Fall Means Two Things: Leaves and the Pats

In New England leaves are as much as a part of life as the Patriots. Of course they came along a few years earlier, but who among us here in the Great Northeast doesn’t have their own struggle with what falls from above?  Of course some of us live in condos and their big fees eliminate dealing with leaves but for the rest of us home-moaners, yeah we deal with that.

I had a gigantic sugar maple in the middle of my back yard cut down just before the Halloween storm. Boy was I pleased with that decision…actually, my daughter had been bugging me about how we had to get rid of it, so I left the gloating to her as the trees in the front of the house pulled down electric wires and left us off the grid for a cold week.  But besides not being afraid of branches that might have fallen on our house, what this meant for me was an elimination of the biggest source of leaves of all. It was a labor saving blessing!

Despite having removed my number one leaf producing tree, and filling my sheds with split wood, I spent a vigorous session with–what else–leaves today. Because I had waited until now, Christmas season, to finish the job, I had the special treat of frozen leaves. This meant bringing out the shovel and peeling great big swathes of stuck together leaves from the driveway asphalt

It’s a good work out, raking and emptying those leaves into the truck. I get a satisfied feeling when I look around the my house–the yard seems more civilized. It also makes me look with a tiny bit of scorn on the neighbors who have chosen to stay inside and watch the Pats while their yards stay covered in brown.