Today at INTACT

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to day two in an exciting and fresh new week into the work of Alex Ashworth who undergoing a series of voluntary jobs throughout the Lancashire district.

Yesterday Barry Mann from INTACT text me to let me know he'd be away today for my fortnightly session at INTACT. He made me aware of the things that needs doing and encouraged me to ring him if I needed any extra advice/help. I did ring him and he let me know a final task to complete at the end of my two hour shift.

So there I was 9.29 and thirty seconds and I made it to the INTACT centre without a second to loose. The people at reception had been informed of Barry's absence and they knew I'd be asking for a key on arrival. I did ask for a key but when I got to the store cupboard I realised I needed another key to unlock the lower lock. I retraced my steps back to reception and a kind lady came with several keys to check and confirm which was the second one. I let her know I'd be popping in around 10.30am for coffee and that I would return the keys at the end of my shift.

Phew. That sounded more complicated than it actually was. Once that had cleared up I became immersed in the first task which was to weed the are where I planted several onions a few weeks back. I wanted to be extra diligent and make sure I left my area tidy once complete. It took in total an hour to do by which time it was coffee break so I had a five minute break drinking my brew and admiring the view, said Wordsworth on a walk he was on.

The second task written down on my to do list was to cut back the daffodils close to the school rail, at least an inch above the ground at the stem area with the secateurs This was quite a lengthy process but enjoyable too. This took me till 11am. I went back to where I started cutting the daffodils and collected the old stems and the dead leaves and deposited them into the bag that I used for the weeds earlier on.

It was now 11.15am and I had fifteen minutes left to water the tomatoes in the grow bag placed in the greenhouse. Barry reminded me the previous day to use the tap in the far left hand corner as the tap close to the shed is still damaged from the vandals several weeks ago. This was a nice therapeutic conclusion to a good two hours work in the garden at INTACT.

It was 11.25am and time to hand over the keys back to reception, sign out and be on my way for another fortnight. I'll be back at INTACT on Tuesday 24th May.

Until then this is Alex Ashworth signing off for my fortnight venture at INTACT.