For the Love of Lawn Mowing

One of the best things about the house that we moved into a few months ago, aside from two toilets and an inside laundry and, as it turns out an excellent landlord, is the fact that we have a big backyard and a nice front yard and a decent nature strip. All of which add up to one thing: lots of lawn that needs to be mowed.

I am mad for mowing the lawn. I fucking love it. The smell of freshly cut grass should be the eau-de-cologne of an Australian summer (that and the smell of sunscreen on the beach). I find it so satisfying because it meets a number of criteria for a happy life.  Exercise, sunshine and a job well done!

The Victa Workout has you hauling a thirty-kilo machine up and down your yard for a good few hours all the while getting heavier and heavier as the catcher fills. Which you steadily try and ignore because watching those straight lines of freshly mowed lawn appear before you is just so intoxicating…until you’re leaving behind trails of grass patches that you have to return to rake up. Emptying a catcher full of grass is no easy task either. You’re hoisting it, shaking it and hoisting again until it’s empty. That’s hard yakka my friends.

I bought by second-hand Victa off eBay for $80 bucks from a guy that had it handed down to him from his uncle. I think it’s about 20 years old. It’s been well loved. Unlike its sister workout, the Dyson Workout, the Victa Workout has the added bonus of getting you outside on a sunny day. All that Vitamin D is good for the soul and that’s something that vacuuming will never be no matter how much you suck!

Mowing lawns gets you outside because that’s where the job is. You can’t cut grass watching Narcos on a sunny Sunday afternoon. Although, you could rig up an iPad if your obsession is strong…and honestly, with Pedro Pascal all over Season 3, I wouldn’t blame you! *exhales quickly and fans herself*

Sorry, where was I… oh yeah. A job well done.

I find mowing lawn one of life’s simple pleasures. The sense of satisfaction I get when I have completed this task is akin to Tom Hanks making fire in Castaway. “Look what I have done”. I’m not saying that my lawn mowing prowess is going to earn me a place in any gardening Olympics, because perfection can get fucked, but I do a fair job.

Another thing I love about lawn mowing is that no one can bother you. It’s a solo sport. Just you, the Victa and the sound of the 2-stroke motor, which leaves you alone with your thoughts and justified in ignoring any bastard that tries to communicate with you while you’re mid-mow. (And as a mother to an almost-4-year-old I’ll take any solo sport I can get!)

And just one final point I’ll make in this, my ode to lawn mowing, is that it’s great for your mental health because you don’t really have to think about it. It’s the perfect task to just do. I’ve been in a bit of a state of inertia these past few days where I find it hard to know what to do. There’s either too much to do or I’m not doing enough so I end up doing nothing. As a wise friend once said to me about living with depression, “When you don’t know what to do, just do anything”.

So this morning I did. I mowed the lawns. My yard looks neat and tidy and I’ve had a decent workout in the sunshine and my head is clearer than it has been in days. And, as an added bonus…I’ve written a blog post about it! Yay, go me. That’s winning at life. Simple.

3 thoughts on “For the Love of Lawn Mowing

    • Ha ha ha…not sure it would be as satisfying cutting someone else’s grass! I wouldn’t get to enjoy the labour of my love for a week after would I? (nice try though! x)

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