Melissa, Graham and James met up on Saturday morning to tame Mr C's garden so that he can enjoy his lovely green space.

Mr C has a brilliant backyard garden area with a nice big lawn. He wanted it cut back with the strimmer and also the weeds along the path and in the garden to be removed. A big task called for a big team so we had the super-size number of 3 of us present to get stuck in!

While Melissa and Graham got cracking on the garden path, James got busy trying to get the strimmer started. The last time James had used a strimmer he was working on a camel farm in the south west of France. But that's a story for another day. Today it all slowly came back to him and after filling up on fuel and oil (correct ratio please) he was away at the races, complete with fashionable harness and cradle.

There was a slight hitch when the plastic thread broke, leading to a prolonged effort at removing the spool housing to replace it. We even got the instruction book out. The answer: an allen key. Of course. Allen keys are the answer to everything.

Eventually we got back up and running (official GG pun there) and finished the job. The lawn had enjoyed a nice close cut this morning, while the weeds were dispatched professionally. Before we left there was even time for Graham to demonstrate perfect sweep-lunge technique.