RogerBW's Blog

One Man Went To Mow 26 September 2014

After I did the scythe course in August, I ordered one from The Scythe Shop, and now I've put it to use in the garden. Images follow: cc-by-sa on everything.

As those of you who've been to recent barbecues will have seen, the garden has been turned over to tall grass and meadow plants. They've gone to seed now, so it was time to take them out for the winter.

Before:

The First Swath:

(According to Clive Leeke, in standard English it rhymes with "moth", not "bath" or "bathe". Compare "wrath".)

This took about five minutes. All the time I was cutting, I was surrounded by a glorious smell of cut plants, something I've never noticed with a lawnmower.

I did most of it in five and ten minute chunks, pausing to cool off. Once one's got the hang of the motion, one can make remarkable progress in a short time, while retaining a feeling of contact with the earth and an awareness of the differing lumpiness and firmness of the ground.

Alas, I rapidly filled our garden bin, so I left most of the cuttings on the ground.

And then a final trim with the cuttings removed:


  1. Posted by Michael Cule at 10:47am on 26 September 2014

    Next time you should see if you can manage video of the event.

  2. Posted by RogerBW at 11:29am on 26 September 2014

    Heh. A time-lapse camera might have been more to the point.

    This video is pretty much what I was doing (when I had the space to do it in; edges and tubs and things are tricky).

  3. Posted by Carinthia at 02:46pm on 26 September 2014

    I'm sure that it is particularly satisfying. I could sneeze at the mere thought though. ;) xx

  4. Posted by RogerBW at 02:50pm on 26 September 2014

    I bet it happens less than with a lawn mower; the stems aren't being thrashed about as much. (Not that this garden is particularly allergy-friendly in the first place.)

Comments on this post are now closed. If you have particular grounds for adding a late comment, comment on a more recent post quoting the URL of this one.

Search
Archive
Tags 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s 2010s 3d printing action advent of code aeronautics aikakirja anecdote animation anime army astronomy audio audio tech base commerce battletech beer boardgaming book of the week bookmonth chain of command children chris chronicle church of no redeeming virtues cold war comedy computing contemporary cornish smuggler cosmic encounter coup covid-19 crime crystal cthulhu eternal cycling dead of winter doctor who documentary drama driving drone ecchi economics en garde espionage essen 2015 essen 2016 essen 2017 essen 2018 essen 2019 essen 2022 essen 2023 existential risk falklands war fandom fanfic fantasy feminism film firefly first world war flash point flight simulation food garmin drive gazebo genesys geocaching geodata gin gkp gurps gurps 101 gus harpoon historical history horror hugo 2014 hugo 2015 hugo 2016 hugo 2017 hugo 2018 hugo 2019 hugo 2020 hugo 2021 hugo 2022 hugo 2023 hugo 2024 hugo-nebula reread in brief avoid instrumented life javascript julian simpson julie enfield kickstarter kotlin learn to play leaving earth linux liquor lovecraftiana lua mecha men with beards mpd museum music mystery naval noir non-fiction one for the brow opera parody paul temple perl perl weekly challenge photography podcast politics postscript powers prediction privacy project woolsack pyracantha python quantum rail raku ranting raspberry pi reading reading boardgames social real life restaurant reviews romance rpg a day rpgs ruby rust scala science fiction scythe second world war security shipwreck simutrans smartphone south atlantic war squaddies stationery steampunk stuarts suburbia superheroes suspense television the resistance the weekly challenge thirsty meeples thriller tin soldier torg toys trailers travel type 26 type 31 type 45 vietnam war war wargaming weather wives and sweethearts writing about writing x-wing young adult
Special All book reviews, All film reviews
Produced by aikakirja v0.1