The Allée Takes Root(s)

And I mean that quite literally: I hauled away two wheelbarrow loads of old roots today, in my bid to create a nice, flat walkway here. See this shot? See how slanting the grass is? It's not the sort of walk one takes when one wants to contemplate the sky, or the weather, or the clouds, or indeed anything that takes one's attention away from where one puts one's feet.

So today I went out in the chill sun and started skimming sod. I tell you, living on a hill has done wonders for my terracing abilities. I can skim sod like, well, like someone who can really skim sod. The skills I have, I tell you.

And what to my wondering eyes should appear, under all that sod?

Not reindeer. Nope.
Not a sled. Nope.

Roots. Tree roots. Lots of them. The people who owned this house had a penchant for planting trees right against the house. Then, when the trees became problematic, they cut them down, although they left one for us to cut down when we bought the house (a rather large and overbearing birch). Today saw me digging up some old and rotted tree roots, some almost old and rotted tree roots, and some not so old and still clinging rather grimly to life tree roots.

Fun fun fun.
Here's a shot from the other side. If you look carefully you can see a root knot in the middle of all that dirt. Amongst my tidy skimming job...

The grass was so smooshed up afterwards that it no longer resembled a lovely grassy down, although that might have had something to do with all the sand and compost I sprinkled over top.

For now, I will walk and look up, contemplating the sky.