The Joys Of Fall Cleanup

With the beautiful arrival of autumn comes the very extended season of fall cleanup.  Surrounded by trees, our yard will be covered with leaves through November and, for some reason, they never look as pretty on the ground as in the trees.  Thankfully, after one of the most humid summers working in the yard that I can recall, the enjoyment of fall cleanup can be found in the wonderful autumn breezes while standing outdoors with an adorable fall cleanup crew.  Everyone is always eager to help with the flower beds and then it’s time to negotiate with the crew as to who will be in charge of cleaning up all the leaves.

Extra snacks are given to those that actually eat the leaves before they fall on the ground.

There’s always somebody in the crew with a little bit of an attitude problem

and those that take an extended lunch.

There is always one in the crew that seems to spend more time walking around in a supervisory role than contributing and

another one that tries to entertain everyone.

Thankfully, there are those that take their job very seriously and try catch the black walnuts before they fall to the ground.  The few that do land on the ground create quite a racket when ran over by the lawn mower, which usually results in someone asking me if I ran over a rock again.  This inevitably requires the sarcastic response that no it was not a rock, just another tree stump.

After a beautiful autumn day outdoors enjoying fall cleanup, it’s wonderful to unwind on the deck and enjoy a little birdwatching.