Morton Fox's journal

May have overdone yesterday's hike but that's okay. It's time for a day of rest anyway. So in the morning and early afternoon, I worked on some Twitter OAuth code for the next release of TwitVim. There is an actual deadline for this too because Twitter is planning to turn off basic authentication on June 30. Later on, I'll also have to see whether this code can be added to my Twitter utility scripts.

In the evening, I did yardwork. Cut the grass in both front and back yards. This time, it took about 90 minutes. I'm trying to improve efficiency. It's an electric lawnmower so cord management is key. Also, I noticed that turning the lawnmower around 180 degrees is more time-consuming than turning it 90 degrees. So far, I've come up with a scheme where I mow in concentric rectangles from edge to center. This differs from the recommendation in the lawnmower manual, which involves 180-degree turns. Going from edge to center has the advantage of piling up grass clippings in the center. The backyard is a bit tricky because of the odd layout there. I divided the area into two rectangles and that seemed to work well except for the far edges and corners. I still have to use the hand clippers in the corners.

While mowing the lawn, I noticed some small red berries in the grass. There are two kinds of weeds in this area that produce those, so I got some plant samples to study and do a proper identification. I think it is mock strawberry based on the shape of the leaves and the way the berry sticks up instead of drooping. A flower sample would be a sure way to differentiate this plant from wild strawberry but I couldn't find any flowers. This is disappointing because wild strawberries would at least be usable as food whereas mock strawberries are flavorless.