w/e 2026-07-12

I started the summer’s scything this week. It’s the fifth consecutive year we’ve let the lawn grow into a meadow and then I’ve scythed some/all of it over July and August. This year I have a deadline of the end of July to have enough mown to put up a marquee for a birthday party. Jeopardy! These days I’m free of the tyranny of the alarm clock but I tend to wake up early in the summer anyway so I’ve been able to get some scything in before it gets too hot (we’ve had afternoon temperatures up to 32ºC again this week). This week I’ve usually been up before six, had some breakfast, then done 45 minutes of scything before sitting in the shade, letting the sweat cool, while drinking coffee. I had a slow start this year because I couldn’t get the blade sharp and couldn’t work out why. I was starting to think we’d have to resort to the strimmer. I’d been peening the blade (hitting it with a hammer on a jig) and then honing it with stones, but it just didn’t cut well. After consulting the…