The worst part about being away from home for five weeks, besides missing Puddy, is that by the time you get home, the lawn has become a jungle. Sure, my brother was house-sitting, but as I didn’t list “mow the lawn” as one of the things to do, it didn’t get done. I must admit, I’ve been putting off mowing the lawn this week because I came home from holiday with a broken toe and the thought of pushing our old-fashioned push lawn mower up the hill, battling the long grass, just made me want to cry. Today, however, I was feeling up to it, so for documentations sake, here is the “before” photo:

Notice the cactus in the back which has appeared to keel over and is now being supported by the air conditioning unit? I went in for a closer examination and discovered a monster of a weed had sprung up behind it and pushed it over. I hate that back corner of the yard. The reddish plant is nice but makes it almost impossible to climb through to the back bit which was just dirt when we moved in and is now dirt plus weeds. I pull out the weeds every month and within days they are back. I want to tear up part of the reddish plant to make stepping stones, but when I asked the real estate I was told I couldn’t – apparently it looks good the way it is. Yeah, right.

Puddy decided to come over and see what I was up to. I don’t know what it is about our yard but as soon as we venture out into the grass, Puddy comes bolting over from wherever she was hiding. Perhaps it’s because I often sit out there with her and play with the long grass runners so she associates us in the yard with playtime?

Apparently she disapproves of the length of the grass … or she’s preparing to come and head-bump me because I’ve lowered myself to the ground in order to get a photo of her and am therefore vulnerable to her attack. Which one is it?

Yup, that would be a head-bump right there, silly cat!

Anyway, I got out the lawn mower and that sent Puddy running off. She’s terrified of it and I don’t blame her – it makes a really loud whirring noise. Our neighbour has a similar one and she’s outside at least a few hours a day mowing her (perfect) lawn and after about ten minutes of the noise I just want to scream. Our lawn mower is not my favourite thing in the world, but hey, it’s a work-out, it was free with the house and … it’s yellow. And yellow things are cool.

So, after a lot of sweating and swearing, I present the “after” photo:

TAA-DAA!

Haha, okay so it’s not totally finished (I didn’t even step foot in that back section), at least the grass is mowed.  I did lean over and prod the cactus to see if I could push it back into place, but it didn’t budge, so that job is delegated to Phill for this weekend. Oh, and see that darker green patch in the middle of the yard? That’s where the weeds were the thickest and I had to mow over that section about twenty times. By the end of it, I was completely exhausted!

I love this flower (weed?). I think it is the only remotely-pretty thing that has ever survived in our garden, so I didn’t have the heart to massacre it with the lawn mower. It still stands there proudly, untouched, next to the driveway. Aren’t the colours beautiful? Puddy gave it a half-hearted sniff and decided it was boring.

This weekend, WCB is being hosted at Mind of Mog and the Carnival of the Cats is at Kashim, Othello and Salome’s blog. We’re looking forward to catching up with all our blogging friends – both human and feline!