mowing the lawn

August 19-23: Finding a rhythm after holidays

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Going to Sicily and London were lovely additions to this year’s fitfor15in15 escapades, but it’s taken me a few days to get back into the swing of blogging every day. I don’t think I needed a break, but it was lovely to just enjoy the time for what it was.

At home, the grass has turned green again and the weather is cooler but still nice.

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Leo outside our house. Look at all that green grass!

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Not sure if we’ll use the pool again this season – the water is now just 17 degrees. Too cold for most and definitely too cold for me!

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A beautiful sunset on my way home on Wednesday night

I went to work on Wednesday then went back again in the evening to celebrate Maru Dojo’s 10th anniversary. Congratulations to Marko and his team for a great event, and 10 years of success. Here’s to the next 10, 20 …

Thursday, I spoke with a friend in Australia about some writing work he’d like me to do and Leo’s friend Dani came over for dinner. I made a baked chicken pasta dish which was mostly made up, and thankfully it worked!

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Leo and Dani

Friday I sent in further documents for a job application that’s currently on the go, and helped Rene in the garden pulling weeds, using the electric trimmer and finishing off the mowing. It’s been a while since the lawn’s been mowed, because it was burnt to a crisp over summer. Leo was feeling poorly with the flu on Friday night and didn’t come to Fritz’s birthday party. I was only supposed to go for an hour, but Rene ended up staying much longer than he intended, so I got home about 10.30pm instead of 7.30pm. Thankfully, Leo didn’t mind!

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Freshly mowed. Friday was a lovely sunny day

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Dinner with Lotti, Fritz (hidden), Rene and Paul

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Ueli and Anna-Marie celebrating Fritz’s 78th birthday

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Eve, Liliane and Hani, laughing at the boys because …

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They sculled a shot of whisky! Rene said it burnt his nose and throat

Saturday, I cleaned the pool and enjoyed some warmth, then The Usual Suspects came over for a barbecue and we played cards for most of the afternoon and evening. Poor Eve, who is normally very good, lost six times. She was devastated! I managed to only have to pay once (two Francs, which goes into a kitty to be used on holidays in November) so felt pretty chuffed. Leo joined us only for the meal as he was still feeling rubbish with the flu.

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Sleeping beauty, where he spent most of Saturday afternoon

Sunday, Liliane, Leo (who was feeling much better) and I walked the lovely path behind our house (which I only ‘discovered’ this year) to our favourite restaurant in Wohlen, Restaurant Kreuz. They were having an outdoor lunch celebration with a traditional brass band, so The Usual Suspects met once again for another afternoon of laughs. For some reason, this one turned into a riot. The restaurant owner decided we should all have shots, and because we oohed and ahhed about how nice they were (a warm caramel/amaretto and cream concoction), we bought another round, and then another, and then he gave us something different to try, and then we had Red Bull and Jägermeister drinks and and and … Phew. I’m glad it wasn’t necessary for me to go into the Dojo today. I feel fine but riding in the rain with a slightly foggy head wouldn’t have been the smartest plan.

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10am in Wohlen bei Bern, looking at the Alps

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Liliane and Rene’s dog Boy joined us on the walk to Restaurant Kreuz

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Luckily when we walk to the restaurant, there’s lots of downhill

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Liliane said this red berry clump was quite rare to see in the wild. The leaves of the plant were long thin strips, but I can’t find any references on the internet

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What an amazing, massive hibiscus in the garden with all the decorations, which I’ve mentioned a few times

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Liliane in the elaborate garden

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This was one of the smaller blooms

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Boy with ball = happy Boy

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The band played in slight drizzle but it cleared up after lunch

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We moved our table under the tree so we wouldn’t get wet. Cheeky!

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All the other tables

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The gang. This is the first time I’ve sat outside at Restaurant Kreuz

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Leo killing any lingering germs with a Jägerbomb

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They call this drink a ‘Flying Deer’ here, because Red Bull apparently gives you wings

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Lotti enjoying the warm shot with cream. I can’t remember the Bern-Deutsch name for it, but it means Marmot Fart. Charming!

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Eve isn’t normally a dairy fan, but she thought this was pretty tasty!

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Rene pretending to be our waiter

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I had a shot at being the waitress, but the first friend of Rene’s I spoke to said, “Can’t understand a word” because I spoke to him in German and not Bern-Deutsch. Ahh, the daily challenges!

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Restaurant owner Peter handing out more drinks … really? Really? I’m well over them by this stage!

Overall, it was a great social weekend, but I’m looking forward to some quiet days ahead!

Wishing you a wonderful day.

May 16: Gardening all day!

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Rene, our neighbour and owner of the whole property, called us this morning and asked if we could help him clean the ride-on lawnmower today. No problem!

From midday, we prepared the mower to be in tip-top working condition. We both got a bit sunburnt! Oops. Here’s Leo cleaning out all the caked-on grass.

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Scraping off the hard grass

I cleaned another part and Rene sharpened the blades and then we put it all back together again. After nearly two hours it was ready to go, and Rene was ready for bed!

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Rene decided to have a little pause here

The grass was still a bit too wet to mow after yesterday’s all-day rainfest, so Leo and I put up the umbrella at our house and rebuilt the hammock holder. We also made a quick trip to the local shop for some new plants and soil.

