taking the hard out of hard rubbish

Our local council has organised a hard rubbish collection day for today. Thus my walk to the station this morning was spent looking at all the good stuff that my neighbours have decided to rid themselves of: old computer cases and garden clippings are at the top of the list. Probably most of the really good stuff disappeared in the night.
Consequently, Justine and I spent a large part of yesterday moving an endless chain of debris from the back yard onto the nature strip. This included the remains from the destruction of our shed (see previous entry). These remains consisted of a number of hardwood supporting beams which needed to be cut in half to satisfy the council’s pick up requirements. Not being possessed of power tools such as a chain saw, we had to use a hand saw to cut up the timber. A tiring and physically demanding job. Justine had cut up about half a dozen beams on Saturday and so 10.00 am Sunday morning saw me bedecked in safety glasses and knee pads, wielding the saw before a small mountain of wood. I cut up one beam. I cut up another. I stood before the small mountain disconsolately- it was not looking much smaller. I must have cut quite a pathetic figure.
As I stood in the driveway gazing at the wood a jaunty figure in green sporting a plaid waistcoat (he later informed me this was his “vistin’ clobber”) wandered past (on his way to buy to alcohol, as he later also informed me). He smiled at me and my big pile of wood, I weakly waved my saw at him and he walked on.
I was just about to start on beam number three when the man in green returns. “Do I want a hand?” “Really?,” I respond. “We can get through this in no time,” he says. And he did!! As I held the lengths of timber in place and listened to him talk about the merchant navy, living in Newcastle (England) as a youth, the English football/soccer team, the Spanish Armada, crosswords and Charles I he cut through that wood like butter. It took him about 20 minutes. It was magic.
So thank you Bernard for your random act of kindess. Newcastle is definitely my soccer team for evermore.
And the neatly stacked wood on the nature strip? It too had disappeared in the night to a new home.