Leaf Season

 

 

 

 

"Maple"
Endicott Park, Danvers MA

Nikon D800
Lensbaby Twist 60
Lightroom
Snapseed
Brushstroke

It's leaf season again in the Northeast. Trees in my state are being frosted with yellows, oranges, and reds.    Beautiful. Leaves fall during leaf season of course, and in my yard, boy do they ever!    Leaf dropping comes in three major waves every year. Right now, for instance, we are in the middle of Poison Ivy leaf shedding. On several trees near us there are huge Poison Ivy vines that are currently shedding their brilliant red and yellow leaves which Sister Wind then takes and spreads all over the front yard. This is a bit of a pain because I'll have to get out the leaf blower (the most popular musical instrument in my town.) and blast the leaves across the street into a wooded lot (where the Poison Ivy vines live) so as not to have the mower grind up PI leaves so fine that I end up breathing them in.. Not to mention that I want to avoid touching them..  Ugh Next comes the Great Pine Needle shedding.. Even though we've thinned out a lot of the Pine trees around our house, the remaining trees still drop a good amount of needles that will need to be blown onto a tarp and hauled out, tarp-full by tarp-full in Carl's trunk. Last (and longest) comes Oak Leaf dropping. There are nearby oak trees that shed their leaves at a very leisurely pace. It can take six weeks or longer for the Oaks to let go of their canopy.  Prevailing winds deposit a generous amount of fallen oak leaves in the front yard.. This then requires tarp-full after tarp-full of oak leaf wrangling.. Oy.  A wicked fun thing to do during leaf season is to try and avoid getting clipped by speeding cars while blowing and/or hauling leaves across the street.. I wear ear protection when working with the leaf blower, so I can't hear approaching cars...my head has to be on a swivel all the time. Sometimes I can get caught up in the pretty patterns created by the blown leaves and stop looking out for cars.. I've had some close calls. I've felt the breeze of a luxury vehicle more than once..  Some context: There are a lot of ReallyImportantPeople in my neighborhood.  I know that because of the speed at which they drive by my house. ReallyImportantPeople have lots of ReallyImportantPlacesToBe and so they must drive with extreme haste. On the bright side - it might not be so bad to be clipped by a ReallyImportantPerson.. They often drive expensive cars and have ReallyBigBankAccounts. If I live through them them hitting me with their Beemer or Benz or Land Rover, I would probably get to share in their ReallyBigBankAccounts.. And - on the off chance they kill me outright, well, I'll die doing something I love, right?  Hahahaha - just kidding - but seriously being taken out by a car is better than descending into dementia, diapers, and assisted living.. To end on a cheery and positive note - this is still America after all - All of these little inconveniences are a relatively small price to play to live in a spot on the planet where it still gets cold in the fall and winter and where trees still can live..  ~