I had the family help and did the first raking. The yard looked fairly clear, and had that restful look that something has when a job is finished. But as with most things that is short lived. The rains came today to strip most of the last of the leafy stragglers. This is typical November weather we are having, now: gray and dismally damp. I don’t usually mind it, not being much of a fairweather person. I love fair weather… I just don’t go around expecting it to dominate. Especially in Ohio.
But the rains are what keep the earth so green, and that is something I appreciate about this state. We didn’t have as much color this autumn before leaf fall; I attribute that to the dry spell in the late summer. Drought has a way of diminishing the leaves ability to give a bright display.
For our leaf raking bonanza we bought four new rakes. I don’t understand how my children have the ability to destroy perfectly decent tools. Really- shovels get broken, rakes are not able to keep joined with their handles, carts ( well, I know what happens to the carts) dismantle in relatively short periods of time. My father managed to keep tools in good condition almost forever. But he had very different habits than my husband, and completely different in enforcing any sort of management. My husband is the “nice guy”, I’m-your-friend type. This doesn’t work well in setting up tool rules,and I just have too much else to handle. And so it goes… we have to replace tools more than I’d like. The upside is that I get free labor… every once in awhile.
Somehow everyone was pretty cheerful overall. That is the way you get substantial amounts of work done- what is that saying? Not the “many hands…”, but more like the “whistle while you work” song. Attitude accounts for so much.
Just one more leaf raking undertaking and I think it will be set for the winter. I have some sand left over from the walkway project, and I might put some of that on the roses before I try to hill up the soil on them. I didn’t get nearly any of my projected chores finished in the garden this autumn. I want to go back to my simpler life of caring for my children and garden, yet I don’t think one can recapture times of life… there are different seasons upon me now.
I know I have to remake the garden to fit my reduced ability to handle the work. In a way, though, it is remaking itself… I just have to adjust to that better and plan in synchronization with it.
Like the falling leaves, like the changing garden, I am aging and moving toward other seasons…slower more minimalist seasons that reveal the skeletal framework of my life.
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