英语播客 A Cup of English 363 A Tour of Homes: The Tool Shed.

For the first time in about six months, I creaked open the tool shed that is at the bottom of our garden. Yesterday happened to be a beautiful Spring day, so I couldn't avoid getting into the garden. Everything is green again, and the blossoms on the trees are just about to fully open. I had been at baseball games all morning, until about three in the afternoon, so there was still plenty of daylight left for gardening. When I opened the shed, it was like saying hello to an old friend. I've been in and out of it so many times for years, that it is a very familiar place to be. It was actually too hot to do a lot of work, so I chose to transplant a perennial from one shady area to another. It's the kind of hardy plant that comes back each year, no matter what. It is a low growing plant with delicate leaves and white, spiral-shaped flowers. And it is already out, and almost fully on display. I hacked it in two, and dug up one half which I carried over to a path. I then continued to chop it into sections with a spade, until I had enough clumps to line a little path on each side. I was careful to cover the roots, and gently press it down, and water it, of course. When it recovers from the transplant, and grows a little, it will really compliment the pathway. That's the sort of thing I like to do: use what I have, and either move it around, or change it's look. It's what we call 'pottering around' in the garden, or 'to potter'; it's not heavy work, but rather, it's fiddling around here and there, but still making a small difference. Ah, the tool shed. I needed a spade, but there are many kinds of tools in our shed. Here's a list of them: shovels (basically a big spade), forks, rakes, trowels (a small, hand-held spade), loppers (huge scissors for cutting a hedge), a lawn mower, bags of fertilizer, sprinkler parts to fix ours when they break, stakes (for holding ropes that in turn hold new trees in place), gloves, watering cans, and electric equipment. And there are plenty of mice and spiders as well..... I was happy with my little job, and pleased to make the first step back into the garden this year. I've got a mental list of projects that I have to get done, starting with pruning my roses and raspberries. But, you don't have to be an expert; you can google the 'how to's' of all of your projects, and find out exactly what to do.

Grammar notes.

Related vocabulary and expressions: a mental list, to potter, a fork, a rake.

1. Keep your mental list of projects short, so you don't drive yourself crazy trying to get them done.

2. I pottered around in the garden, pulled out some weeds, pruned a bush, and basically tidied up.

3. A garden fork is like a shovel, but it's three prongs help to separate, and break up hard clumps of soil.

4. We use a rake to gather up the leaves from the lawn. It's like a broom for the garden.