Leaves: The Agony and the Ecstasy

The agony:
For the entire month of November, whenever it is not raining (or only raining a little) I will be outside raking leaves. The broadleaf maples that surround our house are leafy canopies of shade in the summer but when thousands of leaves, each spanning at least a foot, fall even a trickle can build up quickly. Then there are the cottonwoods, the rhododendrons, the lacy japanese maples that line the driveway, even the blueberry bushes add their gifts to the pile.

clear, for now

The ever-falling rain makes the leaves heavy. I can use a leaf blower to clean up bits left behind, but the majority of the work is me raking piles, pushing the piles onto a tarp, and dragging the tarp over to a hill on one side of the house and heaving them. Today's day of raking netted me a four foot deep pile of leaves as long as a school bus that still need to be pushed the rest of the way over the hill. I just didn't have it in me.

the deep pile that needs to go over the lip of the hill

The exercise is good though!

The ecstasy:
An hour into raking I am beginning to labor. I've still got some sort of creeping crud and it's making me cough and wheeze. Even taking my time it's still tiring. Then, gloriously, my rake scrapes away leaves to reveal a concealed rosemary bush. The world is suddenly perfumed and the smell of it follows me around for a good long time.

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Eggs laid in the coop today: 3
Eggs laid in the coop Sunday: 3
Eggs laid in the coop Saturday: 2
Eggs laid in the coop this year: 293