did need to think about getting a quality tool.
A cup of tea later and I was on my way.
It is odd sometimes how for little reason at all apart from human kindness that you offer to help a half-known stranger to do some garden work.
Maybe I just like drinking tea.
She was a sole parent, living in a tidy looking suburban house in a rural town.
I'd been introduced to her at a gathering of friends a week before and we discovered we lived only a mile from each other, and for some reason the conversation turned to gardening.
Her front lawn was manageable I remember her saying, but the back was overgrown and the tool she'd bought just wasn't up to the job.
So I offered to lend her mine.
My strimmer was a year old and very versatile with regard to what it could quite thoroughly cut away from the thickest grass to nettles and brambles.
Her's was, by her account, a bit weak and just about able to cut a little grass round the edges of the lawn, which as I found was barely visible thanks to the vegetation that had sprung up where nicely cut grass should have been.
So I set out on a Sunday morning carrying the strimmer a mile up a quiet road to her house.
The day felt fresh, and the sun rays lent a great, steady green to the foliage swaying in the late spring breeze.
Her house, from the outside, looked immaculate.
I knocked on the door, to be greeted by an array of children, and what looked like a fairly chaotic household.
She made me a cup of tea first, before going on to list a load of issues she had with the waste management system of the town, giving examples of extortionate prices for collecting garden waste.
I nodded, not necessarily in agreement, but to indicate agreement and a need to get on with the job for I had a whole load of other things to do that day and I had hoped this would be a five minute job.
As it happened it was more of an hour job.
But the strimmer was up to it.
It cut away everything that she did not want to be there.
I offered afterwards to get my lawnmower for the grass, but this was an offer I didn't whole-heartedly want to her to take up - more an act of courtesy.
Thankfully she said she had her own, with a trace of defensiveness as if I was implying she had no idea about garden tools.
I felt a bit embarrassed because I had not considered she might just have wanted to save a bit of cash by getting a second hand, and rather inadequate strimmer.
She showed it to me in the garden shed.
It was evidence enough that she really did need to think about getting a quality tool.
A cup of tea later and I was on my way.
It is odd sometimes how for little reason at all apart from human kindness that you offer to help a half-known stranger to do some garden work.
Maybe I just like drinking tea.