April 3, 2009

April 3, 2009
Today was my first day to start working at West Dean Gardens. The good thing about that was that after only working one day I get a weekend off. I had to be to work at 7:30 so arranged with Hilary, the owner of the B&B, to leave out some breakfast for me. I woke up at 6:20 and was dressed and downstairs by 6:30. To my surprise so was Hilary. I ate a cold breakfast and headed off to catch the bus.
There was a conflict in the schedule and it arrived at 7:23, 2.30 pounds for the trip, and dropped me at West Dean at 7:30. By the time I negotiated my way to the work shop where Jim Buckland was holding his daily meeting on updates and assignments it was 7:35 and I had to go in late. He was very good, reviewing all aspects and then ensuring people knew what to do for the day. Some are on longer term projects and some on day jobs. I was assigned to work with William, a 5 year employee on trimming and cleaning up the debris from the boxwood hedges. There are several of them inside the two walled gardens. I first cleaned up the debris from the fruit garden using a vacuum type of gas powered machine, somewhat the opposite of a leaf blower. It took a while to get the hang of it and it was a little awkward to get it in the right direction. Technology is great but it was a little easier using a push broom and a couple of devices that are handheld and act like claws making it easy to pick up fairly large piles of clippings. At 9:00 they stop for 15 minutes for a cup of tea. Nice group of folks and I am learning their names. Existing volunteers are arriving daily so I am also meeting them.
Back to work from 9:45 to noon. I went to the visitor’s centre and bought a sandwich to supplement the apple I had brought with me. Same work but now we have completed most of the boxwood and the public walks are very neat and clean. Most of the regular crew left work today at 3:00 but Will was working until 5 and I stayed until 3:30 to clean up and put some tools away. Then I caught the 4:15 bus back to Lavant. I was sore and tired especially in my arms. I had not done such hard steady work for years, but it felt good to be outside. Home to the B&B showered and lay down to sleep for an hour.
Met up with Charlie and Doreen Gurrey, the other guests and about 7:00 we went to the Earl of March for a pint and a lovely dinner. We stayed until about 9:45 when I hooked onto the WIFI and showed them my blog and we looked at Charlie’s website (axisweb.com/artist/charlesgurrey) You should see some of the very impressive work he has done. His memorial stone is on the April 2 blog.
At last I was able to see some email from Carol and the girls after signing up for a Gmail account. I’ll take my computer to Chichester tomorrow to see if I can access the Aliant webmail account. That’s all for today.