...both scythes now..

Modern gardening is energy guzzling.


Take mowing and strimming for instance. The peace of our gardens is all too frequently disturbed by the whine and roar of powered strimmers and mowers. It doesn't have to be this way..... there is a resurgence of interest in scythes.
Scythes frequently beat strimmers in speed of cutting competitions and can cut long grass and stems easily. They are ideal for managing meadows and nettle growth in open areas. They are much less likely to injure wildlife than either of their powered competitors. They use no fossil fuels. Modern Austrian scythes are so lightweight and considered so safe that they even manufacture them for children.
This final sentence should be read and re-read. Anyone who knows me knows how clumsy and accident prone I am. It is feared that I could be two feet shorter very quickly as result of my famed 'cack handedness' when beginning to use the scythe. 'We'll see', is all I will say on this.
In England we have a saying that you wait for a bus for an hour and then two come along at once. I had a similar experience with scythes.

For some time I had been asking around in case anyone knew of an old scythe that was lying unused in a shed or outbuilding. I got nowhere.

So, I decided to order a swish Austrian scythe - and on the very same day Richard popped up with the 'Are you still looking for a scythe...?' sentence I'd been hoping to hear from someone for sometime.
So, now I have two scythes where only last week I had none. And here we have it, my new Austrian scythe and its much older English cousin, arm-in-arm and resting in the sunshine. The techniques for using both scythes are very different so I will begin with the Austrian one before moving on to the English scythe technique.

I can't wait to get started.