My Facebook and Twitter friends get lots of messages from me about mowing or not - why am I always mowing?
First of all - when I mow it is now on my trusty Steed "John" - 22hp and 48inch deck. It is spring when this was taken - you can see the red of the soil. It is the extraordinary chromatic combination of the spring green, the red soil, the blue water and the blue sky that makes spring so full of hope and wonder for us after 7 months of winter
Mowing in June is such a thrill - I get to rediscover every inch of our place. Every bump and dip, each rotation of weed and wild flower, each variation in insect. I get to think for hours.
There are about 4 acres to do - twice a week in June and July - Here is the front of the drive - where an old barn used to be on the left. Jay and Mildred and I get the mail up here after coffee. Jay retires into the bushes - he is very shy. Mildred is a shameless hussy and just goes anywhere.
Then as we go down the drive we have strips to the left and right
There are mature Lindens on the left. A wood on the right and you can just see part of the house at the bottom. They were planted by J Walter Jones and his daughter Vimy. They are on their way out now and we are in full intensive care mode.
The lawn sweeps around the left hand side of the house here and to the right in the picture just below. Yes that is a tree house - the barn is on the left and you can see the back field in the distance. Much squirrel hunting takes place here - the Killing Zone
As we go behind the house on the left we see the back lawn that looks onto the barn that you see in the Deere pic at the beginning of the series. You can just catch the Hillsborough River in the background where Jay, Mildred and I swim on hot days
On the far right of the barn is about 2 acres of lawn. John lives in the little barn on the left
The funny bump on the left is the well head. And around the 12 acre hay field is a half mile track. Jay Mildred and I walk this twice a day. We too are tree planting and I hope that years later, the person who lives here will get the same joy from our trees as we have got from J Walter and Vimy's work
It's all lovely BUT about now I have had it. It's become a chore.
So what am I going to do in the winter? Well - shovel snow and hump wood for the wood stoves and furnace!
