Friday 2 March 2012

Don't mess with Elizabeth!!!

Just a year ago I broke the fork handle digging up a Pampas grass. See Here.

Well...


Yes it has happened again. Elizabeth gave me and herself such a fright digging up a Laurel bush.


The fork handle snapped and in the process hit Elizabeth on the cheek causing her severe pain. You could hear the cry in Tours.

She was very fortunate not to have done more damage to herself and is suffering with a large multicoloured bruise to her cheek.

I think this time we will buy a new fork with a short handle, together with a full set of body armour for me...

To protect myself from Elizabeth of course!!! The woman doesn't know her own strength.

7 comments:

Jean said...

Oh dear, it just goes to show how easy it is to hurt yourself without really trying.
I hope you have a full health and safety assessment before you attempt any more gardening. And I hope the bruises disappear soon.
(Chanpagne is a good painkiller, I have found !!)

Diane said...

Oh I am so sorry Elizabeth, hope it does not spread to a black eye as well. Diane

Susan said...

Thank goodness nothing is broken or badly wounded - and in that case I would hope for a spectacular black eye. After all, what is the point of an exitement like this if you don't get a proper black eye?

Tim said...

Hard luck Elizabeth... I would recommend a Bulldog Steel-shaft Fork... get one next time you are in the UK... in the meantime we can lend you a mattock.... if you want to get it out now! The shaft you put in looks to me as if it had the grain at an angle across the shaft... always a point of weakness if you are going to tackle heavy digging like that.

GaynorB said...

Lucky Elizabeth that the injury wasn't greater. Still it all sounds very painful ...
The moral of this is to sit back - well back - with a drink in hand and watch Colin do battle with the new fork ...

Colin and Elizabeth said...

Thank you Jean, Diane, Susan, Tim and Gaynor for your good wishes! Apart from looking severely jaundiced (on one cheek only!) I'm fine now.

I've always said I love looking at the stars... I do, however, prefer to see them at night, in the sky and not in front of my eyes courtesy of a wayward shaft of wood!

Colin stopped short of saying this is my second garden fork-related accident and the third fork I've managed to ruin! Could there be a pattern emerging here...

Thanks, Tim, for the offer of the loan of your mattock but we're playing for safety and have got a man coming with a tractor!!

Tim said...

I've seen other accidents with wooden shafts that have had cross-grain faults... And one of those was with a fairly new Wilkison Sword spade... personally I don't think they should be sold unless the grain runs true top to bottom of the shaft. An uncle of mine had a beaut of a fork... the front tang ran almost all the way to the handle... blacksmith made in a village near Guildford in the 20s... what skills we've lost!!