How fair is a garden: gardener and handyman too: works for love mostly: E:book serial episode 134

What a great day, time for the weighing and the measuring, Jim's off to a great start.

Well the measuring was OK and the scales?well!

Taking his new electronic scales out of the box and standing on them in the buff Jim looked down for his weight to show up. Nothing happened. He shook the scales, nothing happened, he cursed the scales, nothing happened, he gave up, nothing happened.

"Either I've been sold a pup or there's more to these scales than I anticipated". He rummaged around in the box and pulled out a thin sliver of instructions, he checked for the battery, yep, it was there, never much of an engineer Jim thought to himself, this can't be all that difficult. So he began following the directions, it talked about the screen and the figures which would show up, something abou BMI and fat to body mass and various other measurements, like yesterday, well he didn't have these scales yesterday, so how could there be any? then it said person 1 and 2 and 3....Jim was getting cranky, these scales were just for one person, and that was he. He weighed himself again, by now something had to come up and it did, he went to person 2 thinking he'd start again, all he really wanted was his weight today, he re-read the instructions and then carefully worked through them, person 4 just came up with a ridiculously high figure and required him to select whether he was male or female, what the hell did that matter to his weight. He started again and now he was person 4, and there were only 10 setting and the way he was going he'd get to 10 and still not be able to weigh himself. Person 5 gave the usual false reading and he bent down and lifted the scales slightly on one side, they went blank and then voila there it was ready to go, showing 0 or many combinations of zero it struck him. He placed himself squarely on the scales, this time he received none of the garbage and once the digital reading had settled it looked as if this was his correct weight, but he couldn't tell how much he'd put on or if he'd lost any weight yet as he didn't know what his usual weight was he just knew his trousers were too tight.

Dressing casually with appropriate walking footwear he took off for his walk, having had a light breakfast and his walking was brisk and he seemed to go a little further in the time allocated. Back for a swim and he must really buy another couple of pairs of swimmers, the damp ones were always unpleasant to put on. Perhaps this afternoon. At least to-day he had all to himself, no Rachel, what a blessing, he couldn't get back to work fast enough so he'd be free of all these concerns.

Somehow he'd not managed to make any provisions for ironing and that knowledge haunted his brain ever so slightly, he'd get around to it before long. Today would be a carefree day. Going out to let the cats in to be fed he noticed old Sam had come in and was setting about his gardening duties. So off he went for a quick chat which turned into a long one. Jim could already see progress and excusing himself for a minute he fed the chooks and picked up the eggs, before returning to talk once more to the old man.

He had some plants in already and pointed out the tomato plant which he'd got in especially for Mary as that was one of her first gardening successes. He'd laid out some garden paths and had already commenced paving in the old fashioned way, not the rigid brick like effect seen so often nowadays. One thing about engaging an old gardener who loved his work was that he knew about the way things used to be done didn't just stick rigidly to modern practices which had everyone's care free gardens which were not gardens at all not even having a bit of grass for the kids to run around on.

Mary had loved her garden started by her great Uncle in the little village they had just left and maintained by Jeff in the same old way which was a great delight to Mary who discovered she had found a new interest in life. along with the garden she too had blossomed.

They discussed money and Sam produced his docket made up to today for his wages, it looked very modest indeed, he also accounted for the expenditure of the $500 advance jim had given him for gardening supplies and said he would need about $1000 more. Jim had a stack of money inside and so was pleased to be getting rid of some of it. He went in and returned with the money and Sam signed for his wages, winking as he did so, "just between the two of us, as we discussed before, giving Jim a broad grin. Jim smiled and nodded his consent. Sam indicated what he was doing and was going to create a better environment for the chooks not just simply the dry earth which they loved to ruffle their feathers in but also some seedy thing for them to pick at, and indicating that they needed some shell grit for the egg shells to be hard, not soft. Everything that Sam mentioned he agreed to as the old man was being so thoughtful and had listened carefully to everything Jim had asked of him when he had been hired. Taking him inside the shed with him he said that he should not disturb Mary as she was brest feeding when she came home but to expect her to join him from time to time when time and circumstance permitted as she loved the idea of this part of the garden. They discussed where Jim should leave his money every Friday, and Jim asked him to leave a note and the dockets for what he bought here for Jim to collect, he didn't want Mary to have to bother about such things as with five babies to look after she would have her time cut out.

