Dirty hands

Yesterday I mowed in LaGrange; it was in the low 70’s when I started and though I wasn’t actually whistling while I worked (truthfully,rode on a mower), I was upbeat enough to tackle the dreaded front yard first. You have to go around so many things out front and then there are bushes that keep you from going around any closer than their bushed-out circumference; I did try to get closer at ground level, but most of the time wound up pushing branches out of my face and holding onto my hat.

Oh, yeah, the west side yard is also a pain since there are more bushes and the big rocks Mother put out, not to mention the rocks that have been there forever – the foundation stones for the old horse barn, which was gone by the time I was born. But I got it done and then I moved on to old garden part: I start out going around the evergreens in the middle and just keep going around and around and around and around – until I get to the grape arbor and then I have to adapt. Sigh.

Still, I got it done and was happy to see that the back expanse had not grown much because it had not rained. HOWEVER, when I mowed it last week for the first time there was some tall grass that just fell over and I expected it to be blown into the cornfield with the inevitable wind. Well, no. It had not been windy and I basically had hay lying in large areas. I mowed through the piles in a pattern that looked like plate of spaghetti and then, finally, chugged back to the shed.

And I got off . . . and felt a little woozy. It was 86. Not 73 anymore. Kansas had come to me.

On top of that, the mosquitoes were out and I am a mosquito magnet. I think my repellant was expired so I am going to go in search of a new spray bottle of super Deep Woods or something with the picture of a bug and a skull & crossbones on it.

To round off the day, before I flopped on the sofa, I made two cemetery pots. I had forgotten how dirty dirt is; the sink, the floor and every crevice in my hands were caked with Scott’s potting soil and Miracle-Gro soil supplement. My hands are bacterially-soaped clean, but still dirty; I’ll scrub them after I get the next three pots done . . . or is it four pots? Then, of course, there is the single geranium to go by my dad’s grave for Miss Alice, whose ashes are buried above his casket.

I have lamented about being the last one – the one left with the Memorial Day pots that have increased in number – but I need to realize that is the way it should be. All these pots are for generations before mine; there are those who will be putting flowers on children’s graves and that is really worth lamenting.

One thought on “Dirty hands”

  1. People down here don’t put out flowers on memorial day, or at least not many people do. Many of the cemeteries require plastic flowers and that’s just tacky to me.

    I used to plant a flower on my mom and dad’s grave when I went home but haven’t been there for a couple of years. The cemetery is on a really really dry hill and you usually have to watch out for rattlesnakes when you go up there so I always had to find a drought resistant plant. It’s almost like one of those dry old western cemeteries from a movie. No kidding. When I do go up I always go alone because I wander through and “see” all the new people there. Such a small town I usually find one or two old friends or parents of friends. I also pick up and right any old stones that have fallen, some are from the 1840s and 1850s. There’s one Japanese marker (he was a worker on the vegetable farm that became my family’s ranch), and one Jewish grave. The rest are just “plain ol’ people”. You can tell the hispanic graves as they all are quite adorned with statues, flowers, fences, pictures, you name it, it’s there. So my token plants are nothing in comparison. But I have had a little success with a few things I’ve planted. I think there’s some cactus that has survived over the years.

    The main thing is it’s really quiet, really calm, very peaceful. And I get to have a nice talk out loud with my mom and nobody thinks I’m crazy because I’m the only one there.

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