I won't be doing this again.

We have a large oak barrel next to a wall with a Gertrude Jekyll shrub rose at one side which will be trained up some clematis netting along with two clematis I cut down last year as they went brown but are now re-growing. The other day OH said we (i.e. me) need to paint the white pebble-dashed wall behind. Having been cleaning, scraping off the old paint and re-painting the red bricks at the base of said wall and intending to continue the same that day, my erstwhile plans were scuppered  . I duly got the masonry paint, big brush and stepladders and began. Well, you can't do one wall without doing the rest can you! Tell you what, although I painted the walls of our old cottage right to the top several times using a big long ladder, I'm not for doing this job again as I'm not as steady on my pins as I once was even using a three-step ladder plus I can't reach the top bits without attaching myself to a drone. 

  Someone once told me ladders were for getting places not working from, the older I get the more I agree. 

I find an old kickstool more stable than steps and a hop-up is even better, the steps are useful for holding the paint pot though saves all the bending down .

This is a copy of a review on the Darlac lopper we bought a couple of weeks ago...

This great piece of kit has in fact helped two people - me and my wife! We have one of the oldest and largest wistarias in our village, and to date, I’ve had to prune it using a long ladder, and, as I’ll never see sixty again, or seventy for that matter, It makes sense to do the work from ground-level. My wife hated me going anywhere near my ladder - and now she doesn’t have to worry, so that’s a real bonus!

As many people know, wistaria takes no prisoners, with steel tentacles ready to trip, strangle, knot-up and hurt anyone who comes close, and every year I dread the job of taming it.

Many loppers are very heavy and ungainly, with extreme effort needed for any prolonged time. These loppers are absolutely perfect for the job, and I pruned our ‘beast’ in three-quarters of an hour, where before, the job would take a whole morning and a lot of concern about working so high up. Just for the record, as I would have to employ someone to do the job, this machine has paid for itself within one hour!

The Darlac ‘Cut ‘n’ hold’ is well priced, very well constructed, light enough to use for quite a long period and has a cutter which slices every twig/tendril with superb accuracy - usually within the bud range one has to follow with such a fussy but rampant shrub! The saw attachment easily deals with the old ‘knots’, and is as sharp as a razor!

I am very, very pleased with this lopper, and recommend it to anyone; it is the most important and efficient garden tool I have bought for many years!

(Just to say, the ladder bit is absolutely true - I was not at all keen to go up there this year, as I still remember one year, when the bottom of the ladder suddenly slipped outwards, and I was left with just half an inch of ladder holding on to a ledge at the top with my fingers trapped! Luckily, Mrs Growster came to the rescue and stood firm at the bottom, hence her joy at the job now being done from the ground! As we don't advertise here, anyone can use this info as if they'd asked my opinion, so that gets over that little issue)!