Mowing the Lawn and Memories of My Father
We finally managed to have back to back dry days here, which meant I was able to get outside and pay attention to our very woolly lawn.
As I have alluded to before, I am not a big fan of mowing lawns.
I wish the bunnies would put more effort into "mowing" the lawn!
I did a lot of lawn mowing when I was a kid... in the summer, it was one of the very few ways I had access to money. I even had a little trailer for my bicycle where I hauled our push mower around, looking for lawns to mow. The fact that I had taken the initiative to bring my own equipment probably got me a few more sales than I would have had, had I have to use the lawn owner's mower.
I expect, I inherited some of my dislike of mowing from my father... we had a large lawn, and he kept it very nicely, but it also seemed like the process of doing so was a source of annoyance and frustration to him.
As I have aged, I have developed more empathy for his frustrations... I, too, have a strong dislike of having to duck under a bajillion branches and other low overhanging stuff. I am quite tall and it all hurts my back!
But — in particular — I have developed greater appreciation for the frustration he used to express when "mowing the lawn" actually meant a 45-minute "pre-amble" that included picking up all my toys, moving outdoor chairs that had been left at the end of the day, moving random hoses and tools, picking up my mothers piles of weeds near the beds she worked on... five days earlier... and so forth.
He would often lecture me extensively on putting away my outdoor toys at the end of the day... which I thought (at the time) to be silly and unreasonable.
These days, I find myself picking up hoses and tools, and removing piles of weeds... and the toys I have to pick up are the dog's, but they still require a fair scanning of the lawn because a piece of ox-bone in the mower blades is not only noisy and dangerous, it can also break a mower blade.
Yes, I did get quite a bit of mowing done... and I find myself more determined than ever to pursue the "grow, don't mow" programs being promoted in many communities!
Thanks for reading, and have a great weekend!
As always, engagement encouraged and welcomed! Do you have a lawn you need to maintain? Or do you have a yard service do it? Do you like lawns, or would you rather not have one? Do leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20220708 22:55 PDT
x444
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As we get older we realize how frustrating our parents' life could have been to do things like pick up toys when they didn't want to, and their terrible scolding had a reason, but well we're getting over it, oh I have a garden I like it I really enjoy doing it but I would like a little extra help from my children or my partner would not be bad 🤷♀️
Cheers!
I need to mow because it is easy to walk on and because long grass is susceptible to catching fire (where I live). My plan is to keep reducing the lawn area so that there is less grass to mow. In general, that means more flower beds. The only drawback is that more flowerbeds means more weeding.