A thrashing good time

November

I’m just the tiniest bit sore from a bit of work I did this afternoon, my first manual labor in longer than I like to admit. I joined an employee of the Westchester County parks department and four other volunteers to hack and yank at weeds and invasive vines at Marshlands Conservancy in Rye.

For an hour we hacked, thrashed and clipped plants like pokeweed, a big plant with thick, reddish-purple, easy-to-chop stalks, and mugwort, which is not something out of Harry Potter, but is a prolific weed that grows thick and abundant.

Hacking at it with a weed cutter, it emits a scent that I always perceive as related to mint in the wild.

I felt lucky. Living in co-op, I never get to do yard work. I’ve even asked a friend to let me know when she’s gardening because I’ll come over and pull weeds. She tells me it’s not so fun when you have to do it all the time.

That’s OK, because I don’t have to do it at all.

But swinging the weed cutter, an implement like a modern, tamer scythe, is a great way to take your mind off things, work off stress, forget recent heartbreaks, and stop yourself from dwelling on useless thoughts, like why Meredith is suddenly pushing away the guy she pined for for so long.

It was great exercise, and I was happy to help out at Marshlands, since it’s one of my favorite spots for viewing Long Island Sound.

We worked along one edge of a spread of asphalt called the Methodist parking lot because it was once owned by a Methodist church. Our goal was the clear the vines and weeds to re-expose the old stone wall alongside the lot.

We got it done more quickly than we’d expected, so we took a longer way back to the park office, strolling along Boston Post Road. We picked up litter, the papers and wrappers people still throw from cars, as if they’d never seen that 1970s commercial with the American Indian who sheds a tear over pollution.

It’s enough to make you want to go back and thrash at more weeds.

If you’re interested in Westchester parks events, you can find their calender here.

This entry was posted on Saturday, November 3rd, 2007 at 5:39 pm by Ken Valenti.
You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
Print | Email

It is a condition of your use of the comment features associated with the blogs that you do not: Use the site to post or transmit any unlawful, threatening, abusive, libelous, defamatory, obscene, vulgar, pornographic, profane or indecent information of any kind, including without limitation any transmissions constituting or encouraging conduct that would constitute a criminal offense, give rise to civil liability or otherwise violate any local, state, national or international law. You alone are responsible for the material you post or send. Refer to the Terms of Service.

The Nature of Things

A blog about nature and the environment