Making Good Use: It's That Time of Year Again

Yup, it's the time of year when the lawnmower has to come out of hibernation again. I'd delegated tha task of grass cutting to P the last two summers, as the fruit trees in our old garden made cutting the grass tres difficile - to say the least!! (I understand that our ex-landlord, who has moved back into our old house, has cut all the fruit trees down - which seems a shame but they had got waaaaay out of control, and it'll certainly make the grass cutting much simpler.)

Anyway, with no P to call on, and the grass getting longer by the day, I had no choice this morning but to do it myself. We've had our electric lawnmower for a looooong time and it has got rather temperamental in its old age - you have to hold the cord just so or the blasted thing won't start up. So, bearing this in mind, I started on the patch of grass nearest the garage (where said beastie is stored) thinking that at least I wouldn't have far to put it back should it start playing up. No worries, it started up just fine. What I had failed to realise though was just how long the grass had become. It seemed like every 30 seconds or so I had to stop to empty the grass box (and, indeed, having only done two of the three 'lawns' (I use that term very loosely) that we have, I've now got an almost full green wheelie bin.)

Another point that I failed to take into account was that being on a devilishly steep hill, our garden has rather a lot of steps - and what fun they are to lug the mower up and down!! - plus, the front 'lawn' is on a rather perilous slope. That, and the slightly worrying wisps of smoke and faint smell of burning emanating from the handle of the mower (thank goodness I was also using a circuit breaker!!), made cutting that particular patch of grass quite the adventure.

At this point - and having bust the metal button off my jeans whilst bending about emptying the grass box - I thought enough was enough and I put the lawnmower away. I even had to go and have a quick lie-down I was that knackered. I'm saving the joy of doing the grass in the back garden until tomorrow, and I'm really not looking forward to lugging the mower up all the steps there, I can tell you.

One of the things I noticed about the house when I first came to view it was how long and shaggy the grass was - I'm beginning to understand why now!!