Girl power

Having the confidence to try new things and stretch yourself further than you think possible is a core aspect of the Greenbanana philosophy of continuous improvement (ie if you’re green, you’re growing).

Putting this into practice, today my mum and I are demonstrating ‘girl power’ (well middle-aged woman and old lady power!!) .  We spent this morning putting the roof cover on the gazebo in the garden here in France - which took lateral thinking, some brute force and teamwork. 

My mum is now destroying documents - her first use of the shredder.  And our job for the afternoon is to map out a heart-shaped flowerbed in the garden where my father’s ashes will be scattered.  This is a more complicated task than you might think as we are incorporating five shrubs that have been planted already in honour of departed pets (it’s okay we’re not frightened of recreating a Stephen King novel).

Of course, the shrubs weren’t placed originally with this goal in mind, so I’m flexing my mathematical abilities to map out an appropriate shape, that is geometrically sound and fits the previous planting. 

[We're leaving the digging to my brother and nephew who are coming out in a couple of weeks though, as girl power also means we're not stupid.]

Today is actually my dad’s birthday, so I suppose we’re partly demonstrating that we can do things without him.  My mum has been a star over the past two weeks - even mowing the lawn with stripes and putting up a fence.

So if as a newly-widowed, 5ft tall, 67-and-three-quarters-year old granny, she can stretch herself with new things - what’s stopping you for doing something challenging today?