Welcome to our swamp

Three different days with a Severe Thunderstorm Warning over the last week lead to a soggy yard.

A Story about Leaves

CHAPTER 1: Trees
Leaves grow on trees. Trees are nice. There are lots in our yard. We like it. We like the shade, insulation, protection and beauty. And the wood they may one day provide. I like to climb them.

Wikipedia says "A tree is a perennial woody plant. It is most often defined as a woody plant that has many secondary branches supported clear of the ground on a single main stem or trunk with clear apical dominance."


CHAPTER 2: Fall

Fall is a lovely season. The temperatures become brisk. Leaves on the trees change colors. Just the other day I was in awe of how some leaves turn brown, others purple and other brilliant yellow.

Later in Autumn, the leaves begin falling off the trees and into our yards, streets, fences, window wells, etc.

CHAPTER 3: Raking
After the leaves fall, some people like to rake them into piles and dispose of them. There are many different ways to dispose of leaves. Mulch and turn them into ground cover. Use them for "black gold" (as my Dad calls his composted soil.) Bag them and let the garbage truck take them. Or rake them into piles, shovel them into a trash can, load by load take them outside the fence and dump them into a mountain. That's right, we use our snow shovel for leaves more than snow.

You may have guessed, we chose the latter method this year. We'll see what our mountain looks like next spring and decide where to go from here. I do plan to use some as ground cover for my veggie garden.

a little perspective on the size of the mountain.

CHAPTER 4: Fun!

And there you have it. Leaves. Lots of 'em.

After the rain

I heart lillies

My neighbors are the gardeners, I'm just the photographer. Photos taken with permission of course.

After dark

Blooming

The tulips in front of our house were so close to blooming this morning...

And the red one did! How beautiful!

First Flower

Thanks to my husband who pointed out the first flower of the year in our yard that I almost missed.