Previous Mrs V's imposed an outright ban on anything but electric lawnmowers. Noisy, smelly things they said. Oh how well I recall the awful job of mowing the 130ft lawn we had when I lived in Reading 20 years ago with little more than a small flymo and numerous extension cables joined together. I should have recognised this as a sign that all would not end well on the marriage front in both cases.

The current Mrs V is different. Looking out over our jungle of a back lawn I suggested that we buy a petrol one. She thought that this was a great idea - much better than messing about with cables and she said that she loved the smell of a the petrol engine. Oh, 'deep joy' as the good professor would say.

Last week I picked up this Mountfield mulching model with a 4 stroke Briggs & Stratton engine



Newly serviced including a sharpened blade, I picked it up for £100 from eBay.

It made short work of the over grown lawn:



So good to hear the noise of the engine and smell the exhaust (don't tell extinction rebellion please) and what a joy not to have to tangle with electric cables and mess around with clippings. Lovely. Looking forward to the grass growing so I can get out and use it again.