Self Propelled Mean Machine

My new lawn mower has lived up to all my expectations. It's shiny, deep cherry red paintwork with black handles, a grass collection basket to die for, a go-faster handle (with a tortoise pace setting if you are tired), round black plastic wheels, one on each corner, oh and it cuts the grass.

There was one shock however. It is self propelled. Now when I saw this on the box I though self propelled meant that I had to propel it myself - 'self (me) propel.' When I assembled it, there were two safety grips on the handle. One is the engine brake (let go of it and the engine cuts out - safety - see?) I had no clue what the other was. 

So I filled it up with oil - bought separately, it doesn't come with any hence a trip back to the shop, grrrrr and filled it up with unleaded fuel, it started first time and it sounded quite smooth and a lot quieter than my old machine. 

'I wonder what this other handle does?' so I engaged it and off the lawn mower went, on its own hurtling off down the garden with me hanging on behind it for dear life. 'Self propelled' means it propels itself. Ahhhhh (light comes on.) However if you want to expend some energy and push it yourself, you can with relative ease.

Now of course it would have been so much clearer if I had read the instruction book, but as the first part was in Italian and as my Italian goes so far as 'Molto Bene pop' (Michael Caine in The Italian Job,) I got fed up and thought I could handle it without reading reams of instructions: how to cut grass, safety guidelines (I've never lost a foot yet) and technical specifications including decibel readings. Perhaps that's a man thing, but it does work like a dream and I didn't run over the cats. 

What more could a man want?

A weekend that's what and the domestic routine continues with shopping, gardening, going to the tip and chilling with a new book for the book club on my Kindle, The Fox in the Attic by Richard Hughes.

I hope you have a great weekend.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.

Bee-have in the Garden

I blew up my lawn mower today. My garden is full of trees and there is the occasional large root that just surfaces in the thatch of the grass and today I forgot that there was one there and the blades hit it, the engine made an horrendous screeching noise and the engine started vibrating and burning oil and drown the garden and me in a pea soup of oil smoke.  I've had this mower about 12 years and I've only ever had two blades on it so it's not done me bad; I reckon around 36 pence a cut since I bought it.

So I've got a half cut lawn. Did you know that people actually pour beer on their grass. It comes up half cut!

My brother-in-law pointed out a curious thing to me today - that none of the hostas have been eaten by slugs or snails. The picture left is an elephant's ear hosta and is mostly scar free. I wonder if it's because we've had such a dry spring that the snails and slugs have struggled to survive?

Now the strangest thing today is that some wild bees have been doing some sort of dance in the garden next to the ivy on the fence. They haven't been going in there so I don't think they are nesting, they just dance round each other in a group of around six or seven, one will fly off and then as one comes back another leaves the group. I captured a poor quality video of this hectic dance, if you know what they are doing, please let me know.

After filming the bees, I sat quietly in the garden for a few minutes, just meditating and cogitating, thanking my Green Man for looking after the garden with the elementals that live there. As that happened, a blackbird settled into the lime tree just above me and began the most beautiful song. Other blackbirds suddenly appeared in nearby trees and were answering with equally as lovely tunes.

I remember going to a funeral of an elderly acquaintance many years ago. There were only about ten people at the burial following the funeral service. The day was grey and quiet. As the vicar finished his prayers at the graveside, a blackbird perched on the very top of the oldest and largest tree in the cemetery just a few yards away and began the most hauntingly beautiful melody. It brought tears.

I've tried to book Pirates of the Caribbean 4 (On Stranger Tides) but the local cinema is fully booked for a week so I'll have to wait a little longer for the Captain Jack Sparrow (Johnny Depp) performance as well as the brilliant Geoffrey Rush.

I had a Reiki treatment the other day - number two of three. It was certainly interesting - boy I needed it and today I feel much better. Reiki is a marvellous treatment using universal life force to balance your body and mind. I have some issues to resolve and this went some way to lighting the path forward. My Reiki therapist was wonderful and understanding. I perhaps understand better how my clients feel when I give them a Reiki treatment.

Roast beef for tea today.

Chat soon

Ta-ra.