Actions Speak Louder Than Words

I’d been complaining to the local school for eons about their hedge – it had grown so big that we were getting no sun in our back yard, and Dione was finding it impossible to dry the washing. The lawn was a mud bath, and the concrete was green and slimy due it the permanent wet-ness of it all.

So when Dione was away on her retreat weekend, I decided to take action. I suck through the fence (we have a secret gate (it’s a long story) and did a hack and slash job on a section of the hedge. I left all the cuttings in a huge but neat pile.

On returning to our side of the fence, Hope was aghast, informing me that it was illegal to cut somebody else’s hedge (sometimes I hate brainy kids). I was wondering if we would hear from the school, but was planning on repeating my escapades this weekend with a view to getting the entire length done in another three weeks.

But my plans were not to come to fruition, as our kids woke us up on a lazy Sunday morning, with great news: ‘Mum, Dad, an Indian with a red spot on his forehead is cutting down the trees!’

A few hours later we saw that the Indian had trimmed the hedge down to the top of our fence, but at both ends, where the neighbours properties started – the hedge was left just as it was – big and bushy.

So after 6-8 months of complaining, a little action on my part spoke louder than any words I could utter down a phone line.