When my husband was still
amongst the breathing, his pride and joy was the lawn, that is, the grass. In this part of Texas, we mostly grow St.
Augustine grass. It’s a robust perennial,
dense, carpet grass that does well in our hot, humid climate. It even grows well in in shady areas. He kept it watered, fertilized, weeded, treated
for insects, and mowed/weed wacked. Once
I mowed the front yard and, honest-to-god, he nearly had apoplexy.
Why, you ask? Well, I find mowing to be, among other things,
BORING. So, I mow back and forth then up
and down, diagonally, in a circle – whatever.
(Hey! I thought mowing was about
cutting the grass!) Then, also, I took
the bag off and just let the grass lay where it landed (good mulch!). Rake?? Bag grass?? Are you nuts?? Using the weed eater or a blower?? Please, mowing is a pain in the patootie
without all that other stuff.
HE, on the other hand, mowed
even lines in one direction and emptied the bag of clippings as necessary. Blew excess clipping into a pile to be picked
up. Weedwacked all edges straight and
true. Fiiiine!
After he went to the big Ice
House in the Sky, and the mowing fell to me, it went back to, uhmmmmmmm, decorative
mowing. Really, I hate to mow – boring,
yes; also hot, hot, hot, work that includes my walking literally 5 miles!
Okay, I hear you - - - Interesting
but ……
While my daughter was here
visiting, she decided to mow the back yard for me. It took her maybe an hour and a half (takes
me 2 days – 2 hours per day!) and she did a great job. I was very grateful. The next day I walked out to the back yard
and noticed
My child! A chip
off the ole block! I was so proud!
Up until today, the weather
has been dry. Humid, yes but no significant
rain since maybe sometime in mid-May. That
means every afternoon I go out and water all the flowerbeds and plants in
containers. I chose afternoon because
even with no rain the mosquitoes are ferocious now and during the hot time of
the day, they’re a little less bad. Yesterday
I went out to water and this guy was sitting on the fence. He saw me and flew over to the cedar tree and
watched for a while …..
Pretty sure it’s a Barred Owl
(I know, hard to see the color in the picture).
I’ve seen at least two of them in the last couple days. Plus, you can hear them hooting back and
forth during the evening. Normally owls
are night hunters but the Barred Owl will also hunt in the daytime. It’s a big bird – nearly as big as the Great
Horned Owl but much less aggressive. And
that’s as much about owls as I know.
Today is International Fairy Day. It is a day for fairies,
magic, and wishes to come true. For one day, put aside the cynicism of the
modern world and embrace the possibilities of the unknown, and believe in
fairies…
I believe
do you?
24 Jun 2020
"decorative mowing" -- LOL!
ReplyDeleteDavid hates to mow the weeds but he does it in about 30 minutes. He never weed wacks or edges unless it becomes unsightly. We have a small yard. He does it early in the morning before the sun gets hot. Usually around 8am.
ReplyDeleteWe have a lot of owls out here too. They go after the squirrels in the evenings. I hear them at night too.
In the olden, corporate days, our English distributor was visiting. At lunch he said he had scolded his wife for letting his daughter play in the yard in the winter. On questioning, because you could see the marks in the summer. Everyone at the table gave him hell and I hope he took it home with him.
ReplyDeleteI think men can get just a little touch compulsive about lawns. I'd rather have ground cover, if the area isn't going to be used a lot. And lawns in front of houses hardly ever see use. But then I live where ground cover doesn't burn in summer, so there's that.
ReplyDeleteYou and I apparently have similar mowing philosophies. Go here to check out one of my routes (I like to use my walking tracker & see what the pattern looks like - ha!).
ReplyDeleteClap your hands if you believe in fairies.
ReplyDeleteI agree, mowing is boring - not so much the mowing as the emptying of the bag.
the only way mowing wouldn't be boring is if I had one of those riding mowers. Then I could tear around like Nascar. You sound as if you have a lot of lawn to mow!!
ReplyDelete