The Secret Garden

This morning Howard and I had to buckle down and do yard work. He is always doing yard work however most of what he does is at his other properties. Yesterday he brought his chain saw home and today we got rid of some monster weeds.

One thing we got rid of is this tree that keeps growing and growing. I should have taken a picture before it went. Oh well. It will be back and I can take its picture then.

This tree is some kind of a nuisance tree -- some kind of walnut nuisance tree but of course there are no walnuts. I cannot believe I have never written about it. Once maybe two years ago I pruned it into a beautiful shape and it looked for a while like something out of Beverly Hills. However a better way is just to get rid of it.

So we did, albeit temporarily. Also I pulled up a lot of bishop's weed in the, ahem, herb garden. I found the sage plant and a variety of mints that I put in a couple of years ago. 

The catnip plant is out of control so I pulled a little of it and took it in to Jeoffry. He was munching on it last I looked. I will have to dry some of it and put it away for him. The dried stuff must be stronger.

Now for the biggest challenge.

That picture at the top, that is the space behind the garage!

I am looking at it and I do believe it has good bones, as they say. It is more private than most areas on my property. Where I live, your life is lived in public.

What if I transformed this space?

Howard said: "We can clear it out so it isn't that bad."

However I have been reading about the 10x Rule and I the part of it I really like is that you take an unexciting modest goal and blow it up into outrageous proportions.

I said: "This space is going to be a showplace. People will be begging to see it on the Parkside Garden Walk. I will be hearing from strangers hoping to arrange to cater an event there. It will be famous throughout the city."

Shall we begin?

Mowing and glowing

Today I bit the bullet and cut the grass with the hand mower. I have been doing this for a few weeks now! But today I did something that raised the bar.

I mowed the grass wearing a skirt!

It is like Ginger Rogers doing what Fred Austerlitz did only backwards and in high heels, as the old joke goes.

I wore a skirt because I can no longer wear pants and that includes shorts. I got through it. One thing, though, it was a little harder at first than I remembered it. I almost gave up. Then I got to thinking, there is something about wearing a skirt that makes you a little more relaxed, a little less inclined to sweat and hard work. I had to get past that.

The job gets easier the deeper you get into it. Half way through the lawn you are feeling better. Two thirds of the way in, you get happy. Triumph is in sight.

Here is a beautiful song by Gustav Mahler about cutting grass.



It does not begin until 40 seconds in but it has a translation, is why I used this video.

Here is one thing that cracked me up as I pushed the mower back and forth on the front lawn, glowing. (Horses sweat. Men perspire. Women glow.)

The other day I bragged to Howard that my arms were getting stronger because I had reason to believe that they were. I credited my Aqua Fit class at the gym. I could not think of anything else I had been doing differently.

It was not the stupid Aqua Fit class.

It was this lawn mowing!!

Well, one thing I will have to do is do it every few days, not every few weeks.

You cannot have too much of a good thing!