Yesterday Mouse, the little working bee Dede, came up to me and asked, “Hey, can I have a spoon and a fork?”

“What for?” I asked suspciously.

“Mmhm.” she said, “You know we are bored, so we have been watching you over the last few weeks.”

“Oh, dear!” Earlier in the year I decided to turn my garden into a producing vege patch. I have to admit, I tried to do it a couple of times before, but it never worked as I don’t really know what I am doing. This year I have the help of Dee Pigneguy, a well-known garden guru in our area. And even though I still don’t know what I am doing, I am very confident that under the watchful eye of Dee, it simply has to work.

Mouse knows me very well and she could tell what I was thinking. “Yes”, she said, “We want to have our own vege patch.”

“But you could help me. More hands make lighter work!”

“No way!” She shook her head vigorously. “You are too difficult to work with. You always know everything better. We want to do our own thing! We even have our own chook, you know, Loudmouth. She has already produced so much manure. Now we are ready to roll.”

“Where will you have your patch? If you are not helping me, I don’t want to have you in the backyard!”

“We found this neglected pot on the deck. You know, the one you got last year for Christmas and the herbs in it just died…”

“Ja, Ja, Ja. Tell everybody about my incompetence.” To shut her up, I went to the art cupboard and rummaged for a plastic spoon and fork. We will see how successful you guys will be, I thought to myself. It’s not as easy as it looks.

“Could we have some metal cutlery instead?” the cheeky thing asked when I handed over what I had found.

“First you prove to me that you can stick to it. I know you guys! If it works I might find you some better tools.”

She wasn’t happy, but grabbed the tools and went straight out onto the balcony.