Sunday, August 26, 2007

Yardwork at Dusk


When the next door neighbors moved in a year ago, from the city, they cleared out a huge chunk of forest around their house and up the hill. This is the view standing at the property line. It was clear cut style; they took out everything, old trees, saplings, bushes. Yuck, I thought, being a tree hugger and all. Lately though, I've noticed that it gets darker about an hour later at their house. And I found myself a little jealous. Here's my "yard", and this is one of the less snarly tangled parts.

And so I needed a good, green party excuse to do some heavy duty trimming at my place. I thought, well, we don't let fires do what they're supposed to anymore. Fires are supposed to keep the forest clean, really, but we humans try to stop fires at all costs. So I'll do what fire can't, I decided. I'll take out all the scrawny saplings, the dead bushes that are coated with fallen leaves, and trim the lower dead branches of the big trees. And I think two cups of coffee will keep me going until it's practically dark and I can barely see what exactly I'm clipping away at.
Then this stump can look like a monster, scaring the crap out of me and reminding me that the weekend is for hitting the couch, not yard work. At least not when the monsters come out- I mean, when it gets dark. Good plan, good plan.

Oh yeah, also, if you mention liking yard work, you will have more yards volunteered for you than you can believe. Don't say anything about cash, though, unless you want them to retract the offer.

3 comments:

D-HOR said...

Ya know you're really something else. You're an experienced coffee snob, you love your cats, you take nice pictures and you just wrote about normal yard cleaning stuff. You're funny and kind of normal.

And then you BUST out with how a stump looks scary like a monster. It's a stump.

A stump.

AHAHAHAHHAAHHAHHAHAH oh you're the best!! Now at least I know I'm not the only half sane person on earth to come up with weird fears for no reason. Honestly, when I'm alone in the woods the strangest most everyday object can all of a sudden start to freak me out.

Ahhh ohhhh ho ho, a stump, you. are. CAKE!! :)

Maewen Archer said...

I would be totally gone once the dark started to creep up on that stump.

My mom attempted to keep the woods behind our house clear of vines and saplings for a while -- it was a battle, and I think she finally let the vines have it back. I think you're tougher, though. Good luck!

Anonymous said...

Hermitgirl,
Funny and kinda normal. Do you think? Perhaps the new and improved normal. Here's to leaning to the 'kinda' side. Your writing and photos are a delight.