I did a bit of hedge cutting the other day.

That sounds very fancy and conjures up images of a nice neat hedge, but it was actually a case of hedge-hacking. I had to remove about three feet off the top and off each side. The hedge now looks like a head of hair that has been cut by a blind man wielding a blunt pair of scissors. This of course meant a garden full of mountains of cuttings. I couldn’t be arsed to clear them up so I left them.

Yesterday I decided to shift all the detritus so I filled the first barrow-load.

Now stuff like that gets dumped in my “land-fill” site in the North Woods. I wheeled the barrow down the path and found my way blocked. Where there had been a path between the banks of nettles and brambles there was now a wall of tree trunk and knotted massive ivy growths. Fuck! A tree had blown down at some point and brought all its coat of ivy with it. The path was completely blocked.

I examined the mess and decided there was no way I could cut my way through it. It would be a long job as the tangles meant I couldn’t use a chain saw and everything would have to be cut away by hand. Not a fucking chance!

I had a look around and realised that it might be possible to hack my way through the undergrowth and bypass the fallen tree altogether. Problem solved. I could just leave the tree to rot. I started hacking and made great progress.

I broke through finally and found myself in a lovely glade that was clear of all weeds apart from a carpet of ivy. Fantastic! I spent the rest of the afternoon collecting all the hedge cuttings and barrowing them through my new path into the glade where I dumped them in the far corner.leaving tons of room for all my future garden rubbish.

Then the thought crossed my mind.

Had I in fact broken through into my neighbour’s land?

It’s done now anyway.