Our backyard might be my favorite place on the planet. I'm not sure why... I just love it there. I find it peaceful and it reminds me of my family. I had a writing teacher once who asked us where our 'base' was... where we were most comfortable writing from. I had no answer for him. Or rather, I had a very untraditional answer for him. My answer at the time was 'my computer'. I didn't have a physical place. Just a feeling I got when I had my laptop... connectedness to the world... and I could go anywhere with it. Now, though, I have *that place*. It's my yard. I wish I was out there right now writing, and resolve to do that a bit before the weather is so completely cold that it's out of the question for the year. I keep meaning to send that teacher an email to see how he's doing and let him know I've found my place. He'll be thrilled.
Some of my favorite times last year were when we would all go out and do yardwork together. The Honey taught the Boy to mow the lawn, though he doesn't do it by himself. When it turned to fall, we would go out and rake together.
This year, we have had less time to go out and rake together, but it's ok... I've decided I kind of enjoy it, and will spend some of my 'alone' time during the day outside raking some days. I take my IPod outside with me, put on some "Trans-Siberian Orchestra" and go to town on our leaves. It's peaceful.
I thought I might get out there today, but it's raining buckets, so it'll have to wait. We'll see what it's like tomorrow. The Honey says it's good to rake the leaves when they're wet, cuz they stick together and don't fly around as much. They definitely stay in their piles better. On the other hand, though, they're a heck of a lot heavier, so we'll see what I feel like.
It's a good thing, though, that I've decided I like to rake. Our 2 yards, combined, have something like 10 trees... and they're shedding their leaves faster than I can keep up.
My mom says she thinks I probably enjoy it so much because it's one of those jobs that you can really SEE your progress as you go along. I'm sure that's at least part of it... but at this point, as I'm raking, not only can I watch my progress, but I can also practically watch it being UNdone... the leaves come down that fast. I took a pic yesterday right after I finished, and then again today, 24 hours later... you can see it covered again... and it was a 'slow' day.
Here's the tree that's currently laughing at me...
That's all in the front yard. The back currently looks like it's wearing a blanket of leaves, but I'll get there when I can.
In our city, if you rake your leaves to your curb, a vacuum truck comes around and sucks them up. Our truck has made its first sweep... it'll be back one more time, but I don't know when, so I've been trying to keep as much out at the curb as possible. After their second sweep through, you're on your own. I'm a little afraid all of ours won't be down by the time they come around again, but we'll see. That's what our new fire pit is for, right? :D
