Summer-almost!

Time for Tuesday's Slice of Life Sharing at Two Writing Teachers
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      I'm not sure if this is a slice or a book review. I began today thinking I would write about gardening and this time that meant mowing my lawn and doing a bit of weeding. Because it snowed last week, then rained, and I was away on the weekend, every green and growing thing GREW! The snow and cold didn't appear to hurt even a bud, so flowers are opening and my small bit of lawn is growing. Here are two pictures of the first iris and columbine. 

      I am in love with my little lawnmower. I do not have much grass to mow; it takes about ten or fifteen minutes, but what I love is the sound! And today, a glorious eighty degree 'hint of what's to come' day, I also thought of one of my favorite books, Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. It begins: It was a quiet morning, the town covered over with darkness and at ease in bed. Summer gathered in the weather, the wind had the proper touch, the breathing of the world was long and warm and slow. You had only to rise, lean from your window, and know that this indeed was the first real time of freedom and living, this was the first morning of summer. I have read the book more than once, with friends, with students, and alone, savoring the sweet way Bradbury is nostalgic. My copy is a bit dog-eared, given to me by a student who is now grown and writing for a living. 

      So when I mowed today, I thought of Ray Bradbury and the pleasure his words have given, but also thought of my grandfather, so long ago, pushing a mower with a little girl standing under him, thinking she was helping mow, too. Bradbury's words later in the book: Grandfather smiled in his sleep. Feeling the smile and wondering why it was there, he awoke. He lay quietly listening, and the smile was explained./For he heard a sound which was far more important than birds or the rustle of new leaves. Once each year he woke this way and lay waiting for the sound which meant that summer had officially begun. ------- a clatter of rotating metal through the sweet summer grass.

      You'll have to find the book and read the rest, readying yourself for summer!  

 I have generous green space outside my fence, here in the back and 
also in the front. I am not responsible for mowing that part.

This is the only part I actually mow, a tiny piece of lawn.               

And this is my little 'clattering' and 'whirring' mower. How sweet it is!

Happy Summer-almost!