Thursday, November 19, 2009

That's Why it's Called Fall

I have two sycamore trees and a mimosa tree in my backyard. Did I mention that they are all BIG trees. In my front yard I have two silver maples, but there are many trees of many types down my street.

After the first freeze hit, and several more since, the leaves have been dropping everywhere. I love to see the trees that seem to lose all the leaves the same week. I have to keep sweeping the leaves away from the back door or else the dogs can't see over the pile to get to the backyard. The front yard is a little worse because the leaves also get trapped around the flower garden.

Every year I wait at long as possible because, after all, I do live in West Texas and sooner or later a good strong wind will blow most of those leaves away. I procrastinated appropriately long enough this year for that to happen. I'll still do a little cleanup in the front, but most of the front has been graciously blown clear by the wind.

The back yard does not get the wind and this afternoon found me back there with the electric wind. I have a blower/vac that does a good job. It mulches 10 bags of leaves into one bag full of mulch which I put on the compost. When I finished the yard was clean and I was not. I looked like I had been carefully sprayed with a fine layer of dust on purpose.

After all those leaves, my backyard trees look like they did before. That means I will have the wonderful opportunity in about another month to vacuum the yard again.

Remember the good old days when you just raked the leaves and burned them?

Ah, for the days of yore,

Twist