Autum leaves

As you can see from the photo I took during the weekend, there are trees everywhere in my community. I live on the foot of a mountain that could just as well be a national park. We have elk, deer and I’ve even seen moose while hiking through the aspen forests. Oh yeah. Trees are everywhere here in the Rockies. And where there are trees, there are leaves -- lots and lots of leaves. My yard has more than its fair share of trees and this time of year all those trees are shedding their abundance of leaves. The yard is becoming knee deep in falling leaves -- shrub oak, cherry, apple and maple leaves. The good thing is that our autumn wind is blowing a good bunch of our leaves to our neighbor’s yard.

My wife would like me to rake up those leaves. The timing is a guessing game. If I rake the leaves too early, new leaves just drown the yard and replace the old as if I never were there. If I wait too late, the snow and slush make the leaves rake like frozen shingles. It’s all about timing -- in waiting to the very last moment.