Saturday, October 6, 2012

Invasion of Leaves

Not fair!!!

After the Autumn Purging, I had worked quite hard to keep the leaves off of my back porch.  I was doing very well, and felt a considerable amount of pride.

But a couple of days ago it was pretty windy, and it's still Fall, after all.

I woke up to this:

leaf covered porch

Leaves were heaped up into piles.  Only an hour later, my daughter's bike, which had fallen onto its side, was half covered. with yellow, brown, and a hint of orange.

I would like to say that my response was quite dignified, but

Nooooo!!!!!


It really wasn't.  Not at all.

I watched leaves race across my yard and the street.  Sometimes it was a swirl of them, dancing to a tune only they could hear, and at other times it was an angry rush, barreling straight toward anything that was foolish enough to be in its path.

I felt the tug of the Autumn Purge.  Those leaves were invaders, and must be driven out!

But then I thought about it a bit more, and realized that maybe, just maybe, those leaves could serve a purpose.

My daughter's strawberry garden, for instance, will need to be covered with leaves after I place it in the garage.  I can't use the black walnut leaves, because strawberries are highly sensitive to black walnut.

But now I have other leaves, such as maple, covering my back porch.

Giving my daughter a short tutorial on leaf identification (Pre-k level, of course!), then setting her on a discovery mission on the back porch would eliminate some of the work there, right?

Right!

As for the rest, well... I have two compost heaps as well as loads of plants that will soon need to be covered for the winter.  This is quite doable!

Later that evening, the wind had settled down a bit, so I looked up at the tree branches that overhang my yard.

branches empty of leaves

Nearly devoid of leaves.  For a few moments I gazed in sadness, already missing the brilliant hues of Autumn.

But then something occurred to me.

My heavily wooded yard would once again be filled with sunlight!

Woohoo!!!

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