The hotel does not employ the gardeners - they are employed by the National Trust, and so Joseph does not actually work for me. He is fairly ancient, and his sole job is weeding the cracks between the concrete on the pathways and roads. He has a small weeding tool with which he carries on long and animated discussions as they make their slow but steady way around the property, and he will accept no other work - so he is just left to get on with things. How long he has been doing this particular job, I have no idea, but he manages to keep the pathways clear, and he works from morning to late afternoon at his selected task, so everybody seems happy with the arrangement.
Occasionally he has a disagreement with his weeding tool, and he will throw it aside and stalk off muttering angrily to himself, but reconciliation seems to be fairly swift, and before long they are off on their merry way again, carefully weeding.
Today - however, I noticed that Joseph seemed not to be weeding the cracks between the concrete slabs (none of which had weeds growing in them anyway) - but he appeared to be weeding the slabs themselves. And then it dawed on me...............
Today is yet another bright sunny day - and Joseph has elected to spend the entire morning weeding the patch of shade on the edge of the carpark! I asked him to move into the sunlight for a quick picture of the extent of the carpark - because he was lost in the shade, but once the "shoot" was over - he made his way back into his little shady patch and started carefully weeding the concrete again!
Can't say I blame him!
No comments:
Post a Comment