When you really put your foot in it !

When you really put your foot in it !

When you design and build with a number of highly skilled teams, you often can only see a client in the early evening when they come home from work.

This particular evening it was getting late around 8pm, I was a tad tired from driving perhaps 140 miles that day, and wanted to get home.

The client a Brazilian banker, loved detail.. I mean he kept a little book, with jottings in ( it was way more detailed than my site notes – I only kept up because I took pictures of everything).

This particular night we were looking at his pool – not the one in the picture ( I used that as an example) No this pool was an in ground 25 year old pool with a cover, never been emptied and he wanted the pool taken out. Removing 25 year old reinforced concrete pools is hard work, we used to get two a year on average, due to the huge cost of keeping the water warm enough to enjoy a swim.

So this night I’m dressed in a suit, walking next to the client when suddenly, my feet are sort of floating, I had missed the dogleg step area jutting out of the pool and was now attempting to tread water on top of a very old fabric cover, which was tearing fast as I scrambled to get out of this disgusting green smelly liquid..

The client saw what had happened, and ran off to the kitchen… I thought to find perhaps a towel.. but alas no, when I managed to get out somewhat bedraggled, on reaching the back door I hesitated to enter as I was dripping this green smelly liquid everywhere.. I heard ” Darling come quickly with a camera..Mr Coope has fallen in the pool”.. this brought not only his wife but the children as well…who took a few pictures while I sheepishly tried to leave.

The 40 minute drive home was filled with the aroma of a swimming pool that hadn’t been touched in 5 years and the thoughts of what my kids might say, when I finally arrived home !

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Chris Coope

Author: Chris Coope

Born in Great Britain, Chris Dyson-Coope followed his training and passion in the field of horticulture for decades. This path led him to multiple awards for landscape design and many prestigious projects in the United Kingdom and the U.S. Chris has received 19 national awards for projects as varied as city parks, urban regeneration, playgrounds, office parks and streetscapes. He pioneered the use of designer drives in the 1980s utilizing Permacrib to create structural green walls and award-winning green roofs in London. Most recently, Dyson-Coope has nurtured his interest as an educational innovator to produce an Internet radio show (GrowingTrends.com), books on landscaping, and a series of fictional children's books that explore non-fictional themes such as sustainable agriculture, geography, and history. Convinced that the younger generation can (and must) learn from the older generation, as well as blazing new paths toward a sustainable future for a planet in deep distress from climate change and unsustainable practices, Dyson-Coope presents workable solutions in multiple formats, from books to inventions, podcasts and educational media. With several horticultural patents to his credit, the noted horticulturalist looks to the future with hope that the younger generation will grab the "torch" of innovation to develop and maintain a more sustainable world for us all. Dyson-Coope is a member of The Chartered Institute of Horticulture and serves as Director of Children's Sustainable Education for Energime University. Chris lives in Weston, Missouri, with his lovely wife, Cindi.

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