Writing 101: Death to Adverbs

The task: Go to a public location and make a detailed report of what you see. The twist of the day? Write the post without adverbs.

Today I was babysitting, I always like to be out and about so inevitably when I take on the role the TV is off and a walk is on. When my little grand-daughter and I returned from our jaunt today our road was blocked by numerous vehicles. We live in a hilly suburb with large areas of almost natural bush so wildfires are always a threat in summer. Because some past fires have been started by sparking of overhead powerlines tree trimmers periodically come around and cut back any trees likely to cause problems. There had been no notification so it was a shock to come back and find the street closed and our driveway blocked but it didn’t upset us instead it provided an interesting diversion.

A battered yellow truck towing a large mulcher was stopped on the bridge over the railway line and behind that was a man with a “STOP/SLOW” lollipop pole. The spot is a “Y” junction so there was another person with the same type of pole at the end of the other street. Ahead of the yellow truck were three large vehicles with very tall, white “Cherry Picker” arms on them, blasé men were up in each basket with chainsaws. One of them yelled down that there was a pedestrian trying to get through. The supervisor came up to me and offered to stop proceedings while we made our way past the trucks to our driveway but I told him we were enjoying the spectacle.

The trucks were big enough that all the action was safely ahead of us. Small branches were dropping like mini parachutes on either side of the road and I hoped that none of them had been supporting nests occupied by baby Magpies or Wattlebirds. The trucks inched up the very narrow road with the cutters yelling instructions to the drivers until eventually the yellow truck was almost up to us. The Supervisor said the noise from the mulcher would be painful so we took his advice and made our way down the road. Trucks were moved to give us access to our driveway and we went back down to the house.

Curiosity got the better of me when the rumbling mulcher was at the top of our drive so we went part way up the driveway to watch the chips being spewed into the back of the truck.  A worker used a leaf blower to blast the remaining bits from the road.

I’m left wondering if there will be any entertainment like that the next time I’m called upon to babysit. Here’s hoping!

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