And yes of course you guessed right away that I am talking about YARDS...! And no, not any yards I am talking about American Yards and Lawns!
me mowing the lawn
I have NEVER ever seen such huge lawns with sooo much grass! Yes, I was used to yards and lawns with some grass, but overall it would be scrubs and trees and flowers. I was in for a big treat because here you have just lots and lots of grass and a couple of trees and scrubs… Found out later that it sometimes (depending on the year) that flowers and such might get too cold in the winter and to hot in the summer, so to keep your yard looking nice people pick plants that can survive this great climate change between summer and winter. Another thing i learned is that we only have 2 seasons here, summer and winter, no messing around with spring and fall...
Now, we were not used to all this grass and in 2006 when we had our first spring here you can image our surprise when we saw grandpa’s, grandma’s, men, women and teens cruzing around on their lawnmower with a big heavy “barrel” behind it…
We check and found out that it was to flatten the ground, so when the grass would finally start to grow the smoother your ride would be! Amazing! We never flattened out yard to get a smooth ride! We were always pushing and pushing our lawnmowers and if we were lucky we would run over the electric cable… (Oh, sorry daddy…) and could quit early!
Bastiaan mowing our yard
But the most fantastic thing about these smooth well maintained lawns is the fact that sometimes there are “things” in the yard. And yes “things” vary from, houses that not have been painted in 50 plus years, buses, cars, farm equipment in all stages of life, tires, toys, lots and lots of toys, shoes, scrap metal, barns that have not been occupied in this century and oh did I tell you, cars…sometimes with flowers, sometimes with all kinds of gorgeous weeds...
We would see these beautiful yards/lawns, mowed all the way to the neighbors property line, yes besides the road too (both sides!) and think oh my gosh! And then you would really look in the yard and you can see 3 different layers of paint on the house all coming off, or a vehicle that people have been mowing around for over 15 years…. And we would just stop and stare.
I know this is not very polite of us, but we just could not help it.
Americans spend hundreds and thousands of dollars on good looking lawn mow machinery, and gallons of gas to run that fine piece of equipment but they did not save up some money to buy some paint for the house they live in, so the house can match their beautiful yard? Or remove the truck where the snakes and other varmints live in out of their yard, so their kids can play safely? I can also think of smoother lines you can drive with your green grass eating monster then making circles around that old piece of junk?
Jan willem and Roxi mowing the yard
But then again, maybe I am just a new Duchie and should look at this a different way….
It is absolutely gorgeous to see all these beautiful lawns, and when we were back in Holland last year I must admit I was kind of disappointed to see grass as tall as my hips besides the roads. I also talked to Bastiaan and almost got him to OK the fact that I wanted to store my old BMW in the yard and make a flower bed out of it….
Yeah! getting closer to be a real American…. To bad Bastiaan isn't ready for some lawn ornaments!?!
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If you want to catch up on some Crazy Americans;
Crazy Americans and public Restrooms
Crazy Americans, now where is it that you left your keys?
Crazy Americans smoking like a chimney
