Calling in the big guns

This morning I arrived on the doorstep of the gardening gurus, David and Anke Way, to let them know that we had come to cut their willow (which they had kindly offered us). “Oh, is it just you?” asked David. “Oh no,” I said. “I’ve brought the big guns.” The “big guns” being Uncle Alan, with his lethal-looking electric secateurs, Auntie Mary with loppers, plus Bek and me with sharpened snippers. We need the willow for Bek’s wigwam-making course next week. What would have been an enormous job for one person, was completed in less than an hour, leaving us with time to stroll round this amazing garden – famed for its snowdrop collection – and enjoy the sudden change in the weather. The Ways open their wonderful, mature garden a couple of times a year, as part of the National Garden Scheme. Their next open day is Wednesday May 25, from 11-4. For those of you who want to know the names of the lovely willow pictured, they are: Salix alba ‘Britzensis'(red) S. alba ‘Hutchinson’s Yellow’ and S. alba ‘Tristis'(almost black).