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The terrace looking all summery with the soon to be planted flowers on the table

When we came home, I jumped straight on the mower and did just the back of the house and half of the front. Rene wants to see if the grass in the furthest part of the front lawn can thicken up a bit if we cut it less. So the grass looks a bit half and half. We had lots of problems with the wet grass clogging up the mower again. Afterwards, I decided to weed around the little house Liliane calls the pergola, where they have dinner parties and so on. It’s like a small shack with two tables and an indoor fireplace. Lovely in winter and great for barbecues in summer. Didn’t take a photo of that, I’m afraid.

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Looking good

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Can you see the line where I stopped mowing?

Leo made dinner then we sat outside with Liliane and Rene admiring our handiwork and watching all the birds. We finished the night with the James Bond movie Thunderball. I’m feeling exhausted! Right butt cheek muscle is feeling better today, so that’s another win!

Looking forward to planting all the new flowers tomorrow.

Wishing you a wonderful day.

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My little garden will get a spruce up tomorrow

May 7: Gardening and a little ditty

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Looking a bit woolly

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Quite a few dandelions in the grass. Boy on the prowl

Nothing like an afternoon working in the garden plus mowing the lawn to:

  • make you a bit sweaty
  • make your knees scream blue murder
  • give your lower back a run for its money
  • bring on sneezing fits that pop your eyeballs out of your head

Or is that just me?

But in the end it’s all worth it.

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Boy still on the prowl

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Roger and Rafa could play on that!

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Three hours later, shooting into the afternoon sun

We’ve had so much rain, soooo much rain, and the lawn should have been mowed about a week ago. No chance. The ground was still really wet, so much so the mower kept clogging up, so Rene and I were constantly on our knees, hauling out handfuls of solid green lumps. After about the fourth cleanout, he decided to not cut it quite so short, and after that we didn’t have any problems. Our knees rejoiced.

Then after it was all done, I used an old fashioned pitchfork to put the grass clippings into the mulch pile. Now that was heavy lifting!

I quite enjoy being on the ride-on mower. I should sing songs while zooming around (I just had a vision of watching a sped-up video of the mowing (don’t worry, there isn’t one) set to The Benny Hill Show theme song) about being home on the range, because we do have deer. I’m just never up early enough to see them, apparently.

My songs would be classics – I might even make up a few on the spot – and I’d look the part, chewing on a wheat stalk, wearing a battered old Akubra hat and dust-covered RM Williams boots. Oh hang on, that’s an Australian scenario. I’ll start again:

My songs would be classics – I might even make up a few grammatically incorrect German ditties on the spot – and I’d look the part, chewing a clump of edelweiss, wearing a centuries old dirndl and grass-covered Zoggeli clogs. Oh, how I love spring!* Yodel-Ay-Ee-Ooo!

“As the sun went down behind the pines, the boss said call it quits. We surveyed our work and drank a beer. Wet grass sure is the pits.”

I’ll spare you from the German version, and my original English ending too!

Wishing you a wonderful day.

* except for the hayfever

April 21 #2: Walking from the city and gardening

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Call off the search dogs! I’m alive!

I mentioned I’d write again after walking from the city, but that idea went out the exhaustion window. It took two hours to walk home (which was a nice surprise as I thought it would be longer) and when I arrived, Rene was finishing repairs on the ride-on lawnmower in preparation to do the garden. So yep, you guessed it, I dumped my backpack on the bench outside our house, and walked straight over to him to help. Thank goodness for leaf blowers and ride-on mowers! Three hours later, I flopped on the couch (after a shower of course!) and after another three hours, I was asleep on the couch. I stumbled up the ladder into bed.

Part of the plan to walk home was so I could stop at a new animal shelter to ask about volunteering. I’d seen a picture of it in a free local magazine so was keen to see if I could be put to good use. Searching in the forest where I thought it would be, I asked a woman with a very funky short grey crop hairdo, who was walking her dog, if she knew where it was. “It hasn’t been built yet,” she said. “Maybe next year.”

Serves me right for not being fluent in German! I’d completely misread the article and thought the place had opened already. What makes the story even more bizarre (aside from my silliness) is the woman who I spoke to, well, her husband is involved with trying to get the shelter built. How about that for a fluke? Of all the people to ask, Heidi was the best person possible. She was very knowledgeable about the whole procedure and said some residents across the river are against it being built, because they’re worried about the noise travelling. If all goes to plan, the shelter could be finished by the end of summer next year.

Anyway, here are the photos from yesterday’s walk:

And here’s the finished garden. My arms were shaking from using the leaf blower to clear all the leaves (the leaves! the leaves!) out of the garden beds and off the concrete areas. (Rene is a stickler for dead-leaf decimation. I follow his orders.) Then I jumped on the mower to finish with this:

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Look at that freshly mown grass!

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Look at that leaf-free garden!

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Look at that ball-crazy dog called Boy!

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Look at those flags in the wind (and look at the lovely grass too)!

  • Physically Fit: Two-hour walk from the city to home; using the leaf blower (damn heavy thing!)
  • Mentally Fit: Meeting Leonie for lunch, walking, beginning French crime show “Braquo”
  • Nutritionally Fit: Smoothies, salads and strawberries
  • Minimalism: Fail – could have used a broom instead of the leaf blower. I’d still be in the garden though …

Wishing you a wonderful day.