Karolina and Andrew were greeted by Mrs M with a large smile and an exclamation of "The young people are here!" It was a warm welcome indeed.

She led us through the bungalow and out into the large, well-kept back garden, where she took us on a tour of the various trees, bushes and flowers that she had planted over the years. She explained how she had lived at the property for nearly two decades, after having moved from Angola, and had continuously worked on the garden during that time. The fruits of her labour were obvious as she pointed out the plum trees, apple trees, pear and quince trees, along with rose bushes of various shades, and other foliage, the names of which I'm not enough of a plant expert to remember.

After the tour, we got to work. Andrew began mowing the lawn while Karolina planted a lavender bush. Next on the list was planting a cherry tree. This proved to be a challenge due to the large number of rocks and huge chunks of brick embedded in the soil. Luckily, Mrs M had all the tools available to prise out all of the rubble, so after a lot of jabbing and chopping and levering, we had a hole big enough to fill with compost in order to plant the tree. It really highlighted how hard she had worked to get the rest of the garden looking as good as it did.

We followed up the hard work with a quick coffee and a chat, then headed off to enjoy the rest of the sunny Saturday afternoon.