Conversation over dinner

B. I see you were using that garden kneeler with the handles today.

G. Can’t get up off the ground after weeding without it.

B. You mocked me for buying that a few years back.

G. True. I did then. But the operative phrase is “a few years back”.

B. Have we gone downhill that fast?

G. The front garden certainly has. Now the fishbone fern’s taken over, passers-by probably think it’s a deceased estate.

B. They’d sure laugh if they could see our ancient garden tools. That fork with the broken handle and missing tine you were wrangling with yesterday. Our blunt saws. The rusty push mower we have to kick start.

G. Those tools’ll keep on keeping on. Like us. Remember my mother. At 90, she could still turn off a tap no human could turn on again.

B. And at 92 climbed out the back window of the garage after she’d locked herself in.

G. The crunch won’t come until we can no longer manage to put out the bins on Thursday nights. 

June 2021