I arrived at Mr A’s on the other side of Hounslow Borough, it was a warm morning and Mr A was looking forward to having his front garden cleared.

The grass was tall and the path from the front gate to the house was completely covered. Mr A was prepared, he had charged the battery for the lawn mower and showed me to where it was kept.

The only problem was the length of the grass and the amount of tall weeds everywhere kept stalling the mower. It was like grass cutting in slow - mo.

After a few attempts to clear the mower I had to admit defeat on the mower, for now. So we went on a hunt to see if there were any tools or a strimmer at the back of the house. We couldn’t find shears or a strimmer, only a hedge trimmer which looked like it might not be on the Goodgym permitted power tools list. In the end I decided to focus on clearing the path so that Mr A and any visitors could get to and from the house safely. Mr A’s secateurs were put to good use before going over the edges of the path with the mower, without it stalling too often.

Hopefully Mr A can get hold of some shears or a strimmer and another mission will clear the rest of the garden.

Mr A now has a lovely pile of strawberries uncovered from beside the path. The sweet scent of (partial) success.