Luis and I arrived separately to MrJ’s house, Luis on foot and I cycled from parkrun, and it was clear straight away that this was going to be a lovely morning well spent.

Mr J sadly lost his wife in January, and until a couple of months ago he had been an avid cyclist and walker going out on one of his two bicycles daily. Unfortunately his health isn’t what it was so he hasn’t been able to cycle to the park for a walk, and he is finding the garden hard to manage. He told us how much his wife loved to keep the garden in bloom and showed us around his shed and workbench, and the garden house his wife had been fond of, apparently to get away from him - said with a twinkle in his eye!

Luis discovered Mr J was Chilean and that was that; los dos hermanos empiezan a hablar alegremente. I attempted to follow the conversation, and signed up for duolingo.

While I was weeding and sweeping Luis and Mr J continued chatting and Luis tied the lavender bushes and cleared the paths so they were no longer a hazard for Mr J, and the time went by so quickly.

When it came to the time to leave it felt like we were leaving an old friend’s house. Hopefully we can make a return visit soon to help clear the area around the pond which we didn’t quite get to today.