The weather is beautiful. Tomorrow it will change. And so I was sent outside to do yard work.
And by sent, I mean it was overdue and it was a wonderful day to be outside for a few hours. The sky was high and sharply blue. The few clouds were thin scraps of paste in the sky. The temperature was intent on redefining room temperature. And overhead, things are showing the full promise of the season.
Blink fast and everything turns green.
And so it was that I had to mow the lawn. Some parts are greener than others. And some are just dusty. Other parts have still more leaves. I’m pretty sure we’ve raked “for the last time” twice during the winter, but here I am doing it again today. No matter. There is stuff to see.
Managed to fill about four big lawn bags, mostly of willow oak leaves. Once again I say unto you: No person that has ever raked willow oak leaves has ever later planted willow oak trees. That’s one of the two things I know about raking. The other is that I’m going to make my money by developing an efficient way to get leaves off the ground and into bags.
How do you do it? I’ve tried about every possible way to get leaves from here to there. I’m using a giant rake and shoveling the leaves from the pile into a bag held somewhat open by a giant garbage bag. We cut the bottom out of that can, probably because we read it online or someone told us too, but I think would work just as well using this technique in the conventional
Maybe I could invent a vacuum system for next fall.
But that’s for later. I’ve done enough of this today, two hours of yard work and two minutes of brushing by one bush that seems to have a unique nest alliance of wasps and bees inside. Glad that one doesn’t belong to me. I hope the owner notices it soon.
There’s this beautiful tree nearby:
In putting away the lawn mower and the lawn bags and the giant garbage/leaf can and the gas can and all of that I learned we had a new neighbor. I wonder how he feels about leaves. He was a shy one. Good thing I got this safety shot. He offered me no other photos:
About that time The Yankee came home and we went for a run.
So there we are on the trail. She takes off, I catch her. At precisely a mile I realized I’d had exactly one bowl of Cheerios all day. And so far the next three miles I suffered. I’m not sure if it was the sudden lack of energy or the knowledge of the sudden lack of energy. It was not a good run. But there will be other, less not-good running efforts. (The flatter the better.)
At home I ate two pieces of leftover frozen pizza. And they were the best two pieces of mushy thin crust and stretchy cheese you can imagine. And then we went out for Chinese, and it was the best Chinese you can imagine. Pretty much the best day you can imagine.
Except for the leaves.
