New Mower

Cor blimey! No wonder people used to be fit and healthy back in the day..... I went round my Father in Laws and picked up my new mower this evening and just carrying it from his house to the car I realised it was a bit of a lump of a machine what with having a weighted roller on the back. Then as dusk came down I went over to the field in the gloom with it to have a mow and try it out and again the walk across the road over to field impressed on me how heavy the thing was, so much so that when I realised the boxing club blokes were still there rather than carry the bloody thing back home I stashed it in the woods.

Eventually they went home around about 9pm and I was able to do the mowing in the dark. I had to get it done as there was loads of cloud cover and it looks like rain due soon and what with it not raining today it looked as though tonight might be the only window of opportunity. In the dim light offered by the street lights across the way I was able to locate where the wicket was and got down to the mowing and right from the word go it was impressive. Even in the dark I could see that it was cutting absolutely stacks of grass and that it was very short, if it had a bucket to catch the grass I'd imagine it would been filled several times over it looked that efficient and then by the time it was all done man did it look short! Even in the dim light the contrast between the wicket grass and the outfield was marked and underfoot it felt like carpet it was that short!

Enthused by the efficiency I went over and cut my bowling practice wicket which is a lot bigger full length and about 6 or 7 feet wide, so quite a bit of grass and as I made the move from one wicket to the other I could feel the beginnings of the rain, so the grass was now beginning to pick up some moisture and needless to say would become difficult to cut, so I had to crack on a bit with it and this is where it started to feel a bit heavy and cumbersome and I began to sweat and have to work a bit. Making me realise - no wonder hover mowers and electric mowers became the vogue back in the late 60's and early 70's and no wonder your Dad and your Grandad back then were fit geezers what with all that manual mowing lark every 3 nights in the summer! But what a beautiful cut it gives you - the work is worth the look of the cut. Even in the dark I could see that I was producing lovely lines and I can't wait till tomorrow and see how short it really is. So much so I'll be taking my camera into work just so that I can take some pictures on the way in!

All I need to do now is either make a grass bucket or get one from somewhere and I'll be in lawn-mowing heaven. If I give it a few more days so that the dead grass blows away or is absorbed into the earth and then cut it again and next time collect the cuttings somehow. I'm such a saddo obsessive!