There are two local builders yards that I’m aware of where we go for ‘stuff’ for our house. One of them is a real local organisation and the other is part of a national chain.

In normal circumstances, I’d bend over backwards to use the local guy – I buy milk at a stonking premium price from the village shop…..because it’s the local shop and the farm that supplies their milk is our next-door neighbour. I buy all of our fresh food from the farm shop, again accepting a premium price to buy local, both in terms of produce and retailer.

In the case of builders yards though, I’m afraid I’m now ‘wedded to Jewson’, despite the fact they’re a national chain. You see, when I set foot on the other one, I find myself feeling ‘stupid’ as soon as I get through the door. The staff don’t seem willing or able to communicate with me in a common language. They use monosyllabic responses to my questions and won’t try to help when I don’t know the right term for something.

Jewson on the other hand went out of their way to help us when we went in asking for a type of brick that was quite unusual for our new hearth. We wanted bricks with five flat faces - no frog and no holes right through. I have learned the term frog from DM who did the investigation into the type of brick we needed – I even know what a bullnose brick is too. Not only did Jewson listen to us without sneering, shrugging their shoulders and saying ‘your best bet is to go up country’, but they went to extraordinary efforts to find us some bricks to meet our needs – and we had made it quite clear we only wanted 20 bricks right from the outset.

They found us what we wanted from another branch, telephoned the branch to make sure the specification of the bricks were still as they’d remembered and then they got them delivered to our local branch. 20 bricks at (can’t remember the exact price but) certainly less than a quid each – they must have made NOTHING on the deal. However, subsequently, we’ve spent significant sums of money there, buying lots of timber, concrete and other ‘stuff’ for the house. The small investment of a bit of time and a bit of kindness to two novices who were blundering about trying to articulate what we wanted from a lay-person’s vocabulary, not a builder’s vocabulary, has reaped rewards because I now choose there in preference to anywhere else.

So, when I had up a head of steam earlier in the week and got round to sorting out my scaffolding planks, I phoned them and another supplier. They were 25p per plank more expensive than the other supplier but they got the custom because they’re nice and they don’t treat me like a fool.

They arrived today and in the sunshine they looked so good it made me want to weep – instead I got out my camera and photographed these beautiful things that will soon be bordering my vegetable beds and helping me to grow food.

So, Jewson - they’re the tops in my book – however much it goes against the grain to choose the big corporation over the local company.

Dawn was last year's shot!