blog blong mama vivienne - lawns and stuff

lawns talua style

 

Blog blong mama Vivienne

 

As I stand at the sink to do the dishes, I am very pleased to look out the window at my back lawn and see that the grass has been mown.

 

That is a simple enough statement isn’t it – but one that is loaded with layers of meaning that you will have absolutely no understanding of.

 

Let me fill you in:

Firstly, we live on a campus, therefore my backyard is in fact a communal backyard, part of a large open green space dotted with trees.

 

So, we are not directly responsible for our ‘own’ backyard, nor do we have the equipment to do the work if we had to. (We are responsible for our own ‘garden’ but that’s a story for another day).

 

Mostly students do the outdoor maintenance work around the place along with some Jack-of-all Trades employees.

 

Usually the lawn mowing is done by push mower – bare in mind that this is a large area with various accommodation and ablution bocks spread around and lecture rooms, offices, etc. I understand that they don’t keep the whole area mown with the hand mower but keep various areas such as the most often used paths, trimmed. At present, however, both of the push mowers are out of action – one apparently more or less permanently and one needing some small part or repair work.

 

And so the lawn mowing is currently being done by weed eater! Can you imagine a large area the size of several football fields being done by weed eater? (more commonly known around here as a “whipper snipper” because of Aussie influence!)

 

The day we arrived more than 4 weeks ago - the job had been started. It is done in piece meal fashion, on some days, not on others and in some places not in others but it is never likely to be fully completed. They would also need to start all over again well before it was ever completed.

 

Therefore I was surprised and pleased 2 days ago to observe a guy advancing slowly towards our back lawn area working with the weed eater.

 

Please picture this – after a few wet, grey days the weather has cleared again to brilliant blue skies and temperatures in the low 30’s. This young ni-van fella is wearing dark overalls (and bare feet). I break into a sweat just standing in the relatively cook kitchen area (this where the temp is taken by the way, so it would be much hotter in the full sun) and watching. Sensibly he has a water bottle and takes occasional breaks under the tree hut tree where the kids often play. He knocks off around 11:30am, which is when most work here slows down until at least 1:30.

 

He reappeared the next day and completed our back lawn area. Now add to this picture our house gel, Madelyne, out in this same heat raking up all the mown grass and various fallen leaves, etc. Madelyne, however, rarely takes breaks unless I almost beg her to stop and have a drink and a snack. Madelyne has a cold and isn’t feeling very well and I have said to her that it isn’t so important and can wait, but still she carries on. Amazing. I can hardly do anything more physical than walking outside at that time of the day, let alone mow or rake up grass.

 

Now, to complete this picture you are building of the lawn mowing procedure, I need to describe the lawn to you. The weed eating man isn’t cutting through think swathes of jungle – it’s a fairly low growing grass variety. There is also commonly a weed known locally as “needle grass”.

 

I was fascinated with this plant the first time I saw it, for, as soon as you touch it all the leaves (not blades as in grass but double rows of small round leaves off a central spine) on the whole plant immediately close up. Obviously the first time I noticed the plant I was wearing shoes and didn’t observe the nasty prickles it also has - hence the name.

 

This plant does need to be kept on top of because it can get quite big and is a danger to kids running out in bare feet to get to the nearby mandarin tree.

 

The other issue with the lawn is that the predominant grass is seeding at present and while it is a low growing grass it send up seed heads to just the right height to catch in the hem of your dress. The ‘Mother Hubbard’ style dresses come down to the mid calf length and it is extremely irritating to be pricked by all the tiny seeds. Farmers can imagine heaps of tiny barley grass seeds pricking you.

 

I often sit in devotions or church when the language has become too difficult for me and I ‘ve lost attention, and pick them all out, just to get another lot in my hem as I walk back home after church.

 

Another reason that I’m pleased the grass has been trimmed (that’s probably a better description than mown) is that the large tree near our home is fruiting at present and dropping small berries everywhere. With the longish grass and the wet weather and the dropped berries it was getting rather mucky and disgusting to walk around in some places near the tree. The bats feast on the berries in this tree during the night so perhaps add bat droppings into the mix as well.

 

And, so as you can see, I was very pleased to see the lawn trimmed outside my backdoor for a number of reasons, not just the aesthetic ones. But I’m afraid, under current weather conditions, I wasn’t going to volunteer to do it (and nor was Jon!)