Sunday - 226th

 I finished mowing just as it began to snow.

So this is it -- our first snow of the year. Not heavy yet, not lasting either, but definitely cold, wet, white.

The mowing job is one of many that I attacked today with an extra load of determination. And I began before breakfast. We don't really mow our grasses anymore -- just a path running through them. There are advantages to this new way of treating your landscape, not the least of which is time saved: it takes about a dozen minutes to mow down paths. We do this once a week during the growing season and they look brilliant! It takes much much longer to mow all the grasses. Over an hour for sure. 

The downside is that many nasty prickly plants worm their way into the former lawn areas. You cannot walk through the grasses without picking up burrs. But, we decided that no one walks through the grasses anyway (except for the cats), and we are protecting habitats, and it all looks fine, without that trimmed lawn look which neither of us especially wants to see here. 

Still, at least once a year, you have to mow all those tall grasses down, so that in spring we can once again encourage some flowers and more delicate perennials to come back. So today I hauled out the tractor mower and got to work.

With a pause for house cleaning and breakfast!

As if that wasn't enough, I also set out to bake a cake (from one of my favorite cake bakers -- Maida Heatter). When I asked my daughter if I could do anything for her, she sheepishly admitted to craving mightily a chocolate layer cake. Done! It will be part of my dinner delivery tonight. Unfortunately, I only have one 8 inch cake pan, so I have to bake the layers in stages. It takes time.

 

Okay, food delivery!

 

And then home again, to finish up our own dinner here.

I am proud to say that I have kept to my 10,000 step daily goal, even though sometimes I put in the last 1000 awfully close to midnight. However, I do feel today was a bit of a cheat. Riding the bumpy tractor-mower I think added (to my counting device) a few hundred steps not taken. Shhh! Don't tell anyone!