As the Grass is Mowed

During the spring, summer and early fall, the grass, in those portions of my property that I keep civilized, has to be mowed every two weeks at the very least. I mow the back yard with a reel mower, but I have the rest mowed by others. I save a lot of money by keeping the pasture mostly natural, with only a narrow path to walk on.

Bow is not thrilled with the mowing. When I am in the back yard with the reel mower, this does not make much noise, and he is tolerant. Also, I pause every once a while in my mowing to notice a ladybug or an unusual plant.

The other day I spotted purple clover growing in the tall grass by the generator.

The rabbits on our property like it when the grass gets a little taller, and you can see more of them out during those periods.

When there are two of them together, they take turns running from me. While one is running, the other stands still and watches. They don't go very far, either. I expected the bigger one to run straight into the woods as soon as I went after her, but she was actually found hiding just the other side of the closest tree.

Bow can be remarkably calm and quiet for long periods of time, even if we have a spider suspended in the air of the outer pen. But when the mowers come and make lots of noise, he feels compelled to puff himself up and display.

When the mowers are weed eating on the other side of the fence, Bow watches them warily, his hair standing on end.

But he also knows when they are leaving, and he watches them drive away  with an almost wistful expression.

It's as if he were thinking: "You had to make all that noise, but you couldn't find time to play with me?"