Why I do it

Not my pink rose

I have had a couple of very long hard days, work mostly, indeed work, eat, sleep.   Today started at 7:30 picking up a co-worker before hitting the  timber merchant.   Not a gardening job more helping a friend out, since I have a fairly large van and a waste carriers license, and he had a used kitchen to get rid of.   It broke my heart taking a perfectly good kitchen complete with polished granite work surfaces to a waste tip, sometimes there just isn't an available alternative.
After that it was back to gardening, and  although up to my eyes in work and much behind schedule I was reminded why I do it.   At my first customer of the day there was a pink rose, just unfurling and it was perfect.  Of course I had to spoil things and forget to take a photo, so this is a picture I dug up on the internet.

Every now and then something happens as a couple of plants come together in a perfect combination or you get to see the plant at the perfect time.   These moments rarely have much to do with the gardener, of course I don't tell my customers that, but it is special to be around when they happen.   A lot of the time the work is sheer hard work, not very well paid, with long hours in the cold and wet, or hot and dry, but these moments make it all very worth while.

Right now after three days of over 10 hours each I am worn out but staring an impressive tan, only trouble is it will yet again be a "farmers tan", nice bronzed face and forearms, pale and pasty chest and shoulders.