Mow, de nouveau

I thought the lawn mower had been packed away for the winter. So what on earth was I doing spending a good three hours heaving and hauling my way up and down the lower terraces today?

Seemed like a good idea at the time? Actually I had gone down below the house to start raking the leaves. Next thing I knew out came the mower and it hoovered up the piles so nicely and neatly I couldn’t stop.

Killing two birds with one stone. You mow the lawn and get all those pesky chestnut leaves at the same time.

Now if you look carefully at the picture (and look beyond the fabulously neat stripes) you will see that not all the leaves have fallen off the trees. So this may have been a dumb time to think I could rake them up and have tidy terraces.   But the sun was shining and long expanses of leafy fields beckoned.

There is something addictive about raking. You are saving all the little wild thyme plants and grass from death by light starvation. And before you know it (well, your back knows it) you have raked half a terrace and are looking around where to hide the pile.

You won’t find any leaf mould cages here. But by chopping up the leaves as I mowed over the top of them they are breaking down into easy to digest bits.   With luck they will break down even if piled up in heaps next to the rock terrace walls. But I get the feeling I will need a lot of rain for this sort of silent bacterial (or is it fungus?) action.

Still, it looks dead tidy, and when I get up tomorrow and finish the few terraces near the vineyard I shall take my pictures and admire my handiwork.