“Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth seeking the successive autumns.” – George Eliot
What are you doing this weekend? Me? I will be blowing leaves, lots of leaves. The rain was wonderful, the wind helpful, the tornado that touch downed 7 miles from my house, destructive and the leaves, well, we are buried underneath them.
It is supposed to be a beautiful weekend, a wonderful weekend for a bicycle ride. But alas, I would suspect I will be pedaling around the yard with 25 pound motor strapped to my back blowing, you guessed it, leaves. Thousands of leaves with sadly thousands more clinging high above me waiting for the next big wind.
I will be creating a big pile of leaves this weekend. But sadly, I no longer have a brood at home to jump in my handy work. To squeal with delight as I bury them to hide from their mother or watch the dogs chase them through a red and yellow maze. No I will blow them to the curb unfortunately, I simply have too many to compost.
I love my trees, giant oaks that announce the arrival of Spring, and shade my home in the Summer. That fill with birds that sing and squirrels that play. But after twenty years of living among them I know their routine. First the acorns rain down on us fattening the chipmunks for the Winter. Then the leaves fall, in a seemingly endless stream, and then it ends and Winter grabs me and shakes me until I beg for mercy, sunshine and warmth.
I will be blowing leaves this weekend, and probably next weekend too, and the next….. What are you doing for fun?
“A wind has blown the rain away and blown the sky away and all the leaves away, and the trees stand. I think, I too, have known autumn too long.” – e. e. cummings
Ends and Beginnings 
raking ;leaves..the hubby sleeps during the day for his night job so blowing them is too much noise…but, there are neighborhood kids between the age of crawling and too cool for it that will be glad to leap into piles.
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If I had to rake I wouldn’t be finished until Spring 2017. Give me 50 cc’s and 250 mph of wind strapped to my back anytime 🙂
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I almost envy you. Our house is surrounded by pine trees (also known as fir trees in this area) that drop needles All-Year-Round. Raking them is a exercise in futility. No sooner do you finish bagging and turn around to admire your efforts — and more have fallen to take their place. Trying to grow a lawn is nigh impossible, lest you want to de-acidize the entire yard and then rake every day to maintain it. We gave up many years ago.
Yes, the trees do keep our home cool in the summer (we don’t have air-conditioning). And they do give the area a very serene and beautiful appearance.
But …
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At our “old Home”, two blocks down the street from our current home we had 7 pine trees which I had removed two weeks after we moved in. To date, still the best money I have ever spent (college, weddings excluded)
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We’ve considered this, but this entire neighborhood is more of the same (although some homes do have a few madrones, oaks, and fruit trees scattered about). So even if we took ours out, we would still get needles from the trees in back and on the sides. In fact, part of our yard is covered every summer with madrone leaves from the neighbor in back of us (plus from their pine trees).
It’s a losing battle. Besides, we do need the shade so as I indicated, we’ve resigned ourselves to the situation.
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Thank you again for your kind remarks earlier. Still floating on those 🙂
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Well, on the plus side, think of all that great outdoor exercise! 😜
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Yes but that outdoor exercise could be a 60 mile ride on my bicycle 🙂
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I don’t have the luxury of a blower so I instead will be going at the leaf gathering the old fashioned way, with rake and broom. At least I’m going to get some moderate exercise :-).
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Ms. Dana blowers are cheap, cheap particularly electric ones. Beats the heck out of a rake all day long 🙂
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Thanks but I have to admit, raking has become therapeutic for me. Being outside, listening to nature around me, watching the trees sway in the breeze as they continue to shed leaves in my “I just raked that spot!” wake, lol. It’s somewhat soothing. So for now, I’ll keep at it the non-powered way.
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Wear gloves!
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Great post. I wish I had leaves…am jealous! The Victorians who built my house were more interested in bricks and mortar and not planting trees- hence no trees or leaves in my hood. I do like the crunching sound they make under my feet. That being said this weekend I will be eating mince pies and watching Netflix. Yay.
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Winter started early over here and it’s freezing cold lately (4 months Spring again, yippee!) So I am reading blogs in front of the fire and wait till Autumn kicks in again later this week and finish blowing the last leaves then.
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, have a wonderful new week, XxX
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Thank you Ms. Patty!
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