On Saturday afternoon, after Nicholas' T-Ball game and lunch, we had a nice outside project where all of us--Donica, Nicholas, my son Mark (30) and I--worked out in the yard on a gorgeous sunny day. But chilly! In the high 40's.
That's g'ma underneath the stop-cancer hat. My job was to cut the 116 clumps of monkey grass. If I had cut them in February before our last trip to Hannover, I could have mowed over them with the lawn mower. But because of extra warm weather while we were gone, the new shoots were too long for mowing. Actually, I love the therapeutic tediousness of cutting them by hand. Up close and personal. At one point I watched a little garden snake weave its way around the leaves, which I would have totally missed otherwise.
Nicholas' job was to scoop up the leaves behind me, put them in the popcorn buckets, and dump them in the woods. He has his own pair of garden gloves and does a good job of helping me whenever I tackle the yard. In fact, at one point he said with exclamation, "We all have a job!" Awww. I knew immediately that therein lay a post!
Donica's job was to rake up the grass clippings after Mark. She actually also raked up and swept after Nicholas and g'ma. And see, she even has a bit of a smile on her face :)
It really was a nice group effort. After Mark, Donica and Nicholas went into the house, I stayed outside because mine was the longer-term project. After 3 hours, I was chilled to the bone and had to finish the other side of the drive yesterday. But it's done and now the new monkey grass can breath freely and do its thing.
Just do it! Even the monkey grass has its own job and will do it well, just like the rest of us!
Now I'm wondering: Do mark and nicolas live with you? Lovely amount of land. But I guess when you are on the west coast that's rarely possible. We only have our little place to clean/vaccum.
ReplyDeleteThe entire time I was thinking, wow 30 I'm 30. And what my mom would think to have a little one already. You are lucky.. Yeah I'm sure my mom can't wait until our first one... However many tons of years it might be until then...haha
Ahh, working in the garden can be so satisfying, especially if you can forget about everything else for a moment and just get the job done, as all of you were. Great exercise in mindfulness!
ReplyDeleteYour lawn looks fabulous. No matter how hard we try, our lawn is usually mostly moss and mud - poor soil, too much shade etc. But we love it anyway. :-)
Great yard, well done job(s) :-) I guess you will take similar images in a week or two, won't you? ;-)
ReplyDeleteWe spent quite some time in the garden as well last Sunday. I'm afraid our lawn is a bit like Christina's: more moss than grass, but we enjoy it anyway. It's relaxing and the excersise is often greater than one would expect.
ReplyDeleteThe best exercice to do!
ReplyDeleteET: No, Mark and Nicholas do NOT live with us. We get Nicholas for one overnight every other weekend when Amy (33) has him (and we're home). She's a single mom and shares custody every other weekend with Nick (the father). Since we were at Nicholas' ball game on Saturday, we took him home with us then. Mark is another story--single, no kids and right now out of work because of a sleep disorder. He's staying with us for a couple weeks to see if I can help him get sleep-regulated. That's the short version. UGH. Anyway, it's only Amy that has one child right now. It may be many tons of years for Mark as well, if ever! So you're not alone :)
ReplyDeleteChristina: Exactly. Great exercise in mindfulness. Believe it or not, GA soil is mostly clay, so we had to bring in lots of topsoil to help enrich it. We also have a lawn service that does it's once-a-month thing--fertilizing, etc.
Mr. Fab: We have to work hard on the lawn we have--keeping as much of everything else as woodsy as possible. Natural! Donica used to do more and may get back into it for the exercise. I had her get the mower fixed because I like mowing the yard instead of paying someone else to do it for us. It's different when we're in Europe but when we're home, I like the exercise.
KPK: HA. I may take images the next time but certainly won't bore you with them again :)
CS: I know you spent time in your yard as well. So I guess I was feeling one with you :) There's so much satisfaction in making things be at their peak.
Mei: Yes, indeed. I even like the weeding! Great exercise.
It's such a privilege to have property and "have" to maintain it. How nice that you can enjoy each other while enjoying the earth, your landscaping, the sun, all the beauty of life.
ReplyDeletethanks for the explanation.. :)
ReplyDeleteRuth: Your farm land reminds me of our property here in the woods, though different. To let much of it be natural is so wonderful; to tend the rest of it is a joy to behold.
ReplyDeleteET: You're more than welcome. I'm quite sure our life gets very confusing to lots of people :)
What wonderful memories for you, Lisa. I hope Nicholas has them with us. We try to make the work seem more like fun/play. So far so good :) Thanks for your kind comments.
ReplyDelete