Overheard by a bonfire, last week :
‘I’d rather not get on my knees and blow today, thanks’
In Stackpole, Pembrokeshire, which if you haven’t been is like The Shire by the Sea.
Driving from Doncaster where I’d been rather Catweazled by a few days without power or mod cons, to a VERY remote and far away land that used to be a HUGE stately home and over 30km of paths and two beaches, no three..
Cast of characters:
Kev: muscular but largely silent and self deprecating squaddie, unfazed by locked doors and once he’s made his mind up goes for it. Enactment of ‘All because the lady loves’ for the 21st century. Can’t see what all the fuss was about, ‘wouldn’t we have climbed up to the bedroom window and posted ourselves in like a letter’?
Room entered by our future SAS hero, Eleanor and Adrian, the couple who make OXO Katie and her husband from the adverts come alive for us. ‘So there really are married couples who live in harmony’ apart from our genial almost fairytale leaders, who seem a cross between St Nicholas and Gladys Aylward and Larry David ( in appearance) with Felicity Kendal.
Beatific and be-haloed, smiling serenely as all around is mud and persons expecting help ( ranging from failed light bulbs to dropped sausages).
Gerry, who wants to be seen as the sarcastic sage but is really a tea making genie. Also fire expert, but wanted no credit for his skill.
Gemma, feisty young career girl who is unflustered by her rather unpredictable life, with egos demanding trousers to be found that are inches away from them.
Julie, who seemed to be always laughing and was the queen of the dishwasher. This dishwasher guru was so immersed in it she even quizzed the chef at the pub about their dishwasher’s foibles.. !
Lovely John, who truly was easy going- you’ve heard of this quality but rarely seen it.
Moss, who had a huge smile on his face as each tree succumbed to his axe action, with an apparently inexhaustible amount of energy that necessitated a lengthy walk after a *fairly* demanding day of sawing, dragging, lifting and plodding through sticky mud with brash…
Sonja, the German gal, keen to improve her English and mentor to Moss, with that characteristic straightforward German straight talking which we find quite humorous, when compared to our general vagueness and tendency for understatement..
Example( from a categories game later that week):
Me: Hairy Pear?.. I’m not sure if that’s…
Sonja: No. Hairy Pear is not allowed.
So what were we all up to? Coppicing in woodland that has the stickiest squelchiest slippiest mud, which made dragging brash to the fire quite a challenge.
There I go again with my British understatement.
Once again we have a group that would never have met if we hadn’t all decided that Stackpole in Wales and working in woodlands and volunteering our services for the NT for a week at a modest cost for food ( delicious) and accom ( actually very wonderful , a single room to ourselves each instead of a dorm) sounded like a frabjous idea.
Which it was.
Rain and mud notwithstanding, we had a super time and I got to do the bonfire and came away with a stool that I had made from wood I’d chopped, shaped and fitted together ( mostly) and Julie and Adrian’s help at the end when time ran out was MUCH appreciated.
Thank you all -and the Vikings Adam and Alex- for another amazingly ‘green gym’ working holiday.
Retired but not retiring 