Kind Acts

Once mowing the lawn begins it continues until the last leaf is mulched in the fall. Yesterday I was mowing. The front yard has a lot of shade so I was waiting for early evening before sprucing up the back. We had grilled burger and salad with my daughter and the grandkids and were enjoying our time together. After dinner I decided to finish the yard. I was going to let Russ and Elisabeth visit and relax. 

When I was about 1/3rd of the way through, Russ came out to finish for me. To be kind. Which he is. Five minutes later he ran over a charred log in the yard and blew the engine. 

Throughout the day I had noticed the wood and kept forgetting to move it to the burn pile. While mowing, I know that I would have kicked it aside.

 Russ, however, thought it was a pile of charcoal dust and plowed on through. So, today, we purchased a new mower and he's almost forgiven himself, but not quite. 

Hey, it happens. If life's too short to dance with ugly men, it's definitely too short to sorrow over dead mowing machines.

Springtime in VT

This year should be marked in the books of history as the one in which Vermonters had a spring. Usually spring here consists of waiting for mounds of snow to melt and laying down boards to walk past mud in the dooryard. 

But this year we have had warm weather, sunshine, early flowers and lots of greenery. We are probably about a month ahead of where we usually are in gardening.

 The funny thing is that is the middle of all of it, parts of Vermont can get 16 inches of snow. Then it's back to stoking up the wood furnace or twirling the dial for the propane.

 Yesterday I hung out three loads of laundry, mowed the entire the yard, weeded two large flower beds, sipped soda on the deck, and watched the grandkids chase each other with sprinklers. 

 Today, it's dropped to 50, the rain is nonstop, and I'm pulling out an insulated vest so that I don't have to turn up the heat. 

You gotta love it or you gotta move. I think I'll stay.