"What an incredible thing, and what a blessing from our good Lord" confessing he was a Catholic and there was nothing more precious to Catholics, especially the older ones as the cration of a new life. Jim said they were Church of England, but agreed that babies were indeed a blessing, thanking God he could afford them and thanking God he had been born male not female and the old man joined in his laughter.

It had been a great hour or so in the garden with the old man and Jim left him happily to his work, he was just so happy to have another job at his age, counting that amongst his Catholic blessings.

Jim didn't have much in the way of gardening or handyman skills and was very pleased he had found Sam. "The will of God", the old man would say, Jim felt sure.

Returning inside he helped himself to a giant feed of fruit knowing Rachel would not feel happy if, when she arrived next week, she found the fruit going soft and rather inedible. Jim did recognise the fact that she really did have a keen eye for the best of fruit and vegetables. This stemmed his hunger and would do him for lunch so he set out for several hours to himself, attending to his own needs and some more little things on his list. One thing he had forgotten about until now was a stroller for triplets, he didn't know if such things existed and could never recall any woman out wheeling triplets in any sort of stroller. No doubt 'everthing for babies' shops would be able to help him out.

He had taken the words of Sir Hugh very seriously when he commented on his suit, and not knowing how well he'd get into his suit pants for return to work he slipped into a rather exclusive men's wear shop to buy two new suits and a collection of new shirts and ties, specifying he wanted them to fit well around the neck, he had seen a TV personality with a well fitting shirt and a wonderful tie and could too often recall so many men whose shirts did not sit well around their necks, Not quite to the standard of Sir Hugh's tailor but very elegant none the less.

This made him feel just so good and he enquired if they could recommend a suitable shoe shop and on their recommendation he took himself off and bought two pairs of dress shoes suitable for work. This made him feel even better. He bought some other items and called in to see what was offering in triplet strollers and he could see for himself 'not a lot' although twins were especially well catered for.

Hunger started to gnaw away at him again but he resisted it going into a cafe and ordering a pot of good quality green tea (supposed to help with dieting) and then sat sipping it before taking off to visit Mary once more, selecting a beautiful bunch of red roses on the way.

For once Mary seemed to be thinking of things other than he new baby girl and even asked about the cats and whether they were adjusting to their new environment but he hadn't allowed them any freedom outside and on her instructions he undertook to supervise their transition which would hopefully be over when Mary returned home. She spoke nothing of the twins and all these things were beginning to make Jim rather concerned but it was still early days and perhaps she was just shutting off briefly while her hospital stay lasted. He certainly hoped so. They wandered around the garden together admiring the landscaping and the design and layout but soon it was time for Mary to go back and feed the triplets and Jim took his leave to visit the twins.

"Where have you been?" enquired his mother and Jim gave some explanations which she was not all that happy with. "So now you can bath your babies and get them ready for bed before they have their tea, and would you like to join us son?"

Jim could smell a baked dinner in the oven and he felt by now he needed a good feed, he'd walked a lot that day and surely he could now eat.

"Well, mum, I'm on a diet, as you know"

Mum and dad just looked at each other, 'OK then, we'll give you a bit less and you can go home after the main meal while dad and I have some nice hot sticky date pudding with thick custard. Perhaps you can fill up on fruit at home, that should help your diet and with this Jim went about his chores playing with his now tired and fretful babies, they were obviously hungry and he was to find that after they'd eaten they would go to bed very happily and the three adults could have their own dinner in peace. Jim just hoped that tomorrow he would weigh a bit less and he was looking forward to his day of golf, wondering if he could stay longer this time and still manage his visits to Mary and the twins. But tomorrow would bring a big surprise.