Fairy Lawnmother

About Fairy Lawnmother

June evenings in Hannibal stretch out long and gold across the lake plain, and the grass, fed by all that moisture coming off Ontario, grows like it has somewhere to be. Fairy Lawnmother keeps pace with it — weekly mowing, string trimming around posts, trees and foundations, edges cut where the lawn meets the drive, clippings blown off the walk before the truck pulls away. Between the orchards toward Sterling and the open fields south of the village the yards here run big, and a straight line across a big yard is a satisfying thing to leave behind. Spring cleanups clear the mess a lake winter makes, and fall cleanups take the leaves before the snow arrives to hold them down. You leave in the morning with a shaggy yard and come home to one that plainly got looked after.