Leaves

With guests gone, it is now time to set our sights back on the house - specifically the leaves that have surrounded us like a winter blizzard. Unable to see the grass underneath the vast autumn colored carpet of fading green, orange, scarlet and brown, we rake and blow, blow and rake, curse the fact that our inherited leaf blower is on it' s last legs and rake and mow some more. And the sadistic thing about it is, we can get every last leaf and tomorrow there will be more.

I take the adventurous, cardio burning route as in: "What fun it is to be outside as a family", "look at all the beautiful colors", "beats going to the gym and being stuck inside on sweaty machines". Arny, while everyday heading out to split logs, ever proud of his growing pile, has a very different opinion of the leaf removing task - "tell me again why we bought a house in the woods?". Ariana has the entrepreneurial viewpoint, stating "I'm going to do a lot of jobs and make a lot of moneys". Her "jobs" consisting of riding the Lighting McQueen car around the driveway and pushing at the leaves with a stick. She did rake a bit, but quickly tired of the repetitive nature of the task and went off to play in the ravine.

The weather was lovely yesterday and the cold air was crisp and clean. Today is another day - our piles still there waiting to be picked up. A quick look up at the treetops this morning and I can see a few stragglers - those leaves that are hanging on for that last bit of sun. I admire their tenacity, though sooner or later the rake will be adding them to the pile.