When I looked through our garden gate, this is what I saw:
A wheelbarrow filled with grass cuttings and a few sticks seemingly abandoned on the pavement. There was not a soul in sight. A few minutes later I looked out again and this is what I saw:
The now empty wheelbarrow (bar what could have been a rake and some other gardening tool) being pushed along the pavement. It was the middle of the morning and this man probably felt his work was done. I later discovered the contents of the wheelbarrow had simply been tipped over the edge of the lawn where it dips down to the abandoned railway tracks.
A few days later I saw this wheelbarrow that has finished its active carting days and is now parked on a pavement in Bathurst:
It is carrying its final load, which doubtless looks very attractive when the plants are blooming. This ‘abandoned’ wheelbarrow has made its final roll of the wheel:
Something Over Tea 
A fun progression, symbol of old age….like The Giving Tree…..
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Oh Julie, this is a story I was not aware of and stopped then to read it on slideshare: what an interesting story it is too! Thank you for that analogy, it is an apt one indeed … always giving.
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Interesting. I had a wheelbarrow just like the old one pictured. My husband had rescued it from being dumped years before we married. We used it until a few years ago. I turned it into a planter after the bottom deteriorated. We finally gave it up a couple of years ago. We never had a flat tire with that one. 😉
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We too had ones with the metal wheel – I only realised after posting that I could have drawn a comparison between the old and new wheels. It was good that your wheelbarrow lived on as a planter for some years.
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I like the idea of turning something functional into a thing of beauty. A fitting retirement.
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I think so too 🙂
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A tale of two wheelbarrows?
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That is what it turned out to be, for it began with the first and then I remembered photographs of the second … 🙂
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Die ou kruiwa is pragtig.
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Dit is ‘n lieflike idee om dit vir plante te gebruik.
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Ja! 😁
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Ek hou van die rusty gevoel daarvan. Mooi foto’s.
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Dankie, Christa. Ek dink ek moet ons baie ou kruiwa gaan soek en vir plante gebruik 🙂
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Ek ook.
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Like the wheelbarrow as planter idea.
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It is a good one 🙂
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Reduce, re-use, recycle! Our society throws stuff away far too easily, especially things that take ages to be converted back into the cycle of nature. What a wonderful example of treading lightly on the earth this repurposed wheelbarrow makes!
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I thought so too and so, when it ever gets to rain here, I might repurpose one we have that is almost rusted through. Nasturtiums would brighten it up 🙂
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We pass a number of wheel barrow planters, but none as superbly aged as that one
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Thank you, Derrick. Judging from its design, I imagine this is a rather aged one 🙂
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I thought so, too
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