The Fence Read Online Free PDF

used to when she caught him sneaking extra crackling.
    Standing at the lounge room window, Gwen watches them reverse down the drive. Heading off into a future far, far away. Sighing, she takes the damp tea towel from her shoulder and goes into the kitchen to hang it on the oven to dry. She’s out of sorts. It’s more than Michael selling the house. They’re robbing her of everything precious about her past and exposing her and Eric to an uncertain future. She feels vulnerable.

Outback + Outdoors
June
    In the Garden with Gwen Hill
    Many new gardeners mistakenly think the winter months are quiet. Time to potter in the shed rather than brave the frosty mornings and cooler days. However, June is in fact one of the busiest months of the year.
    It’s time to prune deciduous fruit trees and give them a good spray with winter oil to rid them of dormant pests. Grapevines in particular need hard pruning to remove debris, a common source of infection, especially in the spring.
    June is also the perfect time to thin out old, diseased plants that just aren’t flourishing. Make hard decisions between plants competing for light and space and rid yourself of the non-performers. You’ll be amazed how quickly your favourite plants thrive once competition is removed.
    Tip of the month
    Cross-infection is an ever-present problem when pruning. When cutting off diseased limbs, make sure you wipe the blade of the pruning saw with methylated spirits between cuts to protect the lower limbs from infection.

Gwen’s June
    If Babs were here, she’d laugh at Gwen hovering in the front garden waiting for the new neighbours to arrive. Gwen can almost hear her saying, ‘Look at you, Gwennie, raking up the leaves from beneath the plane trees, pretending you’re busy.’
    â€˜That’s not entirely fair,’ Gwen replies in her head, surveying the soft mounds of leaves heaped under several of the trees along Green Valley Avenue. ‘I do this every year.’
    They used to burn the leaves but the council never lets you do such things anymore. ‘No, now we live in the nanny state,’ Gwen mutters to herself. No besser block incinerators, no smoking piles sending up their woody aroma. Mind you, even before the council’s interference, Gwen had changed her tune on the issue of burning leaves. Leaves are valuable organic matter better suited to mulching and keeping the soil warm in winter.
    Gwen hears the crunch of tyres on the road before she sees the white four-wheel drive heave into the driveway of 18 Green Valley Avenue. She continues raking the leaves whilst sending out waves of disapproval beneath the shadows of her wide-brimmed hat. The large European model car has a ‘Baby on Board’ sign suctioned to a side window and a stick family in the bottom left corner of the rear window. It provides advance warning that the dad plays a guitar, that the mother is a perky sort with a mobile phone glued to her ear and a laptop in her hand, and the children are a superhero, a ballerina and a gymnast. The baby appears to have angel wings and a halo. Nauseating, Gwen thinks, raking so hard that she bends a tine on her favourite rake. Squinting, she sees what appears to be two sheep. Sheep? ‘Well I hope you’re satisfied, Babs Mody,’ Gwen accidentally says aloud, almost hearing Babs’ low chuckle in reply.
    Gwen hasn’t met the new neighbours. When the open for inspections were on, she was at the studio in Chatswood doing her gardening talkback show. She’s had to rely on Eric’s somewhat ambiguous descriptions and, being Eric, he tended to confuse the details of which couple were which. Scurrying along to the next tree, Gwen reflects on her conversations with Eric but no matter how she sifts and sieves the information, she is adamant he never mentioned children – and so many!
    The woman, she of the mobile phone and laptop, has brown hair tied up in a high ponytail.