Last Autumn our lawnmower finally went phut. Died. Ceased to mow. Went to the celestial greenhouse….
Being somewhat disorganised, and reluctant gardeners at that… we haven’t got around to replacing it yet.
So when the boy’s teenage mates came around to play football on our lawn… they were faced with an over-the-knee meadow with a set of goalposts just visible at the far end.
Imagine then, how gobsmacked we were when a set of German teenagers popped indoors to see me and my husband and asked: “Do you mind if we mow your lawn?”
They went and secured the requisite tools from their own homes and before we knew it, there was a buzzing and growling of electric and petrol motors at the far end of the wilderness garden.
I had to go and see this with my own eyes… and indeed it was an amazing sight. It was as though the team from Ground Force had descended. One lad asked me (in polite English) for some “big scissors” – by which I assumed he meant shears – and proceeded to prune the bushes too.
The whole thing took them about 45 minutes.
And did they still have the energy left to play football? Yes… of course! Once they’d stocked up on calories from the fridge!
Teenage boys! What’s not to like?
6 Comments
June 8, 2008 at 11:54 am
They are more than welcome to come over to my yard anytime
June 8, 2008 at 7:22 pm
Do you think they would be interested in an International exchange program? I have two guest rooms and an acre of land. Oh and a great lake for swimming after.
June 9, 2008 at 1:03 pm
Now *that* is amazing!
June 12, 2008 at 1:18 pm
Fantastic! You’re a genius. I wonder how I could convince my sons’ friends to do the ironing?
June 13, 2008 at 7:19 am
Ironing’s a tricky one… because self-interest is at the heart of this. Maybe if they were putting on a school play set in a laundry?
July 21, 2008 at 5:21 pm
hmm. I hope this doesn´t create a situation where you think *all* teenageers are like this!
It might start causing problems if you spread these ideas about too much.
Of course, the way to get stuff done is for it to be mutually beneficial, preferably fun and not too onerous!