Andrew: The Gardener

As I was making breakfast this morning, I saw out the big window of the kitchen a compound worker, needlessly CHOPPING the limited shrubs and flora in the back garden ! YIKES! NO! I raced to put on clothes and figure out which key and double doors and then quietly approached the kind fellow dressed in the heat a full thick cotton coverall - just looking at him made me HOT.

So this fellow turns to me, he seems quite lovely, he is too thin,  so black his skin, and his eyes are so light - and he has an assuredly air of kindness around him. "Umm, why thank you for kindly tending to the bushes."

Well turns out he is a groundskeeper, his name is Andrew, and his smile is BIG and warm. Hoping that we can salvage what's left of the shrubs before Andrew ScissorHands gets hold of them I ask that we stop cutting off the tops and sides of the shrubs and for now let's just trim the front side only: In hopes that the more shrub grows up and to the sides the more we can protect the yard from the heat and reflection of the wall. Andrew seems to understand and not understand - so I reiterate without a long winded explanation of "why." And he replies oh - don't cut the tops. YES YES! Indeed! Fabulous! My stomach growls, I return to the kitchen to finish making breakfast - only to start thinking and again I rush outside to the front where it seems Andrew has already forgotten our conversation and has reverted to decapitating all the shrubs without prejudice. After reminding him of our conversation - I then proceed to ask how is it that I can procure more shrubs for the perimeter of the yard. Well - seems Andrew is the man to ask only he states that he would bring cuttings and plant them from bushes around the compound - fair enough fair enough - I say to myself and to Andrew maybe three yes? Here, here and here as I point to desert like ground - and what would be a fair price? a $1 per cutting?  Apparently very fair as Andrew came back in less then thirty minutes three big holes had been dug, with his gosh awful broken shovel, and there I had three new plantings! Only here a couple of days and indeed we have progress! So excited for three more but insisted not to worry about it today...Andrew would not have it and immediately returned with FOUR cuttings! YES! We were going to make a good team!