The Best Part of Mowing My Lawn Last Weekend
-A WVTF radio essay
It was probably the last time this year that I or my husband will mow the two acres of grass that surround our log home off the Blue Ridge Parkway. But that wasn’t the best part of mowing the lawn this past weekend. The best part was the perspective it gave me.
Unlike in summer, it’s cool enough now to mow at a leisurely pace. I putter around as if our rider mower was a convertible with the top down and I was taking a Sunday drive. From the far corners of our yard, I can see our property from new angles, take it all in from a distance, and appreciate the life we’ve made.
I love knowing that, as I mow, my husband is in our woods with his chain saw getting us firewood for the stove this winter. I feel grateful when I pass by the shed he built to store wood, equipment, and gardening tools. Watching out for the golf balls left in the yard from his putting and chipping practice, I take in the pungent smell of the wild mushrooms that I’ve inadvertently run over and make a mental note that some of our roses should be replanted in the spring to a sunnier part of the yard.
The garden looks dead, full of dried up corn stalks and plants that have gone to seed, but I know there’s still food growing there, a few cool weather crops, lettuce and turnips. Butternut squash, once hidden by the lush growth of summer, is finally revealed. The pumpkins for Halloween have turned from green to orange, and although most of the butterflies have moved to warmer climates, my zinnia flowers are still bearing their attracting colors.
Avoiding the plastic bucket used to mark a yellow jacket’s nest in the ground, I smile as I pass by our clothesline full of laundry hanging in the mid-day sun, glad to have made the choice not to own a dryer. The lowering sun this time of year casts a golden glow, making our yard shine with a richness that’s not noticeable during other seasons.
Careful not to mow too close to the lamppost in the wilder part of our yard (that I have named Narnia), I run over small crab apples and twigs that have dropped to the ground. I duck under branches as I wind my way back out into the open, feeling nostalgic when riding by the spot where the soccer goals used to be. For over 10 years they were a landmark in the landscape of our yard and in our lives. Countless neighborhood games were played here when my sons were growing up. It was just this past summer that my husband loaded the goals in his truck and took them over to Floyd’s Blue Mountain School, knowing they would get more use there.
With our dog Jasmine looking on, I frown as I think how summer has too quickly slipped by. When I ride by our sprawling rope hammock, I regret missed opportunities to spend time in it. The bird feeders need to be filled. The deer have been munching on our youngest fruit trees, and we still haven’t built the deck on the east side of the house.
But a wide smile returns to my face as I turn a corner and notice something new. The oldest apple tree in our yard has produced fruit for the first time. I circle around to whiz by it again so I can count the number with my eyes. More than a dozen, I see.
Brushing aside the sticky tangle of a spider web, dangling invisibly from a branch of pine, I shift into low gear and steer the mower towards the shed to park it for the last time this year. The roar of the engine, like summer itself, comes to an abrupt halt. In the quiet that follows, my mind drifts to the future, remembering the taste of apples and Thanksgiving pies.
October 18th, 2006 9:46 am
Thanks for your visit. I have enjoyed reading about Floyd etc. over at Terri’s blog. Many years ago I had a great vacation in your part of the US. I’m a bit of a military history buff and spent some time visiting Civil War locations in the Shenendoah valley and elsewhere.
October 18th, 2006 9:47 am
Love your ‘thoughts while mowing’ – the riding perspective of your homestead, the missed opportunities in the hammock, the anticipation of fresh apple pies and wood smoke. A good read on this gloomy day.
October 18th, 2006 10:13 am
if that’s not living the good life, i don’t know what is! (in my estimation, anyways)
October 18th, 2006 10:24 am
This post puts a good visual in my mind. Very nice. Our lawn here is pretty much mowed year round, unfortunately. No yellow jacket nests on the ground but fire ants are abundant.
October 18th, 2006 10:44 am
This is the best mowing the lawn story ever!
Thanks I needed this comfort read today!
October 18th, 2006 10:45 am
You know what I really love about you and your writing? You never miss an opportunity to listen, to see, to truly be, in any given moment. That’s a God given gift, in my book.
October 18th, 2006 11:22 am
Nice post. Almost could imagine being there.
October 18th, 2006 11:54 am
How beautiful and yet how sad the ending…
October 18th, 2006 12:05 pm
Beautiful. 🙂
October 18th, 2006 1:32 pm
Beautifully written, Colleen! I love when a story is written in the present tense! It carries you, the reader, along with it as if you are doing all those things.
I look at our summer bedroom balcony and regret that I did not use it as much as I could have, and now it’s too late! I did go out to the bedroom to hear the rain on the roof yesterday, which I love.
I love the parallel of the abrupt halt of the lawnmower with the end of summer.
We get too much cold weather and snow to do without a dryer but I really miss my long clothesline I had in another house.
Each change of seasons is a double-edged sword…the painful good-bye and out with the old, but a new view and warm hello with which to embrace the new. Each season does have its own charm!Here’s to apple and pumpkin pies!
October 18th, 2006 2:30 pm
“The oldest apple tree in our yard has produced fruit for the first time.” — Simply magical. I love the peace and the natural luxury of this entry.
October 18th, 2006 4:13 pm
Your mowing “trip” and the way you chose to perceive it reminded me of a meeting I went to this week. One person moaned and groaned about having to “waste time hauling someone around town to shop” and then the next person to speak had almost the same experience and said, “I really treasured the time that we had to get to know each other”. It really is all about perspective and attitude, isn’t it? Lovely post.
October 18th, 2006 5:38 pm
I would have been excited to see apples on the tree too!! How old is the tree? I wish I could make you one of my good ole apple pies with your apples….xo
October 18th, 2006 8:04 pm
The apple tree is out by the driveway and was here when we bought the place in 1991 but was a baby then. Josh hit it once when he was a new driver and it leaned…so maybe its growth was stunted.
October 18th, 2006 8:26 pm
I had my first really fresh apple of the year yesteday. It was almost worth the loss of summer. Beautiful writing, Colleen!
October 18th, 2006 9:49 pm
Perfection!
I absolutely adore this post, brilliant writing!
October 19th, 2006 5:04 am
What a wonderful post, Colleen…So filled with nostalgic imagery…I got a real sense of your yard and all the things you wrote about…the apples, the shed…(Love those golf balls in the picture you posted…)
I do have a question for you Colleen….What do you do about drying your clothes after washing them in the Winter months?? (lol)
October 19th, 2006 8:38 am
We have a woodstove in the cellar. It’s our main source of heat and so I hang them down there in the winter. I just don’t like dryers. They’re a big energy drain and I don’t like the way the clothes come out.
October 19th, 2006 12:03 pm
Great post, Colleen. You certainly captured the waning days of summer in your area.
October 19th, 2006 12:39 pm
Great post and great pics
October 19th, 2006 4:12 pm
Beautifully “narrated”… I love autumn.
~S