Motorcycles safer
than gardening...?
by Roger Moroney
W
ell? Yes, quite well thank
you, as we head into
another year aboard
this ever-increasingly
strange planet.
Although, as well as can
be expected, I should add. As a few
days ago I fell out of a tree. Yep, the
old summer pruning had to be done
and in the way I had done it for so
many years past I got the battered
old aluminium ladder out, unfolded it
to double its height, placed it against
the uncertain branches above and
up I went. Mini-saw in the pocket and
the clippers clenched in my left wrist.
It all went well and the top branches
came tumbling down to earth, to
make room for the next ones which
I will deal with at the start of the
next year. Sort of an annual habit.
A very familiar one... and it was
that familiarity which led to my
tumble through the tree (which I
daresay was chuckling with glee)
and onto the ground below... the
ladder collapsed also and pinned
my right ankle at a terrible angle.
You get very familiar with
these common exercises, and
we all know that saying about
familiarity breeding contempt.
It certainly trapped me.
So there I was, lying on the deck,
trapped by the ladder-pinning ankle,
and aware that my left arm was
rather sore... and rather scratched
up... although scratched is an
understatement. But I managed
(after yelling for help a couple
of times) to untangle myself and
70 KIWI RIDER
Safer than pruning a tree? Possibly.
Photo: Greg Smith/iKapture