From
My English Country Garden
by
Builder Michael
It
was just last week and I was in Paris. I had gone there to brush
up my French and take in some culture in what is – in every
true sense of the word – a little bit of true paradise on earth.
And, I was enjoying every second! And then, after a wonderful
Saturday lunch the most amazing thing happened. An incredible
coincidence. I had just come out of a very good 5 star
restaurant, and there, coming towards me, was an old friend of mine,
an onion seller from Normandy. And, he had come into town for
a day off from the farm! And so, we went for a wine.
And
then, as we sat chatting about days that were gone he told me
his news. And, to my very great surprise, it turned out he wasn't a
very well man. And then he explained.
It
was his wife! His wife? This was a rather too short and so I begged
him for more. It was the frogs! He wasn't, he continued, a
well man because of the frogs! The frogs! I was curious. The onion
seller explained that it was the frogs that had made him unwell, and
this was entirely the fault of his wife. Why, I asked him, was
it her fault.
In
a very sorrowful way, he told me that his wife was no longer a well
woman, and this was the root of the problem. Up until a short
while ago, his wife would not have thought twice before getting up
in the morning to go down the well to catch one or two frogs for a
nice Normandy breakfast. But, since becoming an un-well woman this
no longer happened, and, in short, the onion seller was missing his
frogs!
I
realized that my friend was suffering from a rather unusual
very French problem. Or, could it be that it was his wife who had
the problem and not him at all? In order to find out, I had to ask
one or two questions.
And,
in truth, it was indeed true that his wife had, in fact, become very
unwell because of having to go down the well in all weathers so that
my friend the onion seller could feel well whilst eating fresh
frogs from the well! But luckily, as in all problems, all was not
lost. The solution was there in the problem itself, and, in
order to solve it, a step back was all that was needed!
And,
what I suggested was amazingly simple! So simple, that my friend was
able to solve this terrible problem that very same day. He got on his
bike and went into town and purchased a ladder.
And
now, his wife can happily go down the well once again. Sliding
down the rope, it seems, had become too much of a problem,
it was ruining her hands!
And
now, thanks to an Englishman, all is well in France once again. As I
told my friend, a rope isn't ladder, a bottle of well water isn't a
bottle of wine, and an onion ring isn't a ring made of gold. My
friend is a well man once again, and his wife is well again because
she can go down the well again, which is why he is well again and
that's why she's well again!
What
could be simpler? See you next month, yours BM
Vocabulary
amazing
– erstaunlich
begged
– (to beg/begged/begged) – anflehen
brush
up (to brush up/brushed up/brushed up) – verbessern
chatting
– plaudern
coincidence
– Zufall
enjoying
– genießen
fault
– Schuld
frog
– Frosch
incredible
– unglaublich
ladder
– Leiter
onion
seller – Zwiebelverkäufer
purchased
– (to purchase/purchased/purchased) – kaufte
realized
(to realize/realized/realized) - einsehen
root
– Wurzel
rope
- Seil
solution
– Losung
solve
– (to solve/solved/solved)
– lösen
sliding
down – (to slide down/slid
down/slid down) - hinunter rutschen
well
(1) – gesund
well
(2) – Brunnen
whilst
– während
