It was a chilly day in early autumn, and my dad was clearing away a huge quantity of leaves which had dropped on our garden from the trees which lined our street. He was using a leaf-blower, which I always thought was a pretty cool gadget but which I was never allowed to touch, even though I was 12 and thought myself a ‘big boy’.
After a while, and making pretty good progress with a pile of leaves already nicely forming at the end of the lawn, Dad decided to take a coffee break, leaving the leaf-blower out on the lawn. That’s when I decided that I’d lend my father a hand.