"For see the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle(dove) is heard in the land." The Song of Solomon
Well, we might hope that the 'rain is over and gone,' if by that we mean the big rains with the big, deep, grey skies. We can happily wait till the fall for those to come again, but we do need a little rain between now and then. The birds are indeed all about us, eating the 'Wild Bird Seed' from Neilson's (whose purchase, incidentally, benefitted the new library fundraising project). But we don't have any turtledoves about, cooing at our open windows in the morning as we arise. If Solomon had been writing his songs in Point Roberts instead of Palestine, he might more appropriately have concluded his verse with:
"And the sound of the power lawn mower is heard in the land."
About 3 weeks ago, Ed noted that he ought to get out and begin the lawn mowing season. I pointed out to him that the ground water was at the surface over much of the acre and where it was not, the grass, though cuttable in theory, was soaking wet. And so, wisely or not, he did not further address the issue of lawn mowing. This week, however, with multiple days of blue skies and even a couple of days with blue skies, big sun, and warmish temperatures, the sound of the lawn mower was heard everywhere. I think all motor sounds are chain saws, but time and again I asked, "Is Tom chainsawing? Is that Justin chainsawing?" To each question, the answer was "No, that is a lawnmower."
And inevitably, the time came on Monday when the sounds of the lawn mowers all about us caused Ed, without any warnings from me, to take the lawn mower out of its winter residence and... Well, and nothing, because it didn't start at all. Didn't even try to start, no little choking sounds, no final roaring into gasoline-powered life. A little tinkering brought no advance on the lawn mowing problem. And, so it came that the lawn mower was removed to Canada for repair, and there the lawn mower guy is currently 3 weeks behind in repairs. If only i had not dissuaded Ed from mowing when he first proposed it, we could have been at the head of the line and not at the end of the line. (That advice is probably in Proverbs not in the Psalms.)
The solution was to rent a lawnmower (although perhaps we could have borrowed one from a neighbor, but Ed was in Canada and not in talks with the neighbor as the decision was being made). And so it was done and the sound of the lawnmower now emanates from our yard as well as from all our neighbors. It is as if they are all mowing their lawns over and over in celebratory fashion. Like the Hallelujah Chorus. It is surely a great chorus of lawn mowing and Point Roberts is a united community in this matter of grass as the season of lawn mowing begins.
Welcome to spring! And Amen.
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