Another Spring Ritual

Cold nights but warmish days. It was dry enough yesterday for me to mow both the front and back lawns, the first time of '11. Old habits of mowing re-asserted themselves: this patch of ground, then another one, then another, in a certain order. There were some extra tasks that came along with the first mowing of the season, however, such as trash collection from the outer reaches of the back yard, hard along the fence.

During the dead of winter, there's little reason to venture out that way, and so stray things collect there. Mysterious things. Just where did that small bent-and-spent can of Silly String come from? No matter, it has to go, since I don't want to run over it with the mower. That machine is old and beat up enough as it is.

It didn't take long to get back into the mowing groove. Grass became shorter and dandelions by the score had their salient parts cut away. But they'll be back. Were back, in fact, as of this afternoon. Some call them weeds. I call them visible evidence of biodiversity on my little part of the Earth.