I love this picture. I love all the leaves but even more I love the look of dismay on their faces. I am guessing it has to do with the leaves.When I think of Autumn, I think of leaves, then my hands get sweaty and my heart starts to beat a little faster. That first leaf I see on the ground at the beginning of fall brings to mind the Psycho theme: "CHING CHING CHING!!!" Don't get me wrong, I love Autumn I love autumn leaves too. . . If I don't have to rake them. How big of a deal can it be you ask?
Take a look at this picture.
Look at all the leaves my kids are playing with, and then look at all the leaves that are STILL on the trees and are yet to be raked up!!! We have three of these willows. I love the trees. I love that they give beautiful green shade in the summer and lose their leaves in the winter to give plenty of light to our house. I don't love the in between so much. There are TONS more leaves at the side of the house, and in the back of the house. Not just from our trees but the trees behind and beside our back yard.I admit, I love the bright orange and red ones, even as I am working hard to pick them up, they elicit wonder and awe as they are very beautiful. But by the 15th bag I fill with them, they are less wonderful and more awful. I imagine as the kids get older and can help more and more with this process and as I get a system down, I will learn to loath it less and less. Tim is helpful when he can be, but it is dark by the time he gets home from work and the weekends we would all rather be doing something else than raking leaves all day. I only have last year to remember and all I remember is intimidating piles of leaves calling to me, telling me I need to put them in bags before they blow all over the place again or kill the grass they are piled on.
With all this work and toil comes blessings however. It is a reminder that all beautiful things require work. The work itself brings blessings. Here is an example of one of those blessings.
My kids are working together!!!! This gives us all the opportunity to work hard and learn its value. Is this not a blessing? How about the satisfaction we feel when we are done? Doesn't the cocoa taste a little better and the fire a little warmer when we have just finished working hard outside? We know we earned it! It also forces us to be outside in the cold when we might otherwise be inside. We get to see the beautiful colors of fall and feel the crisp cool air of the approaching winter. Lets not forget the great exercise we are getting.Last year, I had just moved in to the house and I didn't have the same appreciation for our trees that I do now. This fall I am going to try harder to be grateful for our trees. They bring so much beauty to our lives the whole year round. Even in the Autumn.
7 comments:
I love your house! That shot of the giant leaf pile is the first picture of your house that I've seen, besides the one about the ugly pile of junk that finally got hauled away. I can understand raking up tons and tons of leaves. My family lives next to a big ravine with tons of trees. We always had massive leaf piles to play in.
I think you should post more pictures of your house, at least the outside. Does the porch wrap around the other side of the house? I so want a wrap around porch someday.
I actually remembered you had made that request earlier when I was looking for pictures of the house. I will have to do that soon. Sorry. The porch doesn't wrap around but it is so big I don't mind.
That is a beautiful porch. I love the smell of burning leaves. I haven't smelled it since college and previously since I lived out East where they could burn things with impunity.
Kristin, your blog about the leaves reminds me of a talk by Leo Buscaglia (sp?) I heard once. He left his leaves because he loved them so and when his neighbors complained he finally moved them into his house! His philosophy was to enjoy what you love however you can.
Wow, that is a ton of leaves. We get a lot too, but not that much. I get blisters on my hands from raking, but this year a family with little kids came over and wanted to rake/play in the leaves. Maybe you can trick your kids and their friends into thinking it's fun.
We don't bother much with the leaves since we live in a forest and do not have very much grass. The wind usually blows them to the side of the lawn for us. I love the crunch the leaves make when you step on them.
I love fall. it is by far my favorite season. The last few days have been perfect too.
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