Spring and Other Things

It's been a wet winter and now we are enjoying warm spring days, which means that the grass is growing and there is a volcanic explosion of pollen. I use the word "volcanic" because everything seems to be coated with a fine dust, and when it rains, lines of pollen settle in cracks in the pavements and along the edge of my car windows. The colour reminds me of the sulphur deposits I've seen visiting New Zealand's geothermal areas.

Pollen of course means inflamed sinuses. And the rapid growth means that my backyard has become an overgrown jungle. I spent a fair chunk of the weekend trying to tackle the back lawn. I use a push mower, for the exercise and the benefit to the environment. But it can't cope with the lawns as they are at the moment. I should probably get a "Jim" (Our local lawnmowing/gardneing franchise). My daughter calls her local Jim, whose name is actually Bob, when her lawns get out of hand, but I can't help feeling the money would better be spent on books. (My daughter on the other hand feels her time is better spent writing. She may be right. You can't have it both ways).

Anyway, I couldn't cut the grass with the push mower, and I couldn't find the secateurs, so I ended up trimming the longest patches with kitchen scissors. I may just be a little crazy. On the other hand, since the grass is actually about 60% weeds, and the other 70% or so has an underlayer of moss, at least doing it this way meant I could pull up quite a few of the weeds along the way. And get a close view of all the insect life in the long grass. Besides, I was probably doing something at least as useful as most of the other things I do at weekends (such as surfing the net, playing computer games and generally not writing).

I did, however, while not writing, manage to send off a couple of poetry submissions. While noting that the last time I sent anything out was about two years ago. Today I have three poems rattling in my head, so I'm planning to actually do some writing this week (which I had better get on with, since it is nearly bedtime).