Oh my goodness, what a difficult mission this was, one that we eventually had to admit defeat on.

We arrived at Mrs R's house, receiving a warm welcome from her and her small dog, appropriately named Titch, before heading out into the back garden. The grass and nettles were so high that we nearly lost our way around but nevertheless attempted to cut it down to a more manageable size.

Employing a strimmer, it became clear that this was going to be a painstaking task and before long the strimmer wire had been completely used up. Reverting to a small lawn mower, it quickly became apparent that this machine was not going to cope with the jungle that it was being asked to cut through, particularly as it was impossible to see anything hidden in the grass.

The lawn mower gave up the ghost when it struck upon what looked like a bone joint from a very large animal and it was then down to shears and hands to try and make some headway.

All the while Fi was doing a fantastic job of cutting back nettles and brambles from around the edges of the garden and getting this bagged up, whilst Mrs R kept us going with cups of tea.

We at least managed to clear an area for Mrs R to be able to access and use her washing line safely, but discovering the other hidden treasures lurking in the rest of the garden will have to wait for another